Native American Healing Traditions

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Native American Healing Traditions

Article in International Journal of Disability Development and Education ? December 2006

DOI: 10.1080/10349120601008647

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International Journal of Disability, Development and Education Vol. 53, No. 4, December 2006, pp. 453?469

Native American Healing Traditions

Tarrell A. A. Portmana* and Michael T. Garrettb

aThe University of Iowa, USA; bUniversity of Florida, USA

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Indigenous healing practices among Native Americans have been documented in the United States since colonisation. Cultural encapsulation has deterred the acknowledgement of Native American medicinal practices as a precursor to folk medicine and many herbal remedies, which have greatly influenced modern medicine. Understanding Native American healing practices requires helping professionals to have knowledge of Native American cultural belief systems about health and wellness, with the many influences that create change in the mind, body, spirit, and natural environment. Native Americans believe their healing practices and traditions operate in the context of relationship to four constructs--namely, spirituality (Creator, Mother Earth, Great Father); community (family, clan, tribe/nation); environment (daily life, nature, balance); and self (inner passions and peace, thoughts, and values). This article provides insight into the relationship among each of the constructs and Native American healing traditions. Also, specific examples of current Native American indigenous healing practices in the United States are presented.

Keywords: Counselling; Healing practices; Interventions; Native American

Introduction Native American healing traditions enjoy a long and very rich history that extends beyond recorded history. Colonisation in the United States introduced Native American healing practices to non-Natives. However, the influence that "Indian Medicine" has had on the evolution of modern medicine is rarely acknowledged (Simpson, 2004). Historical records related to Native American healing traditions and ceremonies are isolated primarily to the field of anthropology (e.g., Garbarino & Sasso, 1994; Oswalt & Neely, 1996) and are limited in scope and cultural perspective. The Native traditional healing may not have been accepted as credible due to the cultural encapsulation of the colonisers who were writing about these traditions. Indian Medicine was often cited as nothing more than superstition and thought to

*Corresponding author. Department of Counseling, Rehabilitation and Student Development, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, 52242, USA. Email: tarrell-portman@uiowa.edu

ISSN 1034-912X (print)/ISSN 1465-346X (online)/06/040453?17 ? 2006 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/10349120601008647

454 T. A. A. Portman and M. T. Garrett

be inferior to the sophisticated medicinal practices of the early colonists. This was despite the fact that many western colonists benefited from and survived diseases through use of Native American treatments (Mancini, 2004). Thus, traditional healing practices were evidently successful within this time context.

The perspective of the western colonisers of Native American medicine changed somewhat around the beginning of the nineteenth century due to socio-economic events. For example, wars between the United States and some countries of Europe (e.g., Revolutionary War and War of 1812) disrupted access to European medicines and physicians by limiting ocean vessels from transporting people and cargo to the new world (Mancini, 2004). This interruption of transcontinental shipping created a change in social attitudes towards indigenous medicines and home remedies. Mancini (2004) reported there was a:

post-revolutionary shift in American medical literature with greater attention paid to Native American medicine. This is evident in early 19th Century publications such as Indian Doctor's Dispensatory (1812), the first U.S. Pharmacopeia (1820), Medical Flora of the U.S. (1828), and The Indian Physician (1829).

An examination of documentation of medicinal plants spanning a 200-year time period in three different Native American communities revealed traditional Native American healing practices with the same plants and herbs prevailed over time (Mancini, 2004), leaving a healing thread across two centuries.

We provide an overview of the cultural?relational context in which Native American traditional practices are typically found. The sections of this article that discuss understanding the relationships between Native American healing practices and spirituality, the environment, and the self are important. Secondly, we present the significance of the word "medicine" as a cultural construct in developing an appreciation for American Indian clients' use of the term. Thirdly, we present information on some specific Native American traditional healing ceremonies. We also consider suggestions for research on Native American healing traditions.

Cultural?Relational Contexts of Native American Healing Practices

In 2005, the Journal for Transcultural Nursing published an article entitled "Respecting tribal traditions in research and publications: Voices of five Native American nurse scholars" (Struthers, Lauderdale, Nichols, Tom-Orme, & Strickland, 2005.). This article illustrated the connection between cultural values and Native American healing practices that still hold strong in the United States. One Native nurse said "Traditional healing encompasses issues that are very sacred and personal matters. Some of us are taught that we are not to talk about, record, or videotape certain ceremonies or specific work" (Struthers et al., 2005, p. 195). Another Indian nurse described the connection between the person seeking healing and the indigenous healer:

There is a belief that the person being healed does not necessarily need to know all of the details of how the medicine man is healing them. The person just `accepts' that the

Native American Healing Traditions 455

medicine will work. Indian people do not question things as much as people from mainstream culture; Indian people value acceptance more readily, so they accept that the healer or medicine man is going to heal them. The person does not need to know the details of why the healing occurs. (Struthers et al., 2005, p. 195)

Historically and in modern times, Native American healing traditions are defined as:

those which may involve traditional medicine practitioners, such as medicine men and women, herbalists, and shaman, to restore an individual to a healthy state using traditional medicines, such as healing and purification ceremonies, teas, herbs, special foods, and special activities such as therapeutic sings, prayers, chants, dancing, and sand painting. (Chee, 1991, p. 2276)

The terms used for Native American healing practices may vary. For example, the medical field uses the term "traditional Indian medicine" (Struthers et al., 2005, p. 200). Helping professionals should consider the terms interchangeable when reading literature from various fields discussing traditional Native American healing practices.

Understanding Native American healing practices requires helping professionals to have knowledge of the cultural belief systems that are unique for each tribal nation, but that also have a common core that tends to run across nations (Garrett, 1999). Native American healing traditions cannot be taken out of the context of their relationship to the four constructs of spirituality (Creator, Mother Earth, Great Father), community (family, tribe), environment (daily life, nature, balance), and self (inner passions, thoughts, and values). In fact, many of the Native American traditional healing practices performed without the spiritual relationships might prove ineffective for treatment. As the American Cancer Society (2005) website states:

Most Native American treatment is a slow process, spread over a period of days or weeks. It may involve taking time out from the usual daily activities for reflection, emotional awareness, and meditation. The healer may spend a great deal of time with the person seeking help. Healing is said to take place within the context of the relationship with the healer.

This article provides insight into the relationship between each of the constructs and Native American healing traditions, and provides specific examples of current indigenous healing practices in the United States.

Relationship between Healing Practices and Spirituality

The primary relationship consistent across Native American peoples is the connection between indigenous healing practices and spirituality. In many Native traditions, the celestial world is where the spirit beings live; watching, helping, healing, and gently guiding. Some Native traditions hold the belief that the Creator planted a Sacred Tree for all the people of Earth within which healing, power, wisdom, and security could be found. This Tree would be firmly grounded, its roots reaching deeply into the body of Mother Earth, its trunk and branches spread up and

456 T. A. A. Portman and M. T. Garrett

outward, giving thanks for all life. The fruits born would be the sacred teachings showing the path to love, compassion, wisdom, justice, courage, respect, and modesty (Four Worlds Development Project, 1989). The image of this tree deeply rooted with its arms and leaves stretched outward calling to the winds serves as a metaphor for the resiliency with which Native people have stood the test of time through preservation of and reliance on spiritual traditions that continue to this day. Many modern religious groups incorporate the use of traditional activities related to ceremonial practices into their spiritual practices, especially songs in tribal languages and the use of drumming and rattles for song-chants.

Native Americans use ceremonies with funerals and special youth events as traditional healing. This is part of what it means, "to walk in step" from a Native perspective. The following tenets from Garrett (1998) provide an overview of basic Native American spiritual and traditional beliefs:

1. There is a single higher power known as Creator, Great Creator, Great Spirit, or Great One, among other names. This being is sometimes referred to in gendered form, but does not necessarily exist as one particular gender or another. There are also lesser beings known as spirit beings or spirit helpers.

2. Plants and animals, like humans, are part of the spirit world. The spirit world exists side by side with, and intermingles with, the physical world. Moreover, the spirit existed in the spirit world before it came into a physical body and will exist after the body dies.

3. Human beings are made up of a mind, body and spirit. The mind, body, and spirit are all interconnected; therefore, illness affects the mind and spirit as well as the body.

4. Wellness is harmony in mind, body and spirit; unwellness is disharmony in mind, body, and spirit.

5. Natural unwellness is caused by the violation of a sacred social or natural law of Creation (e.g., participating in a sacred ceremony while under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or having had sex within four days of some ceremony).

6. Unnatural unwellness is caused by conjuring (witchcraft) from those with harmful or destructive intentions. This may be referred to as "bad medicine".

7. Each of us is responsible for our own wellness by keeping ourselves attuned to self, relations, environment, and universe.

In many Native American languages there is no word for "religion", because spiritual practices are an integral part of every aspect of daily life; they are necessary for the harmony and balance, or wellness, of the individual, family, clan, and community. Healing and worship are considered one and the same. For many Native American people, the concept of health and wellness is not only a physical state, but a spiritual one as well. For example, behaviours involved in abusing substances, from a traditional perspective, are a sign of a deeper, spiritual lesson.

Traditional Native American views of healing and wellness emphasise the necessity of seeking harmony within oneself, with others, and with one's surroundings. An active relationship between the physical and spirit world is emphasised along with

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