Was Andrew Taylor Still a Shaman?

Abstract

Since osteopathy was conceived by a single man, I have a belief that I cannot shake. I think that if I could know where the ideas that influenced A.T. Still came from, I could better understand osteopathy—and, as a result, practice it more effectively. Perhaps I am not the only one who thinks this way? I have often heard it said that A. T. Still learned traditional medicine from Native Americans and that he was a shaman himself. It is an appealing and, to say the least, romantic idea. Today, we are seeing a proliferation of training programs in osteopathy and shamanism, which seem to support this theory. So I undertook this modest research to find out what osteopathy might actually owe to Native Americans. Could the relationship that A.T. Still had with Native Americans be the “missing link”—that is, the key to helping us better understand Dr. Still’s thinking. Editor's Note: In this article Dr. Ellis marvels at how closely the philosophy of Andrew Taylor Still, the founder of Osteopathy, resembles that of the Indigenous people of Missouri and Kansas (Cherokee, Shawnee, Pawnee, and Potawatomi). Ellis explores how A. T. Still lived among these Tribes and spoke Shawnee fluently. Ellis creates a marvelous argument that A. T. Still must have been influenced by the Indigenous people with whom he lived and worked, while also exploring how A. T. Still, in this time frame, couldn't (chose not to) give credit for Native American contributions to his ideas. Ellis mentions that Indigenous people were horribly discriminated against at this time, with the Massacre at Wounded Knee happening around the same time that A. T. Still was trying to establish osteopathy as a respectable form of medicine, and opening his osteopathic schools. Ellis concludes that A. T. Still felt he had no choice but to conceal the influences Indigenous people had on his work. This reworked and edited manuscript is being republished here, in both French and English.