The Medicine Woman of Galveston

Darl unexpectedly offers Tucia some company after that night’s show. Tucia tells him how her mother, who volunteered with the Women’s Nursing Corps, inspired her to pursue medicine. She died when Tucia was eight, and although her stepmother disapproved of Tucia’s dreams, Tucia’s father indulged her in memory of his first wife.

Despite graduating medical college, Tucia didn’t practice because of the prejudice female doctors faced. She remembers how she was dismissed from her internship after the incident in the operating theatre, especially after Dr. Addams claimed she had insisted on performing the surgery. Tucia couldn’t find the courage to counter his lies. She found it difficult to find another position after, and when she did find work at a women’s hospital, she was quickly dismissed after she had a “hysterical attack” at work.

Tucia doesn’t tell Darl any of this, only that she changed her mind about practicing after an unfortunate incident in an operating theatre. Darl, however, believes she would be very good if she ever changed her mind. He asserts she is different from all the other doctors he has met, but Tucia doesn’t believe him.

Two months into Tucia’s time with the medicine show, she is accosted in the case-taking tent by an actual physician named Dr. Kramer. Dr. Kramer accuses her of fraud, claiming she is bringing shame to both her sex and her profession. Tucia retorts that his indignation stems from greed, as he is afraid the show will steal away his patients. She defends her participation in the medicine show by asserting that just as medicine presents “impossible choices,” some of which end up causing a patient harm, life does as well.

Already upset and rattled by her conversation with Dr. Kramer, Tucia heads back to the wagon after the patients leave. She finds Toby missing. She runs to the field in a panic after Fanny tells her he might be playing baseball with Darl and Al, and finds the trio there.

Tucia is furious that Toby left the wagon and is barefoot. She drags him back home to go to bed without supper. An upset Toby, who thinks it unfair that Al can play outside while he is not allowed to, cries himself to sleep. An angry Tucia ignores Al when he arrives with food for them, even though he apologizes. However, her anger eventually breaks, and she is left feeling only humiliation over her earlier conversation with Dr. Kramer.

After the show, Huey, furious at Tucia’s “sloppy” performance that night, slaps her. In response, Tucia announces that she and Toby are leaving; she cannot keep up with the unethical farce any longer. Huey’s manner immediately turns placating, and he begins reminding Tucia of the lack of options awaiting her outside the show. However, when Tucia remains resolute and promises to pay back the debt in increments after leaving, Huey pulls up his ledger and begins calculating what she owes.

To Tucia’s shock and horror, Huey tells her she owes $582, which is barely anything less than her original debt. Tucia discovers that Huey has added a number of expenses to her debt without informing her, including her room and board and the clothes he bought her and Toby before they left town. She was misled into believing these were included in the offer. Huey laughs at Tucia’s suggestion that she could take his deception up with a judge. He insults her by calling her a “degenerate,” warning her not to run.

Tucia wakes up the next morning still hurting from where Huey struck her the previous night. His insults remind her of Dr. Addams, who treated her the same way. She remembers how, when she first joined the hospital for her internship, Dr. Addams barely acknowledged her presence. Once she demonstrated her skill and talent, he began to pay more attention to her. Tucia was flattered, until the day Dr. Addams raped her in his office one month into her internship.

Tucia fled as soon as she could and refused Dr. Addams’s subsequent advances, at which he turned from cajoling and coercive to downright disparaging. When she still refused, he forced her into unexpectedly performing a surgery he knew she’d fail. Dr. Addams wanted to show how much power he had over her, and Tucia sees how Huey is now trying to do the same.

Tucia is determined to take back some self-respect and find a way to live. Remembering how happy Toby looked while playing baseball the previous day, she goes to find Darl. Tucia apologizes for her behavior, asserting she was only trying to keep Toby safe. Darl accepts her apology, but points out that she needs to stop restraining Toby so much. Tucia agrees to let him play again when Darl assures her he will ensure Toby is safe.

Huey heads into town to buy more opium and returns at suppertime with some surprises: Chocolates for the children, a new glass pane for the broken window in Tucia’s wagon, and a monkey. Assuring everyone the monkey is well-trained, Huey lets it out of its cage; however, it immediately springs out and escapes. Huey hollers at everyone to recapture it, to no avail.

They eventually discover the monkey snuggled into Toby’s shirt. Toby refuses to let the monkey go, having befriended it. When Huey puts it back into the cage it gets agitated again. In response to Toby’s sobs and Tucia’s request that Huey not use it in the show, Huey gives the monkey to Toby to keep as a pet until it is ready to perform. An overjoyed Toby names it “Kit.”

Kit quickly warms up to everyone in the show except Huey. Despite her misgivings about a pet monkey, Tucia is grateful to see how happy Kit makes Toby.

Sometime after Kit’s arrival, the company is in a new town. Huey storms in at lunchtime to announce that their show that night is cancelled. Another medicine show, the “Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company,” has set up camp in the same town and stolen their audience, even though it is against the rules. Despite ranting about them, Huey takes everyone to see the Kickapoos’ show.

The group arrive as the show is still setting up, and Lawrence seems to recognize one of the men in the Kickapoo group. Darl and Tucia discuss how, despite all of them being Indigenous people, it is probable that none of the men in the show are actually Kickapoo. Texas Joe, the man who runs the show, greets Huey, and Tucia notices obvious tension between the men.

In the show, Texas Joe proclaims that he is “a scout and fighter who’d licked enough [Indigenous peoples] to gain their obedience” (217) and calls his men onto the stage. After some dancing and performing, one of the men steps forward and addresses the crowd in the Indigenous language Tucia overheard him and Lawrence speaking earlier. The crowd is rapt, but Tucia notices that Lawrence, and even some of the other performers on stage, are holding in their laughter. Tucia registers this as “an act of defiance” (219), even if a small one, and wonders how she can do the same.

Huey interrupts breakfast to inform the group they are leaving within the hour. Lawrence, who stayed back after the Kickapoos’ show, has not returned yet; Huey refuses to wait for him or to let anyone else pack up his things. However, Darl manages to distract Huey while Tucia grabs whatever she can from Lawrence’s tent: A photograph, a blanket, and his notebook.

Lawrence runs into the group once they have already started moving and Huey refuses to allow him to run back and collect his things. He threatens to wire Agent Smithfield if Lawrence disobeys. Once they reach their new destination, a grateful Lawrence secretly collects his things from Tucia. He tells her the photograph is of his parents, and his notebook is filled with his poetry and comedy sketches. In response to her question about Agent Smithfield, Lawrence tells Tucia his story.

The narrative shifts to Lawrence’s flashback. Yaha Tustenuggee was always good with languages. When he joined school and became “Lawrence,” he took up an interest in politics, too. He joined a group who called themselves “the Snakes” and who were determined to hold fast to the Treaty of 1832. Lawrence and one of his cousins followed the Snakes to a small town where they established their own tribal government and threatened to punish all those from their community who rented out their land to white people.

The entire group was eventually caught and imprisoned, and they never received a trial: Lawrence could either serve time in federal prison, or perform with the “Oregon Indian Medicine Company.” His cousin, too, was contracted out similarly. However, the show runner of Lawrence’s company lost his security bond to Huey in a saloon in Denver, and Lawrence joined Huey’s show with three years still left to serve.

As Tucia is preparing in the case-taking tent one afternoon, a patient arrives before time. Tucia notices his cough and begins independently examining him before Huey arrives. When Huey comes in, Tucia speaks with him separately and tells him the man has tuberculosis. She reminds him he had once said they would not treat anyone who was actually sick.

Huey begins to tell the man there is nothing wrong with him, but Tucia interrupts and clarifies that there is nothing they can do to help with the man’s specific ailment. She gives him the diagnosis and suggests he seek professional medical care, rattling off a list of medications and recommendations as well. After the bewildered man leaves, thanking Huey instead of Tucia, Huey pinches Tucia, forbidding her from contradicting him in front of a customer again.