The Role Of Medicine In Native American Culture

Indigenous traditions collectively play an important global healthcare role. The World Health Organization recommended that they be integrated into national healthcare programs because 80% of the World’s population cannot afford western high-tech medicine (Johnston). Native American medicine was more advanced than the white man’s at the time of their arrival with different goals and different methods of healing.
Through trial and error, Native American healers were able to find the correct concoction of this mold and that fungus to cure certain illnesses. Native Americans were able to develop cures for scurvy, a version of the pill, and even stumbled upon the basis for modern antibiotics. However, they had no idea how mixing these certain ingredients
together gave them the desired results (Vogel 5). Hector St. John de Crevĕcoeur in the eighteenth century said, “In the days of our sickness we shall have recourse to their [the Indians’] medical knowledge, which is well calculated for the simple diseases to which they are subject” (5). To survive on the frontier many adopted Indian medicine. In fact, about 200 drugs created by Native Americans have been officially adopted into The Pharmacopeia of the United States of America. There are also 100 remedies that have not won official acceptance, but are just used domestically and by physicians (6).
The remedies and concoctions that have been adopted are, however, not used how the Native Americans intended them to be used.
Native Americans have a different type of healing and different goals of medicine. Native Americans take a more personal, and communal approach to medicine. For example, Native American medicine focuses more on healing the person and the community, while western medicine focuses on curing the disease. Native American healers also ask themselves, “What the disease is trying to teach the patient?”, not “How can the doctor destroy the disease?” Native Americans also look at more aspects, such as the physical, emotional, social, environmental, and spiritual life of the patient (Johnston). By looking at the different aspects, they are able to interpret if someone is cursed or if it is just something environmental. When determining the cause, Native Americans do not just look at family history they also look at the health of the fish in one’s river and the health of the surrounding wild life and plants. The Native Americans viewed their healers as counselors and advisors, yet society today views physicians as an authority figure that one is forced to obey. Today’s physicians also are able to explain why a certain medication should heal or cure one unlike the Native Americans who just can say, “Well it worked on the other guy.” Even with all the differences in styles of healing, both societies believed that intervention should result in a rapid cure or
management of disease. They did not believe that it should take much time to be healed otherwise it must not be working (Johnston).
There are many different ways of healing for the Native Americans including herbs, tobacco, smudge, prayer, ceremonies, and the sweat lodge.
Native American herbalism is not just mixing this and that. Herbalism to the Native Americans is very complex because certain herbs affect certain bodily functions, and because they believe that plants possess intelligence and a spirit. Tobacco is the herb of prayer; it is used to help communicate with the spirits and nature. Smudging is another way of using plants to purify an area of negative energies (“Native American Medicine”). When someone smudges, a plant’s smoke cleanses out negative energies, thoughts, feelings, and spirits. Smudging is used in many ceremonies and healing prayers. Usually sage and cedar are used to get rid of the negative things, and sweetgrass is used to invite in positive, healing spirits. Prayer can connect people to healing forces, concentrate the mind on healing, and promote health-enhancing emotions and feelings. Unlike many other religions, Native Americans will proclaim, chant, or sing prayers energetically (Johnston). A ceremony’s main goal is to communicate with the spirit of a disease and find a way to heal it. One type of ceremonies is a sweat-lodge ceremony, which occurs in a dome-like structure covered by tarps and heated by pouring water over hot rocks. Inside, participants could smoke tobacco from sacred ceremonial pipes, or smudge by sprinkling the herbs onto the rocks. After that participants
prayed, sang, and chanted to the spirits (Johnston). The sweat-lodge provides purification of the mind, body, and spirit.
Native American medicine was more advanced than the white man’s at the time of their arrival with different goals and different methods of healing. Without Native American medicine, it would have been very difficult for explorers to survive on the frontier. The Native Americans’ kindness and medicine is the reason that explorers were able to survive and thrive on the frontier. Their medicine has helped advance medicine in America with its many concoctions and remedies. Native Americans try to achieve a healthy life in all of the aspects in order to have a better balance and a better community for their children and grandchildren. Native American Medicine because of its innovativeness was able to sustain the frontiersmen and led to civilization in the America’s.