Honoring the Medicine: The Essential Guide to Native American Healing (Healing Arts)
Cohen wittily describes an incident in which he sang Pacific Northwest songs to a Cree medicine man--songs of Salish, Snohomish, and Suquamish peoples. "And you are--?" asked the elder. "Jewish," Cohen said, to which the medicine man replied contentedly, "Yes, our traditions are so rich." Whether the elder misunderstood or intentionally embraced the newcomer to his land, Cohen never knew. But the anecdote demonstrates Cohen's habit of drawing upon interpersonal experience as well as research to record traditional Native American healing practices as expertly as he has described, in books including the well-regardedWay of Qigong(1997), Asian traditional healing. The present thoughtful reference provides comprehensive and authoritative information on indigenous American healing traditions and addresses the important issue of how non-Indian people can respectfully learn from their historical forebears in North America. An excellent section on values and principles precedes discussion of such practices as sweat lodges, pipes, and the use of herbs, including tobacco. Extensive appendixes and resource lists supplement the wealth of information in the main text.Patricia MonaghanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved