Sanapia (1895-1979) was a Comanche medicine woman whose healing practices were documented by graduate student David E. Jones in the early 1970s. Sanapia did not begin practicing as a doctor until after she reached menopause. She had received her training from her mother and maternal uncle while still a young girl.

Powerful Forebearers

Although it is impossible to trace the origin of the Comanche tribe, there are indications that it first emerged in present-day Wyoming, between the Yellowstone and Platte Rivers. According to legend, two groups of the tribe disagreed about how to divide up a slain animal and decided to separate. One group went north, where it became known as the Shoshone. The other turned east and south and became the Comanche.

Sanapia, whose Christian name was Mary Poafpybitty, was born in the spring of 1895 in a tepee pitched near Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Her family had travelled...