THE HISTORY OF HERBAL MEDICINE IN NORTH AMERICA (Part One)

November 28, 2003

http://www.redflagsweekly.com/caldecott/2003_nov13.html

THE HISTORY OF HERBAL MEDICINE IN NORTH AMERICA

(Part One)

By RFD Columnist, Todd Caldecott

of Clinical Herbal Studies

Wild Rose College Of Natural Healing

Calgary, Alberta

Email: phyto

Website

In this major series, RFD Columnist, Todd Caldecott explores the history of

herbal medicine in North America, with the view of fostering a better

understanding of the issues that face modern herbalists and a greater

appreciation of the evolution of the relationships between alternative,

complimentary and conventional medicine.

Herbal medicine in North America has a long and venerable tradition, from the

First Nations practices that were in existence thousands of years before the

first colonists arrived, to the development of four-year clinical programs at

the turn of the last century.

On November 9, of 1620, the tall masts of the Mayflower drifted past the shores

of the New World, along the coast of what is today called Massachusetts, after

66 days at sea. The crossing had been difficult. Shortly after it left port at

Plymouth on the southwest coast of England, severe storms and crosswinds

buffeted the Mayflower, causing a crack in a beam between decks and the upper

works to leak badly. At one point conditions were so bad that many of the

passengers raised questions about the ship’s sea-worthiness, but after much

debate it was decided that they should go on, as they were nearly halfway across

the Atlantic Ocean.

On November 11, the Mayflower set anchor in what is today Provincetown harbor.

The passengers and crew went aboard to shake off their sea legs and explore what

they thought was for the most part empty wilderness, although they certainly had

foreknowledge of the mysterious “red Indians” that inhabited the land. The crew

constructed a shallop, a small coastal craft, and over the next few weeks a

small band of well-armed men braved the bitter weather to explore the coastline

to find a location to settle. The explorers spotted some Native peoples from

afar, and uncovered a few caches of corn in their explorations. On the third

expedition the explorers arrived in what is today Plymouth harbor, and seeing

the grassy meadows and abundant creeks, chose it as the location for their

settlement. On December 16, the Mayflower anchored in Plymouth harbor, and a

week later the Pilgrims began the construction of their settlement. It was a

hard lot however, during this first shivering winter in the

New World, and the settlers suffered from the ravages of exposure,

malnutrition, scurvy and infectious disease. By winter’s end, more than half the

colonists and crew were dead.

As spring slowly emerged, the colonists began to glimpse the occasional sign of

some “red Indians,” but it wasn’t until March 1621 that the two peoples met. The

First Nations people that lived in this area of the Eastern Woodlands were the

Wampanoag, and to this point their impression of the European explorers was most

unfavorable. In previous visits, heavily armed and foul-smelling English

soldiers had come ashore and antagonized the Wampanoag with hungry mastiffs, and

made boorish advances towards their women that no respectable man would ever

have done. A lieutenant named Thomas Hunt had kidnapped twenty-seven Wampanoag

men against the orders of his superior, and sold them as slaves in Spain. But on

this occasion, as they quietly watched the settlers, the Wampanoag observed that

these white men were somewhat different, and had brought women and children with

them. Although the intention of the settlers was unclear, the Wampanoag were

eventually satisfied that these people at least

were not here to make war. After much deliberation, the leader of the Wampanoag

nation, Massasoit, sent the English-speaking Samoset to meet the colonists.

Samoset was an Abenaki Sagamore from what is now called Maine, and had learned

to speak English from the English fisherman that crossed the Atlantic to jig for

cod. He explained to the colonists that a plague had ravaged the Patuxet people,

some 2000 of them, and the cleared land the colonists were now settled on was

formerly a Patuxet settlement. On his second visit, Samoset returned with

Tisquantum, a Patuxet of the Wampanoag nation that had been captured a few years

before by Thomas Hunt and sold into slavery in Spain. While being held captive

Tisquantum had learned of the insatiable desire of the Europeans for gold, and

was able to escape and make it back to his people by convincing treasure-hungry

explorers that he could show them where to find it. Tisquantum would later prove

to be an invaluable resource for the new colony,

acting as their translator.

After these two visits, Massasoit approached the new settlement, and sent

Samoset and Tisquantum to bring the English to meet with him. An Englishman

named Winslow volunteered for the meeting, and brought a few tokens to represent

their friendly intent. Bringing Winslow back with him, Massasoit entered the

English village and negotiated a treaty between the Wampanoag and the colonists.

This treaty agreed that the two peoples would be allies in times of war, that

perpetrators of crimes against either people would be handed over for

punishment, that stolen property would be returned to the rightful owners, and

that no weapons would be brought into each others community. It was an important

agreement, observed by both sides for well over a half a century.

Based on this new friendship, the Wampanoag assisted their struggling neighbors,

imparting many skills such as deer hunting, knowledge of wild plants, and how to

cultivate corn. The colonists were pleased the following summer to see how well

the corn was growing, even though their pea, barley, and wheat crops had failed.

That fall the colonists and Wampanoag gathered together and celebrated their

communal relationship in a three-day harvest festival, beginning what has become

an important secular holiday in North America called Thanksgiving.

Apart from the obvious sentimentality with which many Americans look back upon

this occasion, the truth of the matter was that this Thanksgiving would only

prove to be one-sided. Short on the heels on the Mayflower’s arrival, several

other ships carried new settlers to Plymouth, hungry to make a new life in the

vast expanse of the New World. Soon the bulging population of new immigrants

encroached upon the planting and hunting grounds of the Wampanoag people, much

to their distress. Between 1631 and 1633, another small pox epidemic exploded,

killing many colonists, and among them Plymouth colony’s physician, Dr. Samuel

Fuller. The true impact of the small pox epidemic however was felt most by the

Wampanoag, who were laid waste to its desolation. This pattern of small pox

epidemics continued to ripple throughout the First Nations all across the

Americas over the succeeding years.

In their first visits to the shores of North America, early English explorers

were impressed with the First Peoples they met, bringing back stories of a

“super-race,” free of the disease, deformities and pestilence that marked the

urban landscape of England. In 1633, adventurer William Wood wrote of his visits

with the First Peoples “I have beene in many places, yet did I never see one

that was born… a monster, or any sickness had deformed, or casualty made

decrepid. " This perception, in part, fueled a substantial interest in exotic

plant medicines brought back from the New World, such as Sassafras (Sassafras

albidum) and Tobacco (Nicotiana rusticum). But perhaps nowhere else other than

in the colonies was this interest as strong in the healing potential of the “red

man’s” herbal repertory. With the epidemic taking their only physician, the

colonists at Plymouth began to rely upon the herbal lore taught to them by the

Wampanoag and other Eastern Woodland peoples. This interest was

especially keen in colonist housewives, who having little access to medical

care, relied upon this knowledge to keep their families healthy. In time, these

herbal remedies entered into common usage, although the physicians that

eventually immigrated to the colonies frowned upon their usage. To stock the

greater part of their dispensaries, these physicians continued to import huge

volumes of Old World medicines such as Jalap (Ipomoea jalapa), Senna (Cassia

angustifolia), and Myrrh (Commiphora mukul), as well as toxic minerals like

mercury, gold and antimony. The growing antipathy of professional physicians

towards simple herbal remedies was certainly intensified by their disdain for

the shamanic healing practices of the “red savages,” whose ritualistic singing,

chanting and rattling must have been observed by these physicians as a kind of

primitive and even devilish practice.

For all the differences between European and First Nations medicine however, the

principle of health among the First Nations people was remarkably similar to

that of Hippocratic medicine. There was a general belief among the First Nations

people that disease was a kind of impurity that must be cleansed from the body.

To this end, the healers and shamans of the First Nations employed a variety of

simple plant remedies, as well as a kind of sauna commonly referred to as a

sweat lodge, to remove these impurities. Although equipped with comparatively

primitive tools, these healers and shamans were exceptionally skilled

herbalists, equipped with an ability to “read” the plants of the forests and

choose a remedy that was appropriate to an individual’s malady. These

practitioners also had an ingenious ability to prepare and apply these plant

remedies in many different ways. Their knowledge however was never codified,

never written down, and only expressed through the words and example of an

experienced healer. Most of these skills unfortunately were never shared

completely with the European settlers, and with the assault on their culture, we

only have the barest sketch of their practices. One notable exception is the

Englishman John Josselyn, who after coming to New England in 1663, engaged in an

enthusiastic study of the local resources. In 1672 Josselyn published his book

New Englands Rarities Discovered, detailing the eight years of research he had

conducted. Of all his studies, Josselyn was most impressed by the knowledge and

skills of the First Nations herbalists. Scurvy was ever present for the

colonists, and Josselyn was shown how bearberries (Arctostaphylos uva ursi),

naturally rich in ascorbic acid, were exceptional in the treatment of scurvy.

Josselyn related that abscesses were easily resolved and healed with the boiled

bark of Western Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis), crushed and applied as a poultice,

and that Cherry Bark (Prunus virginiana) was an important

remedy for excessive or prolonged menstrual bleeding.

CONTINUING HERE

Sign In

THE HISTORY OF HERBAL MEDICINE IN NORTH AMERICA (Part One)

Recommended Posts

Guest guest

Link to comment

Share on other sites

Join the conversation

Support the Ashram

Join Groups

Top Downloads