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Relying upon traditional knowledge and native plants, indigenous people have been treating illnesses successfully for thousands of years. After the arrival of Europeans on this continent, however, medicine became one of the battlefields in the cultural war.
Both patients and students of heal­ing had to choose between traditional practices and Western medicine. Patients who used herbs or went to medicine people felt compelled to keep that secret from their Western doctors, who wanted to focus upon treating the patient’s body without regard for the mind or spirit.
Indians who went to medical school, meanwhile, found a fiercely competitive, inhumane atmosphere, which would not tolerate their com­mitments to family or their cultural taboos. Instead of humility, a basic value of Native culture, they found affirmation of egotistical behavior. ....

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