Medicine man#Cultural context

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Image:Yupik shaman Nushagak.jpg "medicine man exorcising evil spirits from a sick boy" in Nushagak, Alaska, 1890sFienup-Riordan, Ann. (1994). Boundaries & Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup'ik Eskimo Oral Tradition. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, p. 206. Nushagak, located on Nushagak Bay of the Bering Sea in southwest Alaska, is part of the territory of the Yup'ik, speakers of the Central Alaskan Yup'ik language.]]

In the ceremonial context of Indigenous North American communities, "medicine" usually refers to spiritual healing. Medicine people use many practices, including specialized knowledge of Native American ethnobotany.{{cite journal |last1=Thomas |first1=William Isaac |title=The relation of the medicine-man to the origin of the professional occupations |journal=The Decennial Publicatoins |date=1906 |volume=4 |issue=6 |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U0ROAQAAMAAJ |publisher=University of Chicago}} Herbal healing is a common practice in many Indigenous households of the Americas;Alcoze, Dr Thomas M. "[https://www.bgci.org/resources/article/0429/ Ethnobotany from a Native American Perspective: Restoring Our Relationship with the Earth] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180104202906/https://www.bgci.org/resources/article/0429/ |date=4 January 2018 }}" in Botanic Gardens Conservation International Volume 1 Number 19 - December 1999{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/0378-8741(79)90002-3|title=Symbols and selectivity: A statistical analysis of native american medical ethnobotany|journal=Journal of Ethnopharmacology|volume=1|issue=2|pages=111–119|year=1979|last1=Moerman|first1=Daniel E.|pmid=94415|hdl=2027.42/23587|url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23587/1/0000549.pdf|hdl-access=free}}Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry, "[http://na.fs.fed.us/stewardship/pubs/biodiversity/sustaining-lives-natural-world.pdf Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Sustaining Our Lives and the Natural World]" at United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Newtown Square, PA. December 2011 however, medicine people often have more in-depth knowledge of using plants for healing or other purposes.

The terms medicine people or ceremonial people are sometimes used in Native American and First Nations communities, for example, when Arwen Nuttall (Cherokee) of the National Museum of the American Indian writes, "The knowledge possessed by medicine people is privileged, and it often remains in particular families."National Museum of the American Indian. Do All Indians Live in Tipis? Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-06-115301-3}}.

Native Americans tend to be quite reluctant to discuss issues about medicine or medicine people with non-Indians. In some cultures, the people will not even discuss these matters with American Indians from other tribes. In most tribes, medicine elders are prohibited from advertising or introducing themselves as such.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} As Nuttall writes, "An inquiry to a Native person about religious beliefs or ceremonies is often viewed with suspicion." One example of this is the Apache medicine cord or {{lang|apa|Izze-kloth}} whose purpose and use by Apache medicine elders was a mystery to nineteenth century ethnologists{{who?|date=March 2025}} because "the Apache look upon these cords as so sacred that strangers are not allowed to see them, much less handle them or talk about them."{{Citation | title=Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Issue 9 | author=Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology | publisher=Government Printing Office, United States Government, 1892 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C5MqAAAAMAAJ | quote=There is probably no more mysterious or interesting portion of the religious or 'medicinal' equipment of the Apache Indian, whether he be medicine-man or simply a member of the laity, than the 'izze-kloth' or medicine cord... the Apache look upon these cords as so sacred that strangers are not allowed to see them, much less handle them or talk about them....| year=1892 }}

The term medicine man/woman, like the term shaman, has been criticized by Native Americans, as well as other specialists in the fields of religion and anthropology.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

While non-Native anthropologists often use the term shaman for Indigenous healers worldwide, including the Americas, shaman is the specific name for a spiritual mediator from the Tungusic peoples of Siberia,Smith, C. R. [http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/shaman.html "Shamanism."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120212200839/http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/shaman.html |date=12 February 2012 }} Cabrillo College. (Retrieved 28 June 2011) which has been adopted by some Inuit communities but is not preferred by Native American or First Nations communities.

File:Philly Med Man.jpg, an 1899 sculpture by Cyrus Dallin exhibited in Philadelphia]]

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• {{anli|Bomoh}}
• {{anli|Cleverman}}
• {{anli|Cultural appropriation}}
• {{anli|Curandero}}
• {{anli|Dukun}}
• {{anli|Folk healer}}
• {{anli|Herbalism}}
• {{anli|Holism}}
• {{anli|Keewaydinoquay Peschel}}
• {{anli|Kallawaya}}
• {{anli|Kennekuk}}
• {{anli|Medicine bag}}
• {{anli|Native American ethnobotany}}
• {{anli|Native American religion}}
• {{anli|Plastic shaman}}
• {{anli|Prehistoric medicine}}
• {{anli|Quesalid}}
• {{anli|Shamanism}}
• {{anli|Trance}}
• Witch doctor

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{{Reflist|30em|refs=Jump up ^ Fienup-Riordan, Ann. (1994). Boundaries & Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup'ik Eskimo Oral Tradition. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, p. 206. Nushagak, located on Nushagak Bay of the Bering Sea in southwest Alaska, is part of the territory of the Yup'ik, speakers of the Central Alaskan Yup'ik language.

2.Jump up ^ Alcoze, Dr Thomas M. "Ethnobotany from a Native American Perspective: Restoring Our Relationship with the Earth" in Botanic Gardens Conservation International Volume 1 Number 19 - December 1999

3.Jump up ^ Moerman, Daniel E. "Symbols and selectivity: A statistical analysis of native American medical ethnobotany" in Journal of Ethnopharmacology Volume 1, Issue 2, April 1979, Pages 111-119

4.Jump up ^ Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry, "Traditional Ecological Knowledge: Sustaining Our Lives and the Natural World" at United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Newtown Square, PA. December 2011

5.^ Jump up to: a b National Museum of the American Indian. Do All Indians Live in Tipis? Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-06-115301-3}}.

6.Jump up ^ Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Issue 9, Government Printing Office, United States Government, 1892, "There is probably no more mysterious or interesting portion of the religious or 'medicinal' equipment of the Apache Indian, whether he be medicine-man or simply a member of the laity, than the 'izze-kloth' or medicine cord... the Apache look upon these cords as so sacred that strangers are not allowed to see them, much less handle them or talk about them...."

7.Jump up ^ Smith, C. R. "Shamanism." Cabrillo College. (Retrieved 28 June 2011)

8. "Cherokee Medicine Men and Women". Cherokee Medicine Men and Women, Cherokee Nation , 16 Nov. 2016, www.cherokee.org/AboutTheNation/Culture/General/CherokeeMedicineMenandWomen.aspx

9. "Native American Legends". Native American Indian Legends - Cherokee Medicine Man - Cherokee, First People , www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/Cherokee_Medicine_Man-Cherokee.html.

10. Weiser, Kathy. "Native American Medicine - History and Information". Native American Medicine - History and Information, Legends of America, 1 May 2015, www.legendsofamerica.com/na-medicine.html}}

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{{Wiktionary|medicine man|medicine woman}}

{{Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}

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Category:Religious occupations of the Indigenous peoples of North America

Category:Traditional healthcare occupations

Category:Shamanism of the Americas