American Indian art decorates its soundproof, ventilated walls. The trappings are part of the state's first hospital-based healing room, which will combine American Indian and Western practices of medicine. The room will serve the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians in the Peshawbestown reservation, and will be dedicated today as part of this Grand Traverse Bay area city's sesquicentennial events. The soundproofing is to contain the noise from drumming ceremonies that could take place, and the ventilation will to allow for burning of sacred herbs such as sage, cedar and tobacco. About 800 tribe members live in the hospital's service area.
Healing rooms exist in a handful of U.S. hospitals, including facilities in Arizona and Montana.
Michigan's first healing room could be a prototype for hospitals in Traverse City, Frankfort and Kalkaska, said Jeff Couzens, spokesman for Munson Healthcare, which operates the Leelanau hospital. The tribe has nearly 3,500 members in Munson's six-county, northwestern Michigan service area. Healing-room patients will be treated by hospital staff and may be visited by two tribal healers and the band's medical doctor. The room also can be used for baby-naming ceremonies, a sacred rite for infants. American Indian medicine is based on beliefs that the mind, spirit, body and emotions must be balanced for health.