James W. Gay

Who was James W. Gay?

Dr. James W. Gay was a herbal Indian medicine man. He was born in the Miami Village on the Wabash River, in the year 1840, and stayed with them until 1854. Dr. James W. Gay's father came from Scotland where he was born in the year 1787. His father practiced medicine among the Miami and Delaware tribes of Indians and white settlers, along the Wabash River. It was there his father met his mother,. Dr. James W. Gay did not get along with the Miami chief, so he left the tribe and set out a life of adventure. He followed the setting sun and joined the Pawnees on the Missouri River in the Fall of 1854. He stayed with the Pawnee and helped them with hunting and war. The Souix was a tribe that had killed his brother. While with the Pawnee's he was at war almost continuously with the Sioux, River, Crows, and Black Foot Indian Tribes in which he was wounded three times.

Dr. Gay left the Pawnee Indians in the year 1859 in order to become educated. He retraced his trail toward the rising sun, and began studying at a school in Illinois. He had used the knowledge of herbal medicine taught from his father when with the Pawnees.