Native American Medicine Essay

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Native Americans have a long history of using native plants, berries, herbs, and trees for a wide variety of medicinal purposes. Native Americans have been using these methods for thousands of years.
According to Kathy Weiser on Legends of America: When early Europeans arrived in the United States more than 500 years ago, they were surprised to see Native Americans recovering from illnesses and injuries that they considered fatal. In many ways, the Indians' herbal remedies were far superior to those known to the new immigrants. But, for the Native Americans, they had no remedies for the "diseases of civilization," or white man's diseases, such as measles and small pox, which would wipe out thousands of them over the next few centuries. Not …show more content…

A spiritual ritual would be performed while the ill received medicine. A spiritual ritual would be performed to rid the ill of bad spirits and cleanse the spirit. Native Americans believed that a person became ill when a bad spirit entered the body. It is the shaman’s job to try to purify the ill’s spirit. Every tribe across the nation has a shaman. A shaman or medicine man/woman would perform this ritual. A shaman uses the spiritual world to help heal the sick. Shaman were highly regarded as chiefs and tribal spiritual leaders. Shaman were often born into a family with many generations of shaman. Shamans who were not born into, they had visons that lead them to study medicine. Being the shaman was a full-time job. In return of their services to the tribe, the tribe would provide food, shelter, and any assistance needed to the shaman.
The role of the shaman was different from tribe to tribe. There are common roles that all shaman shared. Shaman were communicators. The shamans would provide advice to the member of the tribe. The shamans were also known as educators. They were the keeper of certain traditions, myths and wisdom. Shaman had spiritual healing power. They possessed the ability to treat certain sicknesses caused by evil spirits. Shaman also possessed mystic abilities. They were able to communicate with spirit world. They would achieve this by leaving their own body and entering the spiritual world for

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