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The Ojibway
Native American Remedy |
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There were a number of Native American Indian tribes living in Northern Ontario
at the end of the nineteenth century including Algonquin, Cree, Cherokee, Huron,
Iroquios and Ojibwe. The old medicine man could have belonged to any one of those
tribes or he could have been a wandering seer from another region. There is no
evidence to support any theory that the recipe for the formula came exclusively
from any one particular tribe.
The Ojibway have been described as having a knowledge of herbal healing and spiritual
powers as extensive as any other Native American tribe. The medicine men gained
their knowledge of plants in several ways. It came in the form of spiritual visions,
intuition and thousands of years of observation. Observing the behaviour of ill and
injured animals, they learned which plants the animals consumed to heal themselves.
From these sources as well as guidance from the Great Spirit, Kitche Manitou, they
amassed a wealth of knowledge and passed it down from generation to generation.
The Ojibway believe that al plants, as creations of the Great Creator, express their
own unique identity. They believe that each plant possesses an incorporeal being: a
spiritual substance that gives it physical form, growth potential and healing powers. They
also believe that plants have another remarkable power, the power to combine and become
a single "unified spirit," much more powerful than any of the plants individually. They
feel this ‘unified spirit’ gives the formulas super-natural healing powers. Not
coincidentally, many modern herbalists believe the action of this formula must be the
"synergy" of these combined herbs, some ‘magical’ quality emerging when blended together.
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