PAVATI SMITH - Native American Herbal Remedies Encyclopedia: 3 books in 1: Unlock The Wisdom Within The Native American Culture Learning How Common Herbs Can Create The Best Natural Pantry To Fight Any Ailment

Native American Herbs Guide

Unlock The Power Of Nature With The Native American Herbalism Handbook

+A Herbal Apothecary Guide To Reconnect Spirit And Body With Mother Earth

(2 books in 1)

Pavati Smith

Copyright 2021 Pavati Smith

All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Native American medicine is a broad field with many varied techniques and practices. Some of these medicines and practices have been passed down within families for generations, while others are shared openly with the community. Indigenous people in North America may not have had formalized methods of diagnosis or treatment, but they did have extensive knowledge of medicinal plants that could be found nearby or gathered from local markets. For example, the Cherokee people use black walnut hulls to treat cystitis, white oak bark to make a sweet tea for colds and burdock root for inflammation.

Native American herbalism has been adopted into the practices of modern Western herbalism in different ways. Some of these plant medicines were discovered by European settlers and then adopted by whites. Others were adopted into Western culture with formal medical practices, such as the use of Red Clover (traditionally used for respiratory ailments) with regular honey treatments for TB. Modern herbalists also learn about the historical uses of various medicinal plants from Native Americans, including dandelion (bitter tonic), milkweed (diuretic), wood sorrel (astringent) and elderberry (digestive).

Much like the plants themselves, Native American practitioners are varied in their approach to healing. Some Native American medicine men and women use prayers to ask the Great Spirit to heal those in their care. Others seek to let the body heal itself by avoiding medical treatment or using minimal medicines. Some, like Black Elk (an Oglala Sioux healer), combine these two approaches.

Diseases believed to be caused by witchcraft can be treated using traditional Native American medicines, such as burning juniper smoke (to clear poison from the air) or giving tobacco water (to eliminate bad medicine). Still, other ailments are treated through sweat lodges, massage and music. Sweat lodges are used for a number of reasons: as a social gathering place; as an aid in healing; or as part of spiritual purification ceremonies. Massage helps the circulation of blood and lymph, relieves musculoskeletal tension and improves the immune system. Music is used as a way to help medicine penetrate deeper or work more quickly. Other forms of treatment include medicated steam baths, which are used for muscle pain or respiratory problems; hot rocks that are placed on the body to stimulate it; or medicinal teas that can be drunk to improve health.

Some plants have a long history of use in Western herbalism prior to their discovery by Native Americans. Such is the case with Echinacea (purple coneflower), which has been used since at least 1776 in Europe for its supposed ability to cure colds. However, Native Americans had been using the herb for years prior to that. The Sioux believed it could be used to treat snakebites and even smallpox.

Many Western herbalists praise the healing properties of plants used by Native Americans, but they are quick to add that these plants also can be toxic. For example, both lobelia and ephedra have powerful effects on heart rate and blood pressure, which can make them extremely dangerous if not properly used.

The Native American's healing traditions go back many years when North America's various indigenous groups found that they could heal different medicinal issues by combining roots, herbs and other naturally occurring plants. But remedies weren't part of the healing process only for Native Americans.

The healing traditions varied from one tribe to another tribe, including different ceremonies, rituals and various healing knowledge, including more than 2,000 tribes of indigenous people in North America. Although no absolute healing criteria were there, most tribes agreed that health was the spirit's expression and a continuous process of spiritually, physically and mentally staying strong. This strength will keep away illness and harm, also keeping peace with themselves, those near them, the natural environment and the Creator. Each individual was him/herself responsible for their health and all perceptions and behavior, including disability, bad luck, illness, or trauma, had consequences. Their health could only be restored until harmony was rightly set.

Among these healing practices, herbal remedies play an important part, stretching far off the body's pains and aches and to the realm of harmony and spirituality.

In general, the herbs and different natural products utilized in remedies are collected from their surroundings, resulting in a further cure range.

However, locally unavailable items were often traded over lengthy distances.

Medicinal plants and herbs have also been perceived as greatly sacred.

Many different practices have passed on from one generation to another generation orally and were never documented in writing, leaving a mystery to many healing remedies. The healers rarely placed their practices or formulas in writing, such as the Cherokee, who created a written language.

They were shocked to see Native Americans recovered from illnesses and injuries they thought fatal after early Europeans came to the U.S. 500 years ago. The herbal remedies of the Indians were much superior in several respects to those familiar to the immigrants. Yet they had no cures for the "civilization diseases," or the diseases of white men, like measles and smallpox, for the Native Americans, who would wipe out many of them during the next some years. These various Native Americans were lost, and knowledge went with healers to the grave. Mostly, it has survived until this day, used by both the Native Americans and the non-natives alike, despite losing some of the information. Several modern medicines are focused on herbs and plants that have been utilized by Indians for years.

More than two hundred botanicals originally derived from Native Americans are still in use in pharmaceuticals.

The difference, both in the past and present, among Native American conventional medicine and healing is the spirituality role in the process of healing. Native Americans claim that there is a connection to everything in nature and that the spirits may promote cause and health illness. Therefore, not just the human physical parts but their emotional well-being and their harmony with their society and the world surrounding them must be healed. The community also gathered to help a suffering individual with ceremonies, praying, dances, chanting and herbal remedies.

Today, only science and mechanistic views are focused on modern medicine, although several Native Americans tend to involve the spirit as the inseparable healing aspect.

They were often named "Shamans" by European descent people, referred to by their tribes as healers, Medicine Women, or Medicine Men, but Native Americans did not use this term. These healers' primary role was to obtain the world of spirits, especially the "Great Spirit" or "Creator," to better an individual or community.

In addition to being a doctor, a priest was the Medicine Man, too. The healers were trained to handle illness in all categories like these, believing that human, natural, or supernatural causes may cause disease. Masks were worn by healers, often horrific and grotesque, to frighten the spirit away that caused the pain or disease. To exorcise the demons, shaking rattles and beating drums when dancing around someone were often used. Medicine Man mixed the right to an exorcism with the usage of animal and plant substances and other practical procedures. Many healers have often used cups or suction tubes and purification and purging in addition to herbal remedies.