Traditional Methods of HEALING Traditional HEALERS
The traditional HEALER of Native America is the medicine man or woman, and American Indians, by and large, have maintained their faith in him or her over the ages. The medicine men and women are wise in the ways of the land and of nature. They know well the interrelationships of human beings, the Earth, and the universe. They know the ways of the plants and animals, the sun, the moon, and the stars. Medicine men and women take time to determine first the cause of an ILLNESS and then the proper treatment. To determine the cause and treatment of an ILLNESS, they perform special ceremonies, which may take up to several days.
A medicine man or woman is also known among many people as a Kusiut, a “learned one.” The acquisition of full shamanic powers takes many years, often as many as 30 years of training before one has the ability to cure illness. The shaman’s power is accumulated through solitary vision quests and fasts repeated over the years. The purification rituals include scrubbing oneself in freezing cold water and ingesting emetics (Lyon, 1996, p. 141).
As a specific example, Boyd describes the medicine man, Rolling Thunder—the spiritual leader, philosopher, and acknowledged spokesman of the Cherokee and Shoshone tribes—as being able to determine the cause of ILLNESS when the ILL person does not know it. The “diagnostic” phase of the treatment may take as long as 3 days. There are numerous causes of ILLNESS and a great number of reasons—good or bad—for having become ILL.
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These causes are of a spiritual nature. When modern physicians see a sick person, they recognize and diagnose only the physical illness. Medicine men and women, in contrast, look for the spiritual cause of the problem. To the American Indian, “every physical thing in nature has a spiritual nature be- cause the whole is viewed as being essentially spiritual in nature.” The agents of nature, herbs, are seen as spiritual helpers, and the characteristics of plants must be known and understood. Rolling Thunder states that “we are born with a purpose in life and we have to fulfill that purpose” (Boyd, 1974, pp. 124, 263). The purpose of the medicine man or woman is to cure, and their power is not dying out.
The medicine man or woman of the Hopis uses meditation in determin- ing the cause of an ILLNESS and sometimes even uses a crystal ball as the focal point for meditation. At other times, the medicine man or woman chews on the root of jimsonweed, a powerful herb that produces a trance. The Hopis claim that this herb gives the medicine man or woman a vision of the evil that has caused a sickness. Once the meditation is concluded, the medicine man or woman is able to prescribe the proper herbal treatment. For example, fever is cured by a plant that smells like lightning; the Hopi phrase for fever is “light- ning sickness” (Leek, 1975, p. 16).
The Navajo Indians consider disease to be the result of breaking a taboo or the attack of a witch. The exact cause is diagnosed by divination, as is the rit- ual of treatment. There are 3 types of divination: motion in the hand (the most common form and often practiced by women), stargazing, and listening. The function of the diagnostician is first to determine the cause of the ILLNESS and then to recommend the treatment—that is, the type of chant that will be effec- tive and the medicine man or woman who can best do it. A medicine man or woman may be called on to treat obvious symptoms, whereas the diagnostician is called on to ascertain the cause of the ILLNESS. (A person is considered wise if the diagnostician is called first.) Often, the same medicine man or woman can practice both divination (diagnosis) and the singing (treatment). When any form of divination is used in making the diagnosis, the diagnostician meets with the family, discusses the patient’s condition, and determines the fee.
The practice of motion in the hand includes the following rituals. Pollen or sand is sprinkled around the sick person, during which time the diagnostician sits with closed eyes and face turned from the patient. The HEALER’s hand be- gins to move during a song. While the hand is moving, the diagnostician thinks of various diseases and various causes. When the arm begins to move in a cer- tain way, the diagnostician knows that the right disease and its cause have been discovered. He or she is then able to prescribe the proper treatment (Wyman, 1966, pp. 8–14). The ceremony of motion in the hand also may incorporate the use of sand paintings. (These paintings are a well-known form of art.) Four basic colors are used—white, blue, yellow, and black—and each color has a symbolic meaning. Chanting is performed as the painting is produced, and the shape of the painting determines the cause and treatment of the ILLNESS. The chants may continue for an extended time (Kluckhohn & Leighton, 1962, p. 230), depend- ing on the family’s ability to pay and the capabilities of the singer. The process
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of motion in the hand can be neither inherited nor learned. It comes to a person suddenly, as a gift. It is said that people able to diagnose their own ILLNESSES are able to practice motion in the hand (Wyman, 1966, p. 14).
Unlike motion in the hand, stargazing can and must be learned. Sand paintings are often but not always made during stargazing. If they are not made, it is either because the sick person cannot afford to have one done or because there is not enough time to make one. The stargazer prays the star prayer to the star spirit, asking it to show the cause of the ILLNESS. During stargazing, singing begins and the star throws a ray of light that determines the cause of the patient’s ILLNESS. If the ray of light is white or yellow, the patient will recover; if it is red, the illness is serious. If a white light falls on the patient’s home, the person will recover; if the home is dark, the patient will die (Wyman, 1966, p. 15).
Listening, the third type of divination, is somewhat similar to stargazing, except that something is heard rather than seen. In this instance, the cause of the ILLNESS is determined by the sound that is heard. If someone is heard to be crying, the patient will die (Wyman, 1966, p. 16).
The traditional Navajos continue to use medicine men and women when an ILLNESS occurs. They use this service because, in many instances, the treat- ment they receive from the traditional HEALERS is better than the treatment they receive from the health care establishment. Treatments used by singers include massage and heat treatment, the sweatbath, and use of the yucca root— approaches similar to those common in physiotherapy (Kluckhohn & Leighton, 1962, p. 230).
The main effects of the singer are psychological. During the chant, the patient feels cared for in a deeply personal way as the center of the singer’s attention, since the patient’s problem is the reason for the singer’s presence. When the singer tells the patient recovery will occur and the reason for the ILLNESS, the patient has faith in what is heard. The singer is regarded as a dis- tinguished authority and as a person of eminence with the gift of learning from the holy people. He or she is considered to be more than a mere mortal. The ceremony—surrounded by such high levels of prestige, mysticism, and power— takes the sick person into its circle, ultimately becoming one with the holy peo- ple by participating in the sing that is held on the patient’s behalf. The patient once again comes into harmony with the universe and subsequently becomes free of all ILLS and evil (Kluckhohn & Leighton, 1962, p. 232).
The religion of the Navajos is one of good hope when they are sick or suf- fer other misfortunes. Their system of beliefs and practices helps them through the crises of life and death. The stories that are told during ceremonies give the people a glimpse of a world that has gone by, which promotes a feeling of security because they see that they are links in the unbroken chain of countless generations (Kluckhohn & Leighton, 1962, p. 233).
Many Navajos believe in witchcraft, and, when it is considered to be the cause of an ILLNESS, special ceremonies are employed to rid the individual of the evil caused by witches. Numerous methods are used to manipulate the supernat- ural. Although many of these activities may meet with strong social disapproval,