Three Nephite Medicine Men Healing an Apache Chief's Daughter
Published October 13, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Contributed by
Millennial Star Research
In the spring of 1889 or 1890, Elder William A. Bennett was traveling through the Apache Reservation in Arizona. He witnessed an annual dance held by the Indians to drive the devil out of the soil. During the ceremony, three men painted white and adorned in magnificent dress appeared. An Apache half-breed explained to Elder Bennett that a tribal tradition told of a time long ago when an Apache chief's daughter lay dying. After all the local medicine men failed to cure her, three strange men appeared, identified themselves as great medicine men, healed the daughter, and subsequently disappeared. The tradition holds that they were sent by the Great Spirit and returned to Him.
In Their Own Words
“In the spring of 1889 or 1890 I was engaged in the hauling of goods across the San Carlos part of the Apache Reservation... Now, to the point I wish to make: after his sathanic majesty had disappeared, three men appeared, painted white, and adorned in all the splendors and beauties the Apache imagination could conceive. They represented three great medicine men. I was fortunate enough to be acquainted with a half-bred whom I had known for many years, who could talk both the English and Apache languages, and I asked him what those three men painted white represented. He told me that there was a tradition handed down by the Indians, that many, many snows ago there was a big chief amongst them who had a most lovely daughter... she was taken very ill, and was nigh unto death... three strange men came to his lodge and told them they were great medicine men, and that they could cure his daughter, which they did, after which they disappeared. No one knew where they came from nor where they went. Their appearance and dress were different from anything they had ever seen, and tradition has it that they were three medicine men sent by the Great Spirit, and that they returned back to Him. — Millennial Star 68:32”
Sources & References
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), Vol. 68, No. 32 (1906). https://archive.org/details/millennialstar6832eng (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high)
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