medicine man

(among North American Indians and some other aboriginal peoples) a person believed to possess magical or supernatural powers; shaman.

a seller of patent medicine, especially before 1900, presenting a medicine show to attract customers.

Origin of medicine man

First recorded in 1795–1805

Kut-le bounded into the room, upsetting the medicine-man, and lifted Rhoda in his arms.

The Heart of the Desert |Honor Willsie Morrow
The mantle (if he had a mantle) of the medicine-man has fallen on the god; but Zeus, or Indra, was not once a real medicine-man.

Custom and Myth |Andrew Lang
Even the so-called highly scientific suggestion-therapy employs the wares of the medicine-man and the exorcising Schaman.

Collected Papers on Analytical Psychology |C. G. Jung
Living amongst the Maoris, he acquired some reputation as a "medicine-man."

The adventures of Kimble Bent |James Cowan

With the Sioux, to become a medicine-man, it was necessary to submit to the ordeal known as “looking at the sun.”

Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 14, Slice 5 |Various

medicine man

(among certain peoples, esp North American Indians) a person believed to have supernatural powers of healing; a magician or sorcerer