Indians seated in a large tent watch four medicine men perform a dance. 1850's engraving by Seth Eastman. Medicine man is an English terms used to describe traditional healers and spiritual leaders among Native American and other indigenous or aboriginal peoples. A medicine dance is a ritual dance performed by some Native American peoples to obtain supernatural assistance, as in healing or crop control. The Ho-Chunk, also known as Winnebago, are a tribe of Native Americans, native to what is now Wisconsin and Illinois. There are two federally recognized Ho-Chunk tribes, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska.