3

Aboriginal/traditional

medicine in North America:

a practical approach for

practitioners

John K Crellin

We still use plants from the land to heal some of our cut fingers or

aching bones. But in taking plants from the land to use for medicine,

we have to do it in such a way that we leave a gift behind. We leave

tobacco, or offerings, a gift of respect for some of the things that the

Creator has given us. When we do that, that’s a healing of our own

minds, our own bodies, our own souls.

Saqamaw Misel Joe^1

If a patient really has confidence in me, then he gets cured. If he has

no confidence, then that is his problem. If a person gets bitten by a

snake, for example, certain prayers can be used, but if the patient

doesn’t have enough confidence, then the cure won’t work.

Medicine man (quoted in Sandner^2 )

One difficulty in preparing a short chapter is the complexity of the North
American scene with vastly different geographical/economic/political/
cultural regions. The geographical contrast between aboriginal peoples of
the south-western USA and the isolated Inuit of the Canadian Arctic hints
only at a diversity of traditional practices. Clearly, this can contribute to
regional differences in the questions that healthcare practitioners commonly
face; some may field questions over magico-religious/ceremonial practices
more than do others, although nowadays, with the promotion of herbs as
‘dietary supplements’, all practitioners can expect questions on ‘aboriginal’