Medicine Line

English

Etymology

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

the Medicine Line

  1. (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

Primarily used in the context of discussions of Native Americans or First Nations people.

References
  1. LaDow, Beth (2002) “The "Melting Pot of Hell"”, in The Medicine Line: Life and Death on a North American Borderland‎, Routledge, →DOI, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 40-41
  2. 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, volume 3, Ottawa: MacLean, Roger & Co., page 33
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