Native American medicine, cancer and spirituality - Medical Anthropology

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, June, 2003 by Tim Batchelder

Some years ago I was shocked to read that the Navajo are often dissatisfied with hospital based treatment for cancer because it "does not reveal a cause" and instead attribute many illnesses to acts such as "killing a sacred animal" or "exposure to lightning" (Csordas and Kleinman 1990). Indeed, the more I looked into it, the more it seemed that the medical traditions of the native people of North America offered much by way of useful therapies for the modern disease of cancer, from herbs to spiritual techniques. Indeed anthropologists in recent years have found that Navajos with colon cancer show improved outcomes when they supplement conventional treatment with peyote ceremonies (Csordas and Garrity 1994) and other traditional methods of healing. In this column, I will examine in detail Native American Medicine (NAM) with special consideration given to how these methods can be adapted to modern health problems such as cancer.

Native American Medicines

In an excellent article by Ken Cohen entitled "Native American Medicine" appearing in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine (Nov. 1998) the author emphasizes the importance of intuition, spiritual awareness, and community in Native American healing, helping to alleviate the alienation caused by disease. However he notes that the term Native American medicine is actually a bit of a misnomer since the indigenous people of North America identified themselves by Nation (commonly called tribe) of which there were 500 or so, band or community, clan, and family. It was invented as a way for all of these nations to come together to resist encroachment by Europeans. The healing methods of all of these indigenous groups have been practiced in North America for a minimum of 12,000 years and probably more than 40,000 depending on whose theory you ascribe to as to the first appearance of people on this continent. Also, many indigenous people are rightly hesitant to share their medicinal knowledge with white people after the terrible history of genocide whites have inflicted on them. And since native medicine was transmitted orally until quite recently it is difficult to obtain useful information on this healing form. A medicine man or woman caught telling a white man about his medicine risks being ostracized from his or her community. Fortunately many native people are starting to realize the importance of sharing their knowledge with whites to preserve it in the face of ever-encroaching white man's medicine as long as they are treated with respect.

Maker of All Things Above

Native American medicine places great emphasis on spirituality and maintaining the integrity of the person in medicine and the higher force which is the source referred to by numerous names, including Kitchi Manitou ("the Great Mystery," Ojibway), Wakan Tanka ("the Great Sacred" or "Great Spirit," Lakota), Acbadadea ("Maker of All Things Above," Crow), Shongwayadihs:on ("the Creator," Iroquois), or simply God. In living things this divine spirit is made flesh in the form of divine breath. A healthy purpose follows the path imprinted in the heart by the Great spirit and walking a path of harmony, balance, and beauty, keeping a "good mind" and "good thoughts" of respect, generosity and gratefulness. To restore health means restoring ethical behavior and the harmonious relations with one s community. Native American medicine is based on a spiritual and social "mechanism" rather than a materialistic one.

Becoming a Native American Healer: The Calling

In contrast to hospital medicine's heroic methods, Native American medicine considers some conditions to be untreatable and to have important messages for the patient. These include inherited conditions such as birth defects and retardation (including fetal alcohol syndrome) caused by parent's immoral behavior. Healers refuse to impose their treatments on people who don't seek them out, in contrast to hospital medicine's heroic "missionary" style approach. Finally, and most importantly, Native American medicine, like other traditional systems of medicine, has the category of the calling: a disease of initiation necessary for the creation of future medical practitioners or carriers of guardian-spirit power. These can involve a feeling of dying, or near death experiences, from drowning, Western diseases such as polio, accident, injury, possession by a spirit power, or even actual death. The initiate is then healed by a native healer to teach him the techniques of healing. Native healers feel that people learn t o heal best the conditions they have experienced. Becoming a medicine man is considered a curse for some because one only becomes one by being quite ill.

Wandering Sickness, Staying Sickness, Cruel Words, and the Giveaway Feast

In Native American Medicine a distinction is made between internal and external sources of illness. In Piman medicine 'wandering sickness' is caused by noxious substances (like germs, heat, pus) that wander through the body and cause fever, hemorrhoids, and sores and is treated with herbs. 'Staying sickness' is caused by improper behavior towards powerful objects (like using wood from a lightning struck tree or hunting a sacred animal). Ka:cim stays in the body causing weakness and tiredness and can only be cured by a shaman who sings to the object or animal and sucks out the pathogen while blowing in spirit power.