Medicine Line
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
First known attestation from 1880 where the term was described as being used "because no matter what [the Indians] have done [committed crimes] upon one side they feel perfectly secure after having arrived upon the other".[1][2] A synonymous term which was attested earlier is medicine road from 1869 and ostensibly a calque of a Sioux term transcribed as "pejuta canku".[1] Unrecorded use of the term or a similar one may date back more than a century earlier than the first attestation.[1] See also medicine (“protective charm among the Native Americans”).
Proper noun[edit]
- (informal, Canada, US) The Canada-United States border; the 49th parallel north: a circle of latitude that is 49° north of Earth's equator.
Usage notes[edit]
Primarily used in the context of discussions of Native Americans or First Nations people.
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 LaDow, Beth (2002) “The "Melting Pot of Hell"”, in The Medicine Line: Life and Death on a North American Borderland[1], Routledge, , →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 40-41
- ^ L. N. F. Crozier (1880 December) “Report of Superintendent L. N. F. Crozier”, in Sessional papers of the Dominion of Canada: Third Session of the Fourth Parliament[2], volume 3, Ottawa: MacLean, Roger & Co., page 33