Indian Healing

In 1924, the United States began a bold program in public health. The Indian Service of the United States hired its first nurses to work among Indians living on reservations. This corps of white women were dedicated to improving Indian health. In 1928, the first field nurses arrived in the Mission Indian Agency of Southern California. These nurses visited homes and schools, providing public health and sanitation information regarding disease causation and prevention. Over time, field nurses and Native people formed a positive working relationship that resulted in the decline of mortality from infectious diseases. Many Native Americans accepted and used Western medicine to fight pathogens, while also continuing Indigenous medicine ways. Nurses helped control tuberculosis, measles, influenza, pneumonia, and a host of gastrointestinal sicknesses. In partnership with the community, nurses quarantined people with contagious diseases, tested for infections, and tracked patients and contacts. Indians turned to nurses and learned about disease prevention. With strong hearts, Indians eagerly participated in the tuberculosis campaign of 1939–40 to x-ray tribal members living on twenty-nine reservations. Through their cooperative efforts, Indians and health-care providers decreased deaths, cases, and misery among the tribes of Southern California.

Learn how Native Americans have used the bountiful gifts of nature to heal the mind, the body, and the spirit.Bestselling Healing Secrets of the Native Americans brings the age-old knowledge and trusted techniques of Native-American healing to a wider audience. Discover how the Native-American tradition uses plants and herbs, heat, movement and sound, visualization, and spirituality to heal dozens of everyday ailments and illnesses -- from back pain to insect bites to flu and sore throat and much more and apply it to your life to improve your health and your mind. Broken into sections, the book covers such topics as "The Healing Spirit" (including dream therapy, spirituality, and prayer), "The Native American Spa" (healing with heat, massage, sound and movement, and nutrition), "The Native American Pharmacy" (including more than 40 herbs and plants, how to obtain them, and how to use them), plus remedies for more than 40 ailments from acne to wrinkles.

Designed for ease of use with maps, a detailed subject index, an extensive bibliography, and cross references, this book is sure to fascinate anyone interested in Native American culture and heritage.

This book is a must for beginners and serious students of herbs and of Native American ways. This set of herbal teachings, which draws strongly from the Muscogee tradition, presents an understanding of the healing nature of plants for the first time in book form. In a time of expanding awareness of the potential of herbs, this work shines and beckons. Tis Mal examines common wild plants and in a clear and authoritative style explains how to identify, honor, select, and prepare them for use. Illustrated and indexed by plant name and medical topic.

For thousands of years, Native medicine was the only medicine on the North American continent. It is America’s original holistic medicine, a powerful means of healing the body, balancing the emotions, and renewing the spirit. Medicine men and women prescribe prayers, dances, songs, herbal mixtures, counseling, and many other remedies that help not only the individual but the family and the community as well. The goal of healing is both wellness and wisdom. Written by a master of alternative healing practices, Honoring the Medicine gathers together an unparalleled abundance of information about every aspect of Native American medicine and a healing philosophy that connects each of us with the whole web of life—people, plants, animals, the earth. Inside you will discover • The power of the Four Winds—the psychological and spiritual qualities that contribute to harmony and health • Native American Values—including wisdom from the Wolf and the inportance of commitment and cooperation • The Vision Quest—searching for the Great Spirit’s guidance and life’s true purpose • Moontime rituals—traditional practices that may be observed by women during menstruation • Massage techniques, energy therapies, and the need for touch • The benefits of ancient purification ceremonies, such as the Sweat Lodge • Tips on finding and gathering healing plants—the wonders of herbs • The purpose of smudging, fasting, and chanting—and how science confirms their effectiveness Complete with true stories of miraculous healing, this unique book will benefit everyone who is committed to improving his or her quality of life. “If you have the courage to look within and without,” Kenneth Cohen tells us, “you may find that you also have an indigenous soul.”

American Indian Healing Arts is a magical blend of plant lore, history, and living tradition that draws on a lifetime of study with native healers by herbalist and ethnobotanist E. Barrie Kavasch. Here are the time-honored tribal rituals performed to promote good health, heal illness, and bring mind and spirit into harmony with nature. Here also are dozens of safe, effective earth remedies--many of which are now being confirmed by modern research. Each chapter introduces a new stage in the life cycle, from the delightful Navajo First Smile Ceremony (welcoming a new baby) to the Apache Sunrise Ceremony (celebrating puberty) to the Seminole Old People's Dance. At the heart of the book are more than sixty easy-to-use herbal remedies--including soothing rubs for baby, a yucca face mask for troubled skin, relaxing teas, massage oils, natural insect repellents, and fragrant smudge sticks. There are also guidelines for assembling a basic American Indian medicine chest.

In August 2004, South Africa officially sought to legally recognize the practice of traditional healers. Largely in response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and limited both by the number of practitioners and by patients’ access to treatment, biomedical practitioners looked toward the country’s traditional healers as important agents in the development of medical education and treatment. This collaboration has not been easy. The two medical cultures embrace different ideas about the body and the origin of illness, but they do share a history of commercial and ideological competition and different relations to state power. Healing Traditions: African Medicine, Cultural Exchange, and Competition in South Africa, 1820–1948 provides a long-overdue historical perspective to these interactions and an understanding that is vital for the development of medical strategies to effectively deal with South Africa’s healthcare challenges. Between 1820 and 1948 traditional healers in Natal, South Africa, transformed themselves from politically powerful men and women who challenged colonial rule and law into successful entrepreneurs who competed for turf and patients with white biomedical doctors and pharmacists. To understand what is “traditional” about traditional medicine, Flint argues that we must consider the cultural actors and processes not commonly associated with African therapeutics: white biomedical practitioners, Indian healers, and the implementing of white rule. Carefully crafted, well written, and powerfully argued, Flint’s analysis of the ways that indigenous medical knowledge and therapeutic practices were forged, contested, and transformed over two centuries is highly illuminating, as is her demonstration that many “traditional” practices changed over time. Her discussion of African and Indian medical encounters opens up a whole new way of thinking about the social basis of health and healing in South Africa. This important book will be core reading for classes and future scholarship on health and healing in Africa.

Dramatically improve your health by eating foods filled with dynamic probiotics that supercharge your body! Ordinary foods become powerful health agents in a few easy steps using ancient wisdom and time-tested techniques such as natural fermentation. Author and educator Donna Schwenk tells her compelling story of how she transformed her family's health by creating foods that conquer sicknesses, including diabetes, high blood pressure and IBS. Hundreds of families have attended Donna's seminars and renewed their health, changing their lives forever! After numerous requests from her seminar participants, Donna has provided this compilation of over sixty delicious recipes that were the key to her own success. With her simple step-by-step instructions, you too can learn to make delicious probiotic foods that will create wellness and restore your health. You can enjoy a preview at: www.culturedfoodlife.com or follow Donna on her blog at www.blog.culturedfoodlife.com

American Indian Healing Arts is a magical blend of plant lore, history, and living tradition that draws on a lifetime of study with native healers by herbalist and ethnobotanist E. Barrie Kavasch. Here are the time-honored tribal rituals performed to promote good health, heal illness, and bring mind and spirit into harmony with nature. Here also are dozens of safe, effective earth remedies--many of which are now being confirmed by modern research. Each chapter introduces a new stage in the life cycle, from the delightful Navajo First Smile Ceremony (welcoming a new baby) to the Apache Sunrise Ceremony (celebrating puberty) to the Seminole Old People's Dance. At the heart of the book are more than sixty easy-to-use herbal remedies--including soothing rubs for baby, a yucca face mask for troubled skin, relaxing teas, massage oils, natural insect repellents, and fragrant smudge sticks. There are also guidelines for assembling a basic American Indian medicine chest.