ARTICLE IN PRESS

Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice (2005) 11, 78–86

www.elsevierhealth.com/journals/ctnm

Being healed by an indigenous traditional healer:

sacred healing stories of Native Americans. Part II
Roxanne Struthersa,*, Valerie S. Eschitib

a
University of Minnesota School of Nursing, 6-101 Weaver Densford Hall, 308 Harvard St. SE, Minneapolis,
MN 55455, USA
b
Midwestern State University, 3410 Taft Bvld., Wichita Falls, TX 76308, USA

KEYWORDS Summary Culture determines how one views illness and thus, their choice of healing
Indigenous healing; to seek treatment for disease processes. Traditional indigenous healing is an ancient
Traditional healing; holistic approach used today by some Native Americans to resolve health care
Native American; problems. This article presents four stories of three indigenous people who sought
traditional healing for imbalance and disease. The accounts were derived from a
Medicine man;
qualitative phenomenological study, The lived experience of indigenous people
Medicine woman;
healed by indigenous traditional healers. The healing stories provide examples of
Ceremony
contemporary specific healing rituals used during indigenous healing encounters.
Healing methods described include the Sun Dance, Yuwipi, Ojibwe Healing
Ceremony, Shaking Tent and Shaker Healing Ritual. The stories reveal that old
knowledge is still paramount in a contemporary society. The accounts point to the
necessity for health care professionals and nurses to understand and encourage
Native people to incorporate indigenous healing practices into their lives for
attainment of the highest level of well-being, which includes potential for
decreasing health disparities in this population.
& 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction indigenous healing ceremonies conducted today

Holistic healing is often referred to as complemen-
tary and alternative medicine. This approach is
being used more frequently by Americans to
facilitate health and alleviate illness.1 For millen-
niums, Native Americans (also referred to as
American Indians, First Nations, Aboriginal, and
Indigenous) have employed traditional healing
modalities that are very old in methodology and
holistic in nature. As this information is passed
down orally from generation to generation, most
*Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 1-612-624-8637; fax: þ 1-612-
626-2359.
E-mail addresses: strut005@umn.edu (R. Struthers),
Valerie@sirinet.net (V.S. Eschiti).
possess techniques and knowledge that stem from
ancient historical roots.2
Indigenous traditional healing has a long history
of investigation by religious historians and anthro-
pologists. Even so, outsiders have little knowledge
regarding the art of indigenous healing. This is
partially due to the religious oppression of Native
people, who needed to keep their sacred ceremo-
nies secretive in order to avoid punishment. The
right to practice Native American religion, which
included healing approaches and rituals, was out-
lawed by the United States government in the
1880s, when the Secretary of the Interior set up
Courts of Indian Offenses. These courts were
established to eliminate heathenish practices
among the Indians. The rules of the court forbade

1744-3881/$ - see front matter & 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ctnm.2004.05.002
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Being healed by an indigenous traditional healer: sacred healing stories of native Americans. Part II 79

all public and private activities by Indians on their indigenous healing, can be combined with new
reservations, including ceremonies and so called biomedical approaches to create wellness. In this
practices of medicine men.3 way, integration of old wisdom is used to develop
Rose Auger, a Woodland Cree medicine woman contemporary knowledge.
recalls, ‘‘My other grandfather was a medicine
man, and I remember he had to hide in the hills to
heal people. There was a great TB [tuberculosis]
epidemic that was rampant everywhere on the
Methodology
reserves. Our traditional people saw this coming in
These stories were gathered during interviews
their dreams. But even knowing was not enough.
conducted by the researcher in a qualitative
Some of the medicine people, like my grandfather,
phenomenological study, The lived experience of
knew that they could help and did. But they had to
indigenous people healed by indigenous traditional
go and hide in the hills to cure people because they
healers. Phenomenology is a qualitative research
weren’t allowed to practice what they knew’’
methodology used when very little is known about a
(p. 7).4 Finally, in 1978 the United States govern-
phenomenon. Phenomenology describes a human
ment passed the American Indian Religious
lived experience11–13 and investigates the phenom-
Freedom Act, which allowed indigenous people to
enon to more fully understand the structure and
believe, express, and exercise their traditional
meaning of the human experience.14 In this study,
religions, which includes a distinct approach to
the research question: ‘‘As an indigenous person,
healing.5
what is the experience of being healed by an
The health care systems of traditional healing
indigenous traditional healer?’’ was answered dur-
and western medicine are disparate in their
ing taped discussions that used open-ended ques-
foundational principles.2,6 Thus, the two systems
tions. One participant was interviewed once; the
may seem incompatible. Allopathic western med-
other two were interviewed twice. The collected
icine is rational, highly mechanistic, places an
data were analyzed using phenomenological tech-
emphasis on the physical domain, and is scientific in
niques from Colaizzi,15 van Manen13 and Rose.16
nature in that it views disease and healing
Four themes emerged from the data, which are
explicitly through the eyes of the scientific model.
being written for published elsewhere.
Therefore, it is seldom based upon ritual, myth, or
The University of Minnesota Human Subjects
tradition7 as is traditional medicine. This unlikeness
Review Board approved the study. In total, 12
may cause embarrassment, degradation, prejudice
indigenous participants (three males and nine
and ridicule when discussing and sharing traditional
females) from Canada and the United Sates
medicine with a western health care provider.
provided written consent to partake in the
An emphasis is currently placed on health care
research. The data showed that all research
disparities faced by minority populations, including
participants were comfortable and familiar with
Native Americans. Dr. Baldwin8 notes that American
traditional healing and that they approached the
Indians have a life expectancy 5 years less than the
traditional healers using appropriate protocol,
national average. She suggests a variety of solu-
which varies among tribal groups. The accounts in
tions to reducing such disparities, including re-
this paper were provided by one female and two
search activity that incorporates collecting data
male participants, ages 51, 58 and 61, from diverse
regarding minority health.
tribes (Ojibwe, Lakota, and Lakota/Chickasaw).
Today, due to multiple factors, the milieu has
changed and there exists an openness and accep-
tance of traditional healing. This lends itself to
Native people sharing more about their ceremonies Results
and the acts of healing. Plus, there are certain
Native people who feel they can make a positive The impetus of this article is on the stories of being
contribution to the circle of life by educating the healed by a traditional healer as told by the
public regarding indigenous healing. The purpose of research participants. Storytelling is a traditional
this article is to describe four separate healing Native method of instruction. Sams and Nitsch,17
accounts shared by three self-identified indigenous who are indigenous people, explain, ‘‘The truths of
people who used indigenous healing as an approach how to live in harmony were kept alive by wise
to treat their imbalances and disease. Culture Storytellers who would relate Tribal wisdom
affects how we think about wellness and imbalance through Medicine Stories as those who gathered to
or disease. Further, culture is fluid and dynamic.9,10 listen sat around the nightly fires. Tribal Tradition,
Thus, very old approaches to healing, such as history, acts of courage, and lessons on how to
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80
discover the true Self came to life through the
events related in the legends of the Ancestors. It
was the responsibility of the listeners to relate and
apply those truths to their personal lives in a
manner that would make them grow’’ (p. 1).
We wish to allow the indigenous people to share
their wisdom and the power of their voices by
giving them the opportunity to tell their healing
stories. The accounts that follow are stories direct
articulation by Native research participants. Some
of the participants are considered to be elders.
Elders are respected in indigenous culture and thus,
their oral accounts cannot be changed or revised.
Too often, Native stories have been obscured,
communicated incorrectly or misinterpreted by the
cultures of outsiders. This is one instance where the
pure truth of Native stories is reiterated. Wilma
Mankiller, former Chief of the Cherokee Nation
states in her autobiography, ‘‘There is such a
woeful absence of accurate information about
Native people, either historical or contemporary,
that it is little wonder this void has been filled with
negative stereotypes from old Western movies and
romanticized paintings. One friend of mine, a
Seneca scholar, once remarked that many people
have a mental snapshot of Native people taken 300
years ago, and they want to retain that image’’
(p. 22).18 To present the stories, an introduction is
first provided. Then, the story is included as a table
within the article. The stories are presented in this
manner so they are not revised, changed, or
interpreted, but left as articulated to the research-
er, so they can provide original reflection of the
experience of the research participants. They are
also presented in this manner so they may be used
in a case study scenario.
Sundance and Yuwipi ceremony
A 51 year-old female participant had fast growing
lung cancer. It was stage IV, with metastasis. Upon
diagnosis, she was told she had a short time to live
Fa few months. She used indigenous traditional
healing, in the forms of the Sundance and Yuwipi
Ceremony preformed by a Lakota medicine man, on
her healing journey. As well, Western doctors
provided gamma knife treatment, radiation, and
chemotherapy.
When she went back to the reservation to
partake in the Sun Dance, she was sick from the
lung cancer and very weak from the radiation and
chemotherapy. Even so, she knew she had to make
the trip home to attend the Sun Dance Ceremony.
The Sun Dance is one of the seven sacred rites
foretold by White Buffalo Calf Woman and is a
R. Struthers, V.S. Eschiti
ceremony conducted among tribal groups in the
Plains region. There are several days of preparation
for the ceremony, which includes selecting a sacred
tree, ritually cutting the tree, and transporting
and positioning it in the ceremonial area. Ritual
elements of the 4-day Sun Dance include fasting,
purification, and dancing before the sacred tree.
One aspect of the ceremony includes piercing of
flesh of certain individuals. The Sun Dance,
condemned by missionaries and agents among the
Lakota and other Plains tribes, became a punish-
able offense of the Courts of Indian Offenses in the
19th century. Today, the Sun Dance ceremony is
regularly held in Lakota communities.5
While home on the reservation for the Sun Dance,
she also was healed in a Yuwipi Ceremony. Accord-
ing to Lyon,19 a Yuwipi is the most powerful
ceremony currently conducted by Lakota medicine
men. It translates to ‘‘they wrap him up’’ (p. 331).
The ceremony is conducted in a room that is totally
darkened. The medicine man’s hands are bound
together behind his back, and he is then enveloped
in a blanket, that is tied round and round so he
looks like a mummy. He is then laid face down on a
bed of sage. During the ceremony, the spirits free
the medicine man from his bonds. The spirits called
forth appear in the darkened room as tiny flashes of
blue light. The Yuwipi is used for healing, as well as
other purpose, such as finding lost objects or
persons, calling forth the spirits of deceased
relatives, and predicting the future. See Table 1
for an account of the Sundance and the Yuwipi
Ceremony as described by the 51 year-old woman
with lung cancer.
Ojibwe healing ceremony and shaking tent
ceremony
A 61 year-old indigenous male with prostate cancer
described his experience of being healed by an
Ojibwe medicine women and an Ojibwe medicine
man who used Ojibwe healing ceremonies and the
Shaking Tent Ceremony. When diagnosed with
prostate cancer, the participant elected to have
surgery. Even so, the doctor told him that there was
a 90% plus chance the cancer had metastasized.
The doctors wanted to do radiation but he decided
against it and chose instead to proceed with
traditional healing provided by a medicine woman
from a nearby community.
Ojibwe healing ceremony
In some indigenous ceremonies, the procedure of
sucking was used. According to Lyon19 sucking is a
general anthropological term for those medicine
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Being healed by an indigenous traditional healer: sacred healing stories of native Americans. Part II 81

Table 1 Story of the experience of participating in a Sundance and Yuwipi Ceremony as told by a 51 year-old
indigenous female with lung cancer.
Sun Dance
We went to the Sun Dance. The medicine man said, ‘‘Come on the third day. We’re going to take you out to the
tree for healing.’’ All my family was there. I was so weak. I mean, I was on the arbor on the outside of the Sun
Dance grounds. They had to put a blanket there and I lay there. Sometimes I could sit up and then the
nauseousness would kick in. My cough was really, really bad. I just couldn’t keep anything down.
When the helpers came out there to take me to the tree, my sister had me on one hand and another lady held me
on the other side. They took me out to the tree. I put my hands up to it and I could feel life inside that tree. It was
like I became a part of that tree. That tree was awakening the oxygen in my body. It was awakening the blood
flowing. I could actually feel life inside me. Before I was just like dead and numb and I couldn’t tune into my body.
But touching that tree like that; praying and crying. Then, the medicine man came and he took off my scarf and
my bald head (from effects of the chemotherapy) is there. He puts the medicine on my face and he just doctors
me. He worked really hard on my back because my back was just raw from the radiation. They took me back over
to the side, but I was able to walk by myself. That was a big thing. After coming from that tree and being
doctored, I was able to walk.

Yuwipi Ceremony
The next day, we have the Yuwipi, up at my sister’s ranch. She has a large teepee but we have to make it light
proof (it has to be totally dark). We prepared the food and did everything they asked us to do. Then again we had
another healing ceremony inside the teepee.
That’s the night that the spirits had the medicine man feel what I was going through. He was all tied up and he
started coughing. You could feel him vomiting. You could feel him being nauseous, because I know that nauseous
feeling. I just started crying because I didn’t want him to go through that; I didn’t want him to have to feel it. But
the spirits were making that connection there. Maybe it lasted about 5 min. To me, it felt like a lifetime. I’m sure
it was for him too.
Everybody’s curious about if they get cancer, ‘Well how did it happen? Where did it come from?’ When I asked that
question, what they (the spirits) told me, was that it had its beginnings at a time that your spirit was low and your
heart was heavy. And, even at that point, I didn’t quite understand it. I wanted to know, ‘Well, what did I eat? Or
what did I drink?’ You know, I wanted specifics. But when you’re working in indigenous forms of healing, a lot of
the answers, they feel that you have inside of yourself. They just have to waken them up. So they may give you
one sentence and you’ve got to create a whole story around it. Because they don’t want to impose their thoughts
and their interpretation of things. They leave that up to you because you play a major role in your desire to live.
During this (Yuwipi) ceremony, Yellow Spider (He is a Heyoka, which means they are lightening spirits or clown
spirits; sacred clowns). They provide teachings by making fools of themselves. He is about 3 ft tall. One side of his
hair is braided. The other side is straight. He has like the lightening bolt designs on his face. When he comes to
you, (he’s your height sitting down) came and was rubbing my baldhead. He said, ‘‘What happened to your hair?’’ I
said, ‘‘Oh, those Western doctors. They took it’’. He said, ‘‘You want me to give you back your hair?’’ I said,
‘‘Yeah.’’’ He took some medicine he had chewed in his mouth, put in his hand, and he rubbed it all over my
baldhead. Then he took his hands and he cupped my face. When my hair started growing back, I had a beard. A
beard was coming. Oh no, I don’t want the medicine on my face. But I got rid of that.
After you go to one ceremony, it’s like going home. You become so in tune to the different spirits that come in. And
there’s a lot of opportunity to ask them questions about Indian everything. It’s not just for you; it’s for everybody that
goes there. Everybody gets blessed in some kind of way. Some people get diagnosed with something that they haven’t
even been aware of. In that way, it’s almost like free help-to know what’s going on with your body.
So we’re at the second YuwipiyFirst of all when the spirits first start coming, they start hearing the drum. The
drum is the heartbeat of Mother Earth. They start hearing the spirit calling songs and they know that they’re
being welcomed. They enjoy coming. They know that their ceremony has been prepared for them. They’re going
to have food and there are people to be healed. They get excited. So they said after they came in, that when they
saw from a distance, when they were coming, they saw this teepee that was set up for them. They were like ‘‘Oh
good, our people are going back to our traditional ways’’. When they got inside, they couldn’t figure out what
kind of skins the tarp was (long ago, the Yuwipi was wrapped with animal skins)... A lot of humor happens in
indigenous healing because laughter is very healing. It just kind of helps any awkward situations to kind of all
come together. They (the spirits) know a lot about your life so you don’t really have to get into very details.
In the Yuwipi healing, you’re going to experience the actual manifestations of spirit people being into a physical
form. You’re going to feel their hands on you. You can feel the rattles, the rattles that are made with the little
tiny white rocks that come from anthills, the ones that the ants pull out. That’s what goes inside and those
become the connector of when the spirits shake those rattles, that’s their voice. That’s their language. That’s
them talking to you. And, of course, the medicine man understands that. That’s how he’s able to tell you what
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82 R. Struthers, V.S. Eschiti

Table 1 (continued)
they’re saying to you.
Each one (spirit) takes a turn in doctoring. Yellow Spider may come over first. He’s the one that will start with
whatever it is that you need. They pretty much know. A lot of times they were doctoring on the opposite side of
where my lung was. I couldn’t understand that. But I had to trust that; they know what they’re doing. They’re
seeing things. Then, another one will come and will start the doctoring. Maybe it’s Holy Bear that will come.
They’ll doctor a different part of you. As I was experiencing the different forms of healing, I knew the energy of
each different spirit. There was one that’s a bird spirit. When that bird spirit touches you, it’s like goose down
feathers on your body, touching you all over your body. When the eagle comes in you can feel the air movement
and then you can feel the wing of the eagle. It’s coming and it touches you. Then when the buffalo comes in, you
can actually feel the heat from its snorting. You can smell what its breath smells like. I mean, these are very
strong manifestations. So each one that comes, is bringing you a different healing, a different blessing in a way.
In that particular (Yuwipi) ceremony was the first time that I actually felt a powerful, powerful healing. It felt like
a gentle hand came right down and put its hand right on my heart. It was like a massage, but like a vibration. My
whole body, all the way from my toes, all the way up, I could just feel this movement of heat. Like heat and light
coming together. It was so overpowering. I was so humbled by that feeling.
Then as soon as the physical part of it went away, that heat started to leave; I was in a different place. It was like I
was out of the ceremony. I really couldn’t see anything. Everything was inward. Everything I was feeling was all
coming from within. I had this feeling of peace, like I was floating, this feeling of just total, total love. For the
first time, I didn’t know what hurt was. I didn’t know what anger was. I didn’t know what pain was. It was total
relaxation. Total peace! In my mind, the first thing that I could compare it to was heaven. I said, ‘‘Wow. This must
be what heaven is like’’. All the people that cross over, of out of body experiences, this is what they’re feeling. No
wonder they don’t want to come back. Because they are feeling so safe, and so protected. But I also knew that I
couldn’t stay up there for that long. The drumming brought me back into myself again.
At the end of the ceremony, the medicine man explains what experiences you may have had, or you can ask
questions. I did not want to ask about that experience. Sometimes you just feel awkward about asking certain
questions. But he (the medicine man) came and told me. He said, ‘‘Did you feel that feeling?’’ I said, ‘‘Yes’’. He
said, ‘‘Well, I want to let you know that that was the hand of Grandfather himself that came right down and
touched you’’. He said, ‘‘You needed that’’. I just started crying. The hand of Creator! This person who made
everything. Whatever energy it is. Male–Female. Whatever it is, it took time out of its busy creation from millions
and billions of people to come down and to just give me that one little touch. That was just so, so powerful. Later
on, you know, when I talked with the medicine man about that, he said, ‘‘You know, that doesn’t happen very
often’’. He said, ‘‘I don’t know what you prayed for. What you asked for’’. He said, ‘‘But they thought that you
were deserving of it’’. So that, in itself, was what really helped me throughout the other ordeals that happened.

people who cure by sucking on the patient to
remove an intruded object that is the cause of the
illness. Some may place their mouth directly on the
patient, others use hallow bones, reds, horns or
other such tubes. See Table 2 for a detailed account
of the experience of the 61-year-old male being
healed by a traditional Ojibwe healer using this
technique.
Shaking tent ceremony
‘‘Later, she [the medicine woman] said, ‘I want to
do a Shake Tent’’. The Shaking Tent Ceremony
occurs widely in North America and predates the
coming of Columbus. It is used for healing as well as
other reasons, such as foretelling the future. It is
performed in the dark. The shaking tent consists of
5–10 poles placed in the ground in a circle about
4 ft in diameter and bound laterally by rope19 and is
tightly woven. Today, the poles are covered by a
tarp, with an opening at the top, and bells are hung
on the poles. The participant described the
structure of the shaking tent as having an opening
that you have to crawl under and get inside. ‘‘There
is a center pole and then the rest of them are all
packed around them. Then, this material is
wrapped around it’s probably as high as this ceiling
(room ceiling). It has to be done in darkness. You
can sit while it’s going on’’. The lodge shakes when
the spirits come in to help the person performing the
ceremony, hence, the name for the ceremony.
Usually, it is a medicine man who performs the
ceremony, but women may also conduct the Shaking
Tent Ceremony. See Table 3 for a description
provided by the 61 year-old male who was healed
in a Shaking Tent Ceremony for prostate cancer.
Shaker healing ritual
The last account is provided by a 58 year-old
indigenous man healed by a person from the Shaker
tradition. The healing was conducted to heal a
traumatic event that eventually led to the breakup
of his marriage. Even though Shakerism is a
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Being healed by an indigenous traditional healer: sacred healing stories of native Americans. Part II 83

Table 2 Story of the experience of participating in an Ojibwe healing ceremony as told by a 61 year-old
indigenous male with prostate cancer.
During the first healing, she took me into her healing room that she had set up. The healing room, in this
situation, was a very nice shed. She allowed my wife and my daughter and my son-in-law to come in. She called
the spirits in; she sang; my son-in-law drummed. It was completely dark. I’m lying on a bed of sorts. The first thing
she did was she gave me a little pipe that she let me use. She received this pipe from a healer. This pipe, in her
estimation, was 20 grandmothers old. Very, very old. It was kind of red and it had no shininess to it at all. You
could just see it was so oldyShe let me have this pipe the entire time while I was healing. I would sleep with it. It
was in a red holder. I would hold it at night next to my prostate. I kind of get a strong feeling telling this story
because it gives me these chills. To hold this pipe, to realize that it was this old. But I could feel, in the dark, I
could feel something in my prostate area. I could just feel this sensation.
So, she called in the spirits (during the healing). I’m of the Bear Clan. I’m a warrior. I could feel something very,
very large in there (in the shed). None of this was scary. I could sense a presence, as my wife could sense, and
she’s not IndianyThat presence that was in the room, moved around. I could feel this presence all around me, at
various times. According to the medicine woman, it was the bear spirit in the room with me. When she’d (the
medicine woman) shake and go around with her rattle, you could see these different colors, as they were going
around. She’d dance around me, as I was lying on my back. She’d come real close to me but she’d never touch
me. You couldn’t see anything; but I could see her. I could see her face in holographs. She danced around me for
10 min, singing, and she would blow her whistle. Then you could hear her sucking (there was a sucking noise). It
was like something was moving me. I didn’t know what it was. I’ve never been healed like this ever in my life. All
of a sudden, I heard her go over and expurgate. She threw up two or three times. Then she came back and she
danced and sang some more. She showed me the bucket, what she had expurgated. It was red stuff; it was
crimson. You know, it was vomit. It wasn’t vomit like chunkers, but it glowed.
At the conclusion of this, she was noticeably different looking. It must do something to them because they
change. We sat and we talked and she gave me medicine to come home with. I had a procedure that I had to
follow every time I did this (take the medicine). I had to do it at the same time, in the morning and in the evening.
I had to do it every day, at the same time- say my prayers and drink this medicine.
About two weeks later, she called me and she said, ‘‘I’d like to see you again,’’ she said, ‘‘But I know somebody
that has stronger medicine than me. He lives in Canada. Would you be willing to go to Canada?’’ I said, ‘‘Sure’’.
We drove all the way up to where this man lived past Winnipeg. He was a very distinguished looking man who lived
in a traditional village. They speak the language fluently and all the time.
We show up at this man’s house. He calls us in. We go up to his healing room. I lay down and he calls in the spirits.
And this was strong. I mean, this gives me chills. You could just feel the spirits in this room. It was black in there
again. But you could feel the presence moving around in that room. It isn’t scary. The medicine man sings and
pounded his own drum. He would talk. Then he’d sing. He’d talk and he’d sing. And when he wenty Boom. Like
that (motions like hitting a drum). When he hit that drum hard, that’s when you felt that presence. It took about
2 min. When he hit that drum, I opened up my eyes and I could feel it. I could just feel it moving everywhere. For
about 10 min, he healed me. He danced around me with a huge eagle feather and this eagle whistle. Blowing on
this whistle. He (sucking sound) sucked some of the cancer out of me. He threw up. Then, after awhile, he started
playing that drum again. He’d sing softer, he’d talk softer, and he’d sing softer. Then you could feel it dissipate.
He turned the light on. We smoked a pipe. We went outside. He said there was no need for me to come back up
there. He said to continue to se the medicine women. He said, ‘‘You (the medicine women) have taken a lot of the
cancer out of him. I know you’ll get the rest’’. He said, ‘‘You’re a strong, strong woman’’. My grandmother always
told me and so did all the elders that I knew of, that the strongest medicine people are women. They’re more
pure.

Christian religion, the commonalities of spirituality,
praying, and hands-on healing19 with indigenous
healing are present. Riedel and Guardino20 note
that Christian orthodox missionaries lost many
American Indians to religions more like the Native
cultures. They explain, ‘‘European standards were
too severe. Indian Shaker beliefs were intuitive,
emotionalFcomparative to aboriginal myths and
legends. In spite of superficial renunciation of
ancient beliefs which gave an appearance of relying
heavily on Christianity, Indians kept a belief in
spirit-power and the mysteries intact for a long
time’’. See Table 4 for an account of this healing.
Conclusion
The nuance of illness is largely derived from its
cultural meaning. Thus, the treatment often
reflects the present distinctive beliefs and customs
in that culture.7,10 This study exemplifies that
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84 R. Struthers, V.S. Eschiti

Table 3 Story of the experience of participating in a Shaking Tent Ceremony as told by a 61 year-old indigenous
male with prostate cancer.
We had a group of people that came out to watch the shake tent. Someone started playing the drum and she (the
medicine woman) started singing and dancing. She’s dancing around and all of a sudden she’s right in my face. She
grabs a hold of me. I lay down on he ground. I look up and all the starsy The stars were out and just gorgeous. I’m
lying there on the ground. The drum is going and she’s dancing around me. She’s singing. She dances around me.
She gets down real low. She shakes her rattle and she’s singing. She gets down with her eagle whistle and she
starts blowing. She is singing all the time. Then she sucks. She sucks. All of a sudden, the presence that was in
that room (from the previous healing), is there in the wide-open area. You could actually hear something. It’s like
you could hear something out in the woods. The woods were right around the perimeter of where we were at. I’m
lying on the ground, looking up at the stars. She’s coming along and singing and the drum is pounding. She’s got
that little eagle whistle. She comes along and dances by my feet and goes around me, then takes her eagle
whistle; then she expurgates. She dances around and lies down, head to head with me, and sings. She pulled the
cancer from my head to her. Then, she got up. She expurgated. She came over to me. I’m lying there like this (flat
on the ground). And boom-she rolled me. I mean, she physically lifted me up and threw me off those pillows; like I
was a little rag doll. I’m laying here like this (face down) and she dances around me for a couple minutes. I don’t
remember how long. But, she’s singing the whole time. She comes back over and just rolls me back.
The thing that I remember and my wife and all the people that were there, was the stars. Now, it wasn’t the
Northern Lights. But there were things that were going on in the sky. Maybe they always go on. I don’t think so
though. But there were things in the air, in the sky that would come up, stop, descend, elevate, come all around. I
mean, no pattern. As they were sitting there, they’d look up in the sky and they’d see all these weird things going
on. It was fantastic. The ceremony took about a half hour. She showed me where she had expurgated. It was
green. My wife looked at it and it was green. My daughter looked at it and it was green.
She’s in there (in the Shaking Tent) and she’s singing and you can hear this drum. The drum goes faster and faster
and faster. All of a sudden, the tent starts to move. I mean all of a sudden, it starts to move. It is just rocking and
shaking. I mean, this big unit is just like it’s going to come out of the ground. It’s not possible for this woman to do
that. There is no way that a person physically could make a tent do all this for as extended period of time that it’s
being done. For about 10 min, the tent just rocked and rolled. During this time, she is in there singing.
When everything is done, you tear down the shake tent. The fabric that goes around it is in sections and is all
folded up and put away. All the poles have to be broken up and burned that night. You have to stay until it’s all
gone. It’s very sacred. We burned sweet grass, sage. We sat down and we started talking as a group about what we
had witnessed, especially in the air. People saw different things, felt different things. She chooses this life
because she has a gift.
Later on, this participant had another Shaking Tent Ceremony, and many of the same things happened. However,
the color of the expurgated substance was white. That is when she told him, ‘‘It (the cancer) is gone’’. Several
medical laboratory tests for prostate cancer have been within normal range and have confirmed this outcome of
the healing of prostate cancer with two Ojibwe Healing Ceremonies and two Shaking Tent Ceremonies.

culture and health and meaning of illness/disease
have a great influence on one’s choice of healing
approach. In these accounts, the participants chose
indigenous traditional healing as part of their
healing treatments; indigenous viewpoint and life
ways encompass part of their culture.
The exquisite stories of healing shared by the
indigenous people underscore the importance of
traditional ceremonies in the healing process of
Native Americans. Different ceremonial healing
approaches were discussed and described in these
accounts from the perspective of the healee. These
include the Sun Dance, Yuwipi Ceremony, Ojibwe
Healing Ceremony, Shaking Tent Ceremony, and
being healed during a Shaker Healing Ritual. Similar
to the biomedical model, an individual may see a
traditional healer(s) multiple times during their
lifetime for varying lengths of time. There are
various reasons to seek traditional healing. In this
report, these included lung cancer, prostate cancer
and the effects suffered from a marriage break up.
Without doubt, because of the holistic nature of
traditional healing, imbalance caused by spiritual
and emotional factors are also grounds to seek the
expertise of a traditional healer.
The stories are detailed enough so one can feel
the essence of what occurs when indigenous
healing is conducted. Much of this healing evolves
around the spirit world’s involvement in the healing
process; a connection is made between the two
worlds. For example, this study illustrates calling in
of the spirits, communication with the spirits,
feeling and acknowledgment the spirits are pre-
sent, and that each spirit provides a different
healing. During healings, as a result of the connec-
tion with the Higher Being, medicine is brought in
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Being healed by an indigenous traditional healer: sacred healing stories of native Americans. Part II 85

Table 4 Story of the experience of receiving healing from the Shaker tradition for a traumatic event as told by a
58 year-old indigenous male.
My relationship broke up after my wife got raped. I got a divorce. It was just a very sad, sad thing. It was a strife.
She went through therapy and it really helped her. I didn’t. I didn’t know what to do. So what I did was, I was in
Wenatchee, Washington and I ran to this incredibly wonderful, healer there. Who was a Shaker. A Shaker
religionyI’m not sure if she’s still alive or not. I was going to give a little talk; some people had invited me to
their home to give a little evening talk. It was quite a scene. Here I was and so was this Shaker. We were the only
two Indians there so she sat and we started talking. I began talking about my experiences in Bolivia (where my
wife got raped) and so forth and so on. I was telling her about this pain I had in my left side of my chest. You see,
this is where I hold my grief. She said, ‘‘Well, we can take care of that, you know’’. And, of course, being a Shaker,
they have their own way of doing this.
She said, ‘‘Okay. I want you to sit here’’. She had me sitting like this. I sat down. She called all these other people,
who didn’t know one thing about this healing, over to help. She said, ‘‘I want you to put your hands on your
brother and pray for him while I work on him’’. I’ll never forget because I was just relaxed. Completely. I
completely gave myself to her. I mean, completely. She took this, and I’m not sure, even to this day, what that
was. She had a little bag of something, some kind of herb. She took it out and she put it in my right hand. When
she did, it was like this shot of energy went up my arm. She put it on my heart like thisFand she put one of her
hands on this. So, she had her hand on my heart and one on my head and she started to pray. Then I felt her get a
hold of something. It was like a piece of stringyShe started pulling it. Well, as she did it, she was using a candle.
I just completely went with that. I could feel all of a sudden, I just started falling, and I fell off backwards off of
the chair. I just totally gave myself to the experience. Well, all of a sudden, this force started picking me up off
the ground. Literally. I was slammed down to the ground. I went to back to where I could smell the blood. I could
smell the dirt. I had a knife in my hand. I could just kill him (the man who raped my wife). I was at the deepest
state of rage that somebody could be. I truly could hear the horses whining and the guns and the smoke and I was
there. Now, how in the world, I was there, I can’t tell you that. But I was there. It was like green smoke and muck
and crap coming out. Like stuff coming up out of my system. This went on for a good hour-and-a-half. To the point
where they stopped it. Because these other people were so terrified. They thought I was having an epileptic
seizure, or something. But, I was fine. I could have gone for another hour or two and I probably would have left
behind a lot of stuff. What I realize now is she somehow had a way to open up this crap (I was carrying from that
traumatic experience).
Well that put me on about a 3-month process of trying to integrate this thing. I mean, really, because they
interrupted it. Had we allowed it to come to completion, but this went on for about 3-months before it finally
came back into balance again. During that time, literally, I had very extraordinary powers. I could play basketball,
against someone who was 6 ft 4, and beat him. I could throw the basketball, it would
go in. Anywhere. This is documented. You can talk to another person I know because he was right there when it
happened.
I had this ability and the healing seemed so easy. I remember this one guy. He had been bitten by a rattlesnake. He
worked on the railroad. It had severed his nerves, so he had to walk like this (with a crippled walk). They said he
would never be able to work again. I remember I was in Seattle with another person I knowyI remember I walked
by and I’d seen this person who had been bitten by the rattlesnake before. I said, ‘‘What’s wrong with you?’’ I was
in this state. I guess you would call it almost a manic state. But it’s a state that can do things that you can’t
normally do.
What happened was, I just said, ‘‘Oh, well I’ll fix that’’. I looked at his leg. I mean, I swear to God. I looked at his
leg. It looked like it had icicles all over his leg. I just got a hold of his leg. I went like this (makes a sweeping
gesture). I could feel the icicles come out. I said, ‘‘It will be sore for a while. But it will be fine’’. In a way, I forgot
all about it because I was in such a state. But I did this.
Well, about a month-and-a-half later, we were walking across this road to my apartment. I’ll never forget this.
Out of the clear blue sky, I just happened to think of the person who had gotten bitten by the rattlesnake. I said to
the person I was with, ‘‘Whatever happened to that person?’’ I didn’t even think about this healing situation. He
said, ‘‘he’s returned back to work’’. He said, ‘‘You healed him’’. I said, ‘‘What?’’ He said, ‘‘Yes’’, he said, ‘‘you
healed him’’. Then I remembered. Then it was just clear, to me, it was so simple. I was in that state, I could see
it. It just happened. So sure enough, we called him down in New Mexico. He said, ‘‘Oh, yeah’’. He said, ‘‘You
healed me’’. He said, ‘‘Just like you said. It was sore a little bit’’. He said, ‘‘But it completely went away fine. The
doctors came back. They don’t understand how the nerves got reconnected’’.
Now what I learned from that was I believe that we can get in a certain state of consciousness in which the energy
we have somehow is able to go into other people and transform them and change them and strengthen their
systems. I don’t understand exactly how that works. That was a real situation. And, of course, a good part of it
was all this hurt and pain that had happened when my ex-wife was raped, all this crap was coming up. It was like
smoke almost. It was ugly. It could smell it. But, it was just natural. I’ve been back to the Shakers many times. In
fact, after I had my sweat last week, I went to the Shakers. I really like the Shakers because they do hands on
healing. They’re able to take a lot of stuff off. I continually go wherever I can find good healers.
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
86
or given by the medicine woman or man to take as
a treatment. Also, there is laying on of hands and
much ritual is incorporated into the healing
sessions. The belief that traditional healing can
help on a path to wellness is paramount and is
reflected by the participants. The traditional
healer has a gift and an ability to help people
who request to be assisted.
Ancient indigenous rituals are used during the
healing process to provide a holistic approach to
healing. Persons who use traditional healing may
feel they cannot share this information with health
care providers and may even feel embarrassed to
discuss it when seeking health care. As demon-
strated by these accounts, health care profes-
sionals may encourage Native people who are
involved with their cultural traditions to seek out
indigenous healing to facilitate the highest level of
well being. Currently, an intense emphasis is being
placed upon examination of the health care
disparities faced by Native Americans.21 This
inequity can begin to be addressed by collecting
research regarding minority health.
These disparities may be diminished by encoura-
ging indigenous people who believe in their
indigenous life ways to seek health care in this
manner, through advising indigenous people to
attend traditional healing ceremonies, and by
referring them to indigenous healers. In the safety
of a familiar cultural context for healing, the
Native person may experience the wholeness that
allows for the fullest expression of healing. In this
way, as one of our Native participants so eloquently
said, ‘‘but when you’re working in Indigenous
forms of healing, a lot of the answers, they feel
that you have inside of yourself. They just
have to waken them up. So they may give you one
sentence and you’ve got to create a whole story
around it’’.
Accordingly, we have presented stories. One can
search and find answers within.
Acknowledgements
We extend our gracious thanks to the indigenous
people who shared their profound sacred healing
stories.
R. Struthers, V.S. Eschiti
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