Health Studies 301 Complementary and Alternative Therapies

Study Guide: Unit 15

Indigenous Healing

A close-up of Sweet grass from the Sanctuary Ecovillage in Grand Forks, BC, Canada. Kodemizer, 2007, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sweet grass is commonly used in smudging ceremonies.

The Indigenous population in Canada is highly diverse, with great variations in culture and language. However, its members are similar in that they share a holistic belief in health: their approach reflects an integrated belief system. The balance of self, community, and nature is prominent in the promotion of health. To be out of balance is to be diseased.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of Unit 15, you should be able to

• discuss the nature of Indigenous healing.
• identify situations where Indigenous healing is commonly used.
• determine the effectiveness of Indigenous healing by analyzing the available research.
• identify trends and issues related to Indigenous healing.

Learning Activities

Study Questions

As you complete the activities for Unit 15, keep the following questions in mind. You may want to use the Personal Learning Space wiki on the course home page and answer these questions as a way of keeping notes to focus your learning.

1. What is the traditional Indigenous approach to health?
2. What types of ceremonies are used in traditional Indigenous healing?
3. What are the benefits of Indigenous healing for Indigenous people?
4. How does someone become an Indigenous healer?
5. How is Indigenous health promoted in Canada? What more could be done?

Unit 15 Discussion Forum

When you have completed the other activities for this unit, answer at least one of the questions in the Unit 15 Discussion Forum, and respond to at least one post by a fellow learner.

The more questions you answer, the better prepared you will be for the final exam!

Read

In addition to the notes provided here, read in the textbook:

Micozzi, M. (2019). Fundamentals of Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Medicine. Pages 657–666.

This textbook reading provides some general information about Indigenous healing. North America has an enormous land area with many tribes. Thus there is huge variation in language, customs, and approaches to health and healing. The textbook focuses mainly on a few tribes who live in the United States.

Aboriginal Health and Healing

Historically, some of the healing traditions of Canada’s Indigenous peoples were discouraged by government officials. These included suppression of the potlatch (a ceremony where goods were given away by the sponsor, part of the Indigenous traditions on the Northwest coast) and suppressing Spirit Dancing and the Sun Dance of the Plains Indians. As a result of the repression, Indigenous healing and other spiritual activities became more secretive.

However, in recent years the Canadian government has recognized the importance of Indigenous traditions and has made a conscious effort to support the resurgence of Native heritage. Provincial museums have dedicated large areas to Native traditions and historical events, and have been transferring artifacts and spiritual symbols from museums back to the Indigenous people. Transcribing healing beliefs and practices may also help preserve traditions for future generations (Cohen, 1999).

Indigenous (also referred to as First Nations, Native, or Aboriginal in the literature) people in Canada see health as the product of natural or supernatural forces (Waldram, Herring, & Young, 1995). As Young, Ingram, and Swartz (1989) state, “Because Native people live in close contact with nature, it is fitting that their understanding of cosmic principles should be expressed in terms of natural creatures and phenomena.” They often use animal and plant symbols, such as the eagle for courage and the sacred tree for life, cycles of time, the earth, and the universe (Bopp, Bopp, Brown, & Lane, 1988).

The medicine wheel symbolizes the four elements (earth, air, fire, water); the four directions (east, south, west, north); the four aspects to human nature (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual); the four kingdoms (mineral, plant, animal, human); and the four stages of life. The medicine wheel is a symbolic tool that helps people realize that they are connected with the rest of creation, and it can be used to help understand things that cannot be seen, such as disease or spiritual well-being (Bopp et al., 1988). In Indigenous belief, a healthy person has a sense of purpose and follows the guidance of the Great Spirit or Creator. Thus, it is difficult to separate Indigenous medicine from religion, and many healers are also spiritual leaders (Waldram et al., 1995).

Native healing is holistic in that health means restoring the body, mind, and spirit to balance and wholeness (Cohen, 1999). According to Native American Elders gathered at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, “All things are interrelated. Everything in the universe is a part of single whole. Everything is connected in some way to everything else” (Bopp et al., 1988).

Common methods of treatment include prayer, chanting, music, smudging, counselling, and ceremony. Healing always begins with prayer, where the healer may pray with and for the patient. Some prayers are sung, accompanied by drumming, and the rhythm “entrains the minds of both healer and patient and leads them to an expanded awareness of self and spirit” (Cohen, 1999). Chanting ceremonies aid healing by expressing harmony, rebirth, vitality, and a will to live. Healing sessions also begin with smudging—using the smoke of sweetgrass to cleanse the place, the healer, patient, and ritual objects.

Herbs are another important part of Indigenous healing. History includes accounts of diseases being treated with herbal remedies, for example treating scurvy with pine needles (which are high in vitamin C) and constipation with cascara sagrada (Cohen, 1999). Indigenous healers also use massage, healing touch, and non-contact healing (similar to therapeutic touch) to relieve tensions and pain, and to remove spiritual intrusions and bring in healing powers (Cohen, 1999).

Many Indigenous traditional healing beliefs recognize that the power to heal also involves the power to inflict harm, illness, and misfortune on a bad person. This is more than a nocebo effect (power of negative expectation) and includes negative thoughts from others, which it is believed can cause disease (Cohen, 1999). Minor illnesses, such as colds, headaches, and digestive disorders, are treated with herbal remedies, but serious illnesses are often viewed as a penalty for a transgression and require the assistance of a healer.

Indigenous ethics throughout Canada include maintaining balance and harmony, regarding anger as inappropriate, and acting at the “right time” (Pompana et al., 1994). These ethics are the basis for cultural and individual behaviours. Historically, Indigenous cultures have placed emphasis on traditional healers. These healers may be referred to as shamans, herbalists, or medicine people. They gain their knowledge to heal over time, since medical knowledge exists only within the oral or story tradition. Most healers are relatively old, and the oldest (Elders) are the most revered. Healers are often humble about their abilities; they do not practise traditional medicine for profit. Healers are chosen by Elders, inherit the position, or may have a calling (Pompana, Grumbly, & Inipi Kagipi, 1994). Some healers believe they can best heal the conditions that they have experienced. In other words, healers must strive to heal themselves in order to heal their patients most effectively. The purpose of these healers is to restore balance in self, community, and nature—the integrated system (Bopp et al., 1988). This is accomplished through the delivery of ceremonies, rituals, and herbal preparations.

Organizations have been developed to incorporate Indigenous and conventional medicine to address key health issues in Indigenous populations. The Alberta Health services, Edmonton Zone, provides Indigenous people with health- and life-care services through such programs as the Aboriginal Health Program. This program encourages health care providers to be aware and responsive to Indigenous culture, health, and life-care needs. The program promote the values of love (for oneself and others), wisdom, sharing, healing, respect (for ancestors and Elders), forgiveness, honesty, and humility (Aboriginal Health Services Guide, 1999).  Belief in oneself is an especially important principle, since many medicine people and Indigenous healers believe that the major internal causes of disease are negative thinking, negative thoughts about oneself and others, and self-doubt (Cohen, 1999). Another program is the Aboriginal Diabetes Wellness Program. It uses the services of an Indigenous Elder, dietitian, nurse, and physician on staff.

The presence of tipis at two hospitals in Edmonton (the University of Alberta Hospital and Royal Alexandra Hospital) seems to signal that the local health care authority (Capital Health) wishes to understand, respect, and respond to Indigenous people’s health and life-care needs. Many hospitals in Western Canada have rooms or gathering places where Indigenous patients, healers, and families can hold spiritual and healing ceremonies, including burning sweetgrass. Healing circles are also becoming more common.

Anishnawbe Health Toronto provides education and health promotion in Ojibway, Cree, and English. The centre’s focus is to help prevent STIs (including HIV/AIDS) and to promote good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle (see http://www.aht.ca).

It is not easy for those who have little traditional Indigenous cultural knowledge to distinguish true healers from those who lack cultural or community validation. Waldram et al. (1995) reported that “The Traditional Elders Circle of the Indigenous Nations of North America passed a resolution in 1980 warning that many so-called medicine people lack the proper knowledge and authority to heal and carry sacred objects such as the pipe (Alberta Elder Peter O’Chiese was a signatory to this resolution).”

It is recommended that patients ask questions about the healer if they are not members of the same community. In order to obtain the services of a healer, the patient may have to travel to a Native community and obtain permission from the community. It should also be noted that a “non-Native cannot simply approach a healer and expect him or her to talk freely” (Young et al., 1989).

Common Health Problems of Indigenous People

Studies conducted in the 1990s showed that some of the most prevalent health problem among Indigenous peoples in Canada today are cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and dental caries (Harris et al., 1997; Harrison and Davis, 1996; MacMillan, MacMillan, Offord, & Dingle, 1996; Potvin et al., 1999; Young, Moffat, & O’Neil, 1993). Studies have also shown that many Indigenous people are consuming inadequate amounts of several vitamins and minerals (vitamins A, D, and folate, and calcium and zinc) (Campbell, Diamant, MacPherson, Grunau, & Halladay, 1994; Wein, Gee, & Hawrysh, 1993).

A study done by Campbell and colleagues among northern Manitoba Cree indicated that promotion of traditional foods would increase nutrient intake and decrease food costs (Campbell, Diamant, MacPherson, & Halladay, 1997). More work needs to be done on increasing awareness of healthy eating, and how healthy food choices can be made using both traditional and market foods (Nardelli & Wein, 1996).

Another issue affecting the health of Indigenous peoples is addictive behaviour, most notably alcoholism, drugs, and gambling. Programs have been developed to promote abstinence through counselling, peer support, information, and opportunities for spiritual growth based on Indigenous cultures. For example, in Alberta, the Nechi Training, Research and Health Promotions Institute provides counsellors, health care workers, social workers, educators, community service, and contacts in government agencies to help individuals suffering from addictions and abuse.

Research Evidence

Individualism and differences in the practice of traditional medicine make it difficult to evaluate outcomes. Users of traditional medicine are less concerned with questions of efficacy because of their belief that traditional medicine works. Waldram et al. (1995) wrote:

The scientific study of Aboriginal healing is contentious. There are some Aboriginal people who feel that their medicine is a gift from the Creator, and that as a result there is no need to “prove” its efficacy according to scientific principles. But there are others who believe that limited scientific study is essential to having Aboriginal medicine accepted by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal patients and by health care administrators and funding agencies.

A study by David Young and colleagues from the University of Alberta documented the activities of a Cree healer who treated non-Aboriginal patients suffering from psoriasis in a medical clinic using both spiritual and herbal means. The researchers compared this treatment with conventional methods of treatment. The healer’s treatment was partially successful; the suggestion was made that more emphasis be placed on evaluating the cultural component of the healing rather than just the clinical evidence (Young et al., 1989).

A study carried out in Saskatoon observed that use of Indigenous medicine does not detract from the use of conventional medical services (Waldram, 1990).

There may be benefits that are hard to measure when Indigenous healing is incorporated into the health and life care of Indigenous people. The placebo effect is one obvious possible benefit. Another is giving Indigenous people a greater sense of their culture and history.

Summary

The philosophy of health widely held by Indigenous people is holistic: balancing self, community, and nature, and emphasizing traditional healers and ceremonies. Indigenous healing is based on spiritual principles. The knowledge held by healers is passed down and takes years to learn. It is important that both Indigenous healing practice and conventional medicine are available when treating Indigenous people. In recent years, health care providers have been more sensitive to this holistic approach and have established programs that incorporate conventional medicine with traditional healing methods. Concern exists among Indigenous people that the healer is authentic. Due to the high frequency of many diseases and health issues, there is an urgent need to develop culturally appropriate community-based public health intervention programs.

Learning Activity

Self-test Quiz

Do the self-test quiz for Unit 15 as many times as you wish to check your recall of the unit’s main points. You will get a slightly different version of the quiz each time you try it. (This quiz does not count toward your final grade).

If you have trouble understanding the material, please contact your Academic Expert.

References