As part of this ongoing series, I have reviewed
diverse healing approaches, none of which has been more intriguing yet
initially alien to my Western-trained scientific mind than Native-American
medicine. As a scientist who uses physical laws to further dissect the
microcosm, it was challenging to metaphorically absorb the spiritual,
cosmological, and ecological views of the macrocosm that shape
Native-American healing.
In The Way of the Scout: A Native American Path to
Finding Spiritual Meaning in a Physical World (1995), Tom Brown, Jr.
describes how when he was a child an Apache elder taught him to use an
“expanded focus,” where the task (i.e., any of life’s pursuits) is but a
small part of the whole picture. When we relax an absolute focus, we
become more aware of life’s flow around us, and, as a result, assistance
in many unanticipated forms becomes available.
For most of us who view the world through the
conditioning of Western thought, an expanded focus fosters a greater
understanding of Native-American wisdom. In my case, as I relaxed the
rigidity of my scientific beliefs, an understanding grew that complemented
- not negated - these beliefs. (photo:
The author next to a petroglyph of “Thunderbird,” a
mythological being who speaks in thunder and lightening and teaches us how
to use its power to heal.)
Contributions:
Throughout our nation’s history, Native-American
societal contributions have been immense but often unrecognized. A few
examples include Benjamin Franklin’s modeling the Articles of
Confederation on the Iroquois Nation’s constitution, World War II’s Navajo
code breakers, tribal donations of over $200,000 for post-9/11 relief
efforts, and, the first servicewoman killed in Iraq being a Hopi Indian.
Such contributions hold true for medicine, also. For
example, more than 200 Native-American herbal medicines have been listed
at one time or another in the US Pharmacopoeia; many modern drugs have
botanical origins in these medicines.
Indigenous Medicine:
Native-American medicine is classified as an
indigenous healing tradition. Because 80% of the World’s population cannot
afford Western high-tech medicine, indigenous traditions collectively play
an important global healthcare role - so much so that the World Health
Organization recommended that they be integrated into national healthcare
policies and programs.
Although Native-American healing reflects the
diversity of the many Native nations or tribes that have inhabited “Turtle
Island” (i.e., North America), common themes exist not only between them
but with many of the World’s geographically diverse, ancient indigenous
traditions.
Role of Spirit & Connection:
A major difference between Native-American and
conventional medicine concerns the role of spirit and connection. Although
spirituality has been a key component of healing through most of mankind’s
history, modern medicine eschews it, embracing a mechanistic view of the
body fixable pursuant to physical laws of science.
In contrast, Native-American medicine considers
spirit, whose life-force manifestation in humans is called, ni by
the Lakota and nilch’i by the Navajo, an inseparable element of
healing. Not only is the patient’s spirit important but the spirit of the
healer, the patient’s family, community, and environment, and the
medicine, itself. More importantly, healing must take in account the
dynamics between these spiritual forces as a part of the universal spirit.
Instead of modern medicine’s view of separation that
focuses on fixing unique body parts in distinct individuals separate from
each other and the environment, Native Americans believe we are all
synergistically part of a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts;
healing must be consider within this context. Specifically, we are all
connected at some level to each other, Mother Earth (i.e., nature), Father
Sky, and all of life through the Creator (Iroquois), Great
Spirit (Lakota), Great Mystery (Ojibway), or Maker of All
Things Above (Crow).
This sense of wholeness and connection is implied by
the concluding phrase of healing prayers and chants “All my Relations,”
which dedicates these invocations to all physical and spiritual relations
that are a part of the Great Spirit. To metaphorically describe our
universal connection, the Lakota use the phrase mitakuye oyasin –
“We are all related,” while Southwest pueblo tribes, who consider corn as
a life symbol, state “We are all kernels on the same corncob.”
In Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence
(2000), Dr. Gregory Cajete uses modern science’s chaos theory to
support the Native-American concept of connection. Sometimes called the
“butterfly effect,” this theory postulates that a butterfly’s wing
flap may initiate a disturbance that ultimately leads to a hurricane or
another phenomenon across the world. Whether it is this flap, a prayer for
healing, or one’s stand against oppression, chaos theory, as well as
Native American philosophy, implies that everything is related and has an
influence no matter how small.
Moreover, we all have “butterfly power” to create
from the inherent chaos of our universe, which Cajete describes as “not
simply a collection of objects, but rather a dynamic, ever-flowing river
of creation inseparable from our own perceptions.”
Cultural Rebirth:
Although you cannot appreciate Native-American
medicine without its spiritual dynamics, surprisingly, the practice of
Native-American spirituality was banned in the land of religious freedom
until the 1978 passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act. For
example, in Coyote Medicine: Lessons from Native American Healing
(1997), Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona tells how he risked jail for attending an
early 1970’s healing ceremony.
Because of this ban, which forbid congregating and
keeping sacred objects, much of Native-American healing was driven
underground or to extinction. It is the equivalent of telling physicians
they can’t practice medicine if they do surgeries or prescribe drugs.
Since the prohibition’s lifting, however, world-wide interest in
Native-American wisdom has soared, in part, because it is perceived as an
antidote to modern society’s soul-depleting and environment-damaging
aspects.
Disability:
The idea of wholeness is paramount in understanding
Native-American perception of disability. Unlike many cultures that shun
people with disabilities, Native Americans honor and respect them. They
believe that a person weak in body is often blessed by the Creator as
being especially strong in mind and spirit. By reducing our emphasis on
the physical, which promotes our view of separation from our fellow man
and all that is, a greater sense of connection with the whole is created,
the ultimate source of strength.
Overall, in treating physical disability,
Native-American healers emphasize quality of life, getting more in touch
with and honoring inherent gifts, adjusting one’s mindset, and learning
new tools. By so doing, the individual’s humanity is optimized.
Distinguishing Features
In addition to these overarching philosophical
differences, there are many other features that distinguish
Native-American from Western medicine. In Honoring the Medicine: The
Essential Guide to Native American Healing (2003), selected as the
National MS Society Wellness Book of the Year, Kenneth “Bear Hawk” Cohen
summarizes some of them in a table (p 307):
