Native American Traditional Medicine

Native American Traditional Medicine

Post Series: Global Traditional Medicine Systems

In  order to spread awareness about the rich living herbal traditions from  around the world, this post series is intended to introduce some of the  characteristics of the herbal or traditional medicine systems to which  plants belong.

Native  American traditional healing is identified by the National Institutes  of Health/National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine  (NCCAM) as a whole medical system. Native American Traditional Medicine  is practiced by the Native American tribes that are indigenous to North  America. The practices and beliefs vary significantly amongst the  various groups (over 500!) but have some similar aspects.

For  example, all groups have a long history of the use of plants for  medicinal, food and spiritual purposes. Continuing today, several  medicinal plants hold significance, often spanning Native nations,  including Tobacco, Cedar, Sage and Sweetgrass. There are also shared  beliefs and interventions, including bio-psycho-socio-spiritual  approaches and traditions.

Among  the healing practices in Native American belief and ceremony are  traditional healers or shamans who facilitate healing on  physical-emotional-social-mental and spiritual well-being, sweat lodge  ceremonies, drumming, a healing or medicine wheel, medicine bundles  (collections of herbs, and/or stones and other ritual objects held by a  traditional healer), shamanic journeys, hallucinogenic substances, and  dietary therapies. One saying in Native American culture, “Mitakuye  Oyasin”, or “All My Relations”, exemplifies the belief of all things  living in relationship/kinship to each other, which underpins a holistic  view of health and wellbeing.

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