The Healer

The medicine man/healer is a commonly and frequently negatively stereotyped way for Native Americans to be portrayed. In thinking of our discussion about portrayals of Native Americans in pop culture I thought of the character John Redcorn in the animated TV series "King of The Hill". John Redcorn is a healer. Dale hires Redcorn to heal his wife Nancy's headaches on a weakly basis. He gets rid of her headaches, but not by ancient Native American healing techniques. Unbeknown to Dale, Nancy and Redcorn have an affair every week for over half the shows seasons. In this case the healer is not portrayed as a believeable character or in a positive light. In Love Medicine the healer is unintentionally the cause of the patients death. Instead of making Nector fall back in love with Marie he chokes on the heart that is meant to make him fall back in love with her when Marie slaps him on the back. This scene seems to poses a bit of dark humor. Lipshaw says to himself, "From time to time I heal a person all up good inside, however when it comes to the long shot I doubt that I got staying power,". Considering that love medicine is the title of the novel I think it's important to note the irony of what this medicine literally does in the novel.

Do you think Erdrich's intention is to portray healers as somewhat of a myth?
Is she poking fun at the idea by having a leader character choke to death on love medicine?

This brief clip shows the moment when the Hank, the shows main character, brings his wife(Peggy, who is a bit slow) to the realization that Dale's son with Nancy is actually Redcorn's son. Peggy is the last to realize what has been going on nextdoor that the rest of the neighborhood has known for years... Kind of a funny moment. Thought I'd share for those of you unfamiliar with the show and Redcorn's character.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXlokoYQOWs