Medicine

The medicine man had to be familiar with many herbs.

       The forests of the eastern United States offered many things to their indigenous tribes: drink, shelter, and even medicines for their aches and pains and cuts and bruises. Some of the native remedies were effective and others were not. Some of the native medicines seem very strange to us because today we know that they could not possibly do what they were supposed to do.

       Yet the natives must have believed that their remedies were good, for they continued to use them. Minor ailments were treated by near relatives, but serious illnesses were always treated by a medicine man or woman.

       Many different plants and plant parts were used to make medicines. When the plants were gathered, special ceremonies were held and special songs were sung, and the plants were collected in a special way. This is what made the plant medicines do their work well, the natives thought.

       The plants were carefully carried back to the village, where they were washed and dried in the sun. Sometimes several plants were mixed together and stored for future use.

       Doses of native medicines were rarely small. Usually great quantities had to be taken. Just like modern medicines, native medicines did not taste good. They hid the bad taste by adding strong flavorings. Wild ginger, for instance was a popular flavoring for these tribal cures. 

       For colds the Potawatomi drank a tea made by boiling the roots of the black-eyed Susan. They also collected and swallowed the small lumps of resin, or gummy fluid, that oozed from the trunk of the balsam fir. These natives believed that the pleasant smell of dried balsam needles also would cure colds. For this reason they collected the needles and used them as stuffing for pillows.

       The Potawatomi made a tea from the leaves of the wintergreen and drank it to break a fever and to ease the pains of rheumatism and sore muscles. Today we know that wintergreen leaves contain a substance that is also an important part of aspirin, and we use aspirin to reduce fever and to ease the aches and pains of a cold. Another successful native remedy that is still used today is witch hazel. The twigs of the witch hazel shrub were used by the Potawatomis in their sweat baths. The twigs were placed in water that was heated with hot stones. The steam that rose as the stones were placed in the water relieved aching muscles. The leaves and bark were used to make an astringent or a soothing solution, which was applied to sprains and bruises to relieve the pain and discomfort. The witch hazel astringent that we buy at the drug store today is made in the same way from the same plant, and it is used for the same purpose that the Native Americans used witch hazel.

       The early settlers collected many of the same plants that the natives used for medicines, both those that worked and those that did not work. Every pioneer home, for example, had a bunch of boneset hanging in the kitchen. From this plant a tea was made, and large quantities of it were drunk to cure colds and malaria. The natives crushed the leaves and stems of this plant to make a poultice that they placed over insect stings or over poison-ivy blisters to get relief. Svoboda

Read more about the gifts from Native Americans:

• Gifts From The Native Americans  
• Cultivated Plants 
• Wild Plants
• Nuts and Berries
• Beverages
• Maple Sugar
• Seasoning
• Bark and Bast
• Gourds and Pumpkins and Their Uses

Learn more about native remedies still used today in modern medicine:

• The truth about Boneset
• The Healing Properties of Witch Hazel
• Wintergreen oil uses and forms