When the medicine plants were being made, our Creator's twin brother, Sawisakaren, was also making plants. Some of those plants are poisonous. Some look almost the same as the original medicine plants, so that identifying and gathering medicine can be a challenge. Used properly, and at times combined with other plants, they, too, make helpful and useful medicines. As we give thanks, we also remember the people who, through their hard work and skill, have gathered knowledge of the medicines, and who give their time and lives to healing others.
Medicines grow all over.
They can be found in the forest. They are in the meadows, in water, on the shore. People who work with the medicines teach us to walk gently on the earth, and to take only what we need. Learning the right ways of gathering and caring for medicine plants is a lesson in an entire way of living. Tobacco, sage, sweet grass and cedar are four very sacred and important medicine plants for the people of this continent.