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".LaDow Beth The "Melting Pot of Hell" https://archive.org/details/medicinelinelife0000lado/page/23 The Medicine Line: Life and Death on a North American Borderland https://archive.org/details/medicinelinelife0000lado/ Routledge 2002 40-41 https://archive.org/details/medicinelinelife0000lado/page/40 041592765X 1086407748 10.4324/9780203950845L. N. F. Crozier Leif Newry Fitzroy Crozier Report of Superintendent L. N. F. Crozier https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_08052_14_3/144 Sessional papers of the Dominion of Canada: Third Session of the Fourth Parliament https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_08052_14_3/ Ottawa MacLean, Roger & Co. 1880 December 3 33 https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.9_08052_14_3/147 A synonymous term which was attested earlier is en medicine road from 1869 and ostensibly a calque of a Sioux language Sioux term transcribed as "pejuta canku". Unrecorded use of the term or a similar one may date back more than a century earlier than the first attestation. See also en medicine protective charm among the Native Americans. Proper noun Medicine Line 1 en informal North America 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 en Canada United States