Southern Folk Medicine

by Phyllis D. Light

  As in humoral medicine, the cosmology of Native Americans in the Southeast includes four elements—fire, water, wind or air, and earth. The elements were linked to each of the four cardinal directions—north, south, east, and west. It is truly amazing how often these same basic four elements are a part of the healing practices of so many different cultures around the world, especially considering that these cultures didn’t interact with each other, held very different religious beliefs, and were continents apart.

  In Creek medicine, for greatest effect, every herbal formula contained all four elements. Also in Creek society, special healers and protectors of the tribe mastered the elements and could call upon them at will. Mastering wind was considered an especially useful talent to manage the tornadoes that often ravaged the area. It was also useful to be able to send a storm against an enemy during a battle or use wind for protection.

  Each element had a specific purpose in Native health practice. Water is rejuvenating and cleansing, and represents purity. This is one of the reasons prayers are often performed at water. The wind carries sound, not only between peoples but also between Great Mystery and people. Fire is so important to Native Peoples that after much training, some people are designated Fire Keepers. It represents transformation and the feminine, as well as the sun on Earth. Fire is symbolized by the thunderbolt; lightning strikes the land and fire results. And finally, the Earth is the mother of us all; all things growing or dug from the Earth are considered earthen and a gift from our common mother.

  A fifth element sometimes appears in Southeast Native American cosmology. It might be called Great Mystery, Great Spirit, or Emptiness. It has been described as the invisible spirit that connects the Earth to the sky, or that which binds all things together.

  Native views of sickness and health also took into account the importance of relationship—to Spirit, to tribe, to family, and to self. Imbalances in any relationship or any prolonged conflict in relationships could cause illness. While specific healing techniques were based on the regional practices of the tribes, some generalities can be found among the healing practices and philosophies of the tribes of the Southeast. David Winston has summarized seven core areas of knowledge required by Native healers.

  According to Winston (2001), “a core of indigenous belief [Cherokee}]and plant use remains today.” He further states that the Native healer must master seven interconnected areas of knowledge: herb use (medicinal and ceremonial) and personality of the plants; physical medicine, including midwifery, minor surgery, moxibustion, and persimmon wood stampers; dream interpretation, for personal growth, healing, and to gain knowledge; language/myths/laws; ceremonies; laws of nature; and conjuring (magic, spells).While Winston speaks particularly of the Cherokee, these seven areas of healing knowledge can be generalized for any of the Five Civilized Tribes of the Southeast: the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole tribes.

  Native Americans who had not been forcibly removed from the South during the ethnic cleansing known as the Trail of Tears (1831–1839) continued to have a strong influence on Southern Folk Medicine. Some traditional Native medicine ways were remembered, but many more were lost or diluted by time and with continued contact with the dominant white culture. Native Americans who remained behind were often the healers and herbalists for the poor white and black communities.

  Though many medicine ways had been lost, the use of native medicinal plants continued to be taught within the remaining pockets of Native culture for many generations. My own grandmother, Rosie Light, who claimed Creek descent, was one such person. In her youth, she helped deliver babies and gather and dispense herbs to a community of poor that had no money for doctors.

  Native healers were considered excellent herbalists and their services were sought after. The herbs they used were considered to be of higher quality than the average store-bought herb. This belief in the quality of Native American herbs and practices continues to this day, so much so that the word “Indian” on a bottle of herbs or on products sold as “Indian remedies” definitely helps increase sales in the South and elsewhere.

  According to James Mooney in The Swimmer Manuscript: Cherokee Sacred Formulas and Medicinal Prescriptions, there were two broad causes of disease: natural or supernatural. Mooney writes, “However primitive and unsophisticated may be the views of a tribe on disease and its causes, and however great may be the share of mysticism and occultism in its explanation of the events of daily life, yet there is almost everywhere a recognition of natural agency if not for some of the ailments, at least for some accidents.”

  Mooney writes of supernatural causes of disease, “If even in cases where the natural course and cause of events seems evident and obvious, a mythologic explanation may be advanced, what are we to expect when it becomes necessary to account for such mysterious, unexplainable, insidious changes of condition to which disease subjects our body and mind?”

  The causes of illness—natural, supernatural, and magical—of the Southeastern natives found their way into Southern Folk Medicine and Hoodoo. From the perspective of Southern Folk Medicine, this will be discussed in greater detail in a following chapter. But I do want to acknowledge at this time that these categories were used by the natives prior to contact with whites.

  Spirits may also cause disease. The Cherokee believed in a multitude of spirits, mostly animal spirits, which could also cause disease. Mooney writes, “As a rule the spirit who has caused a disease is never prevailed upon to take the disease away; the office of another, rival, spirit is called upon to do this. Spirits do not merely send disease of their own initiative; they may be prevailed upon to do so by human agency, by witches or by man killers, for instance.”

  The most important, the most powerful spirit was Great Mystery, which missionaries dubbed the Great Spirit or Creator. This spirit was often identified with the sun and was considered feminine, while another spirit, which was identified with the moon, was considered masculine. The sun was often referred to as “grandmother.” Rarely did the sun cause disease, but rather she was often called upon by prayer to cure disease. The sun was associated with fire: “the medicine man warms his hands over these coals before he starts ‘rubbing the disease away.’” Fire was also used to create decoctions that were either taken internally or rubbed on the body.

  According to Mooney, the moon, often referred to as “grandfather,” was not associated with any illness, but acknowledging the moon in all its cycles was a way to ward off illness. The river, water, could also send disease to those who disrespected it by throwing in rubbish or urinating in it. Many rituals of the Cherokees were also performed at water, usually at daybreak. Ghosts can also cause illness, especially those of slain animals or humans. Ghosts may reincarnate in another body, whether animal or human, each in their original form, until such a time that their cycle is finished.

  Magical causes of illness include those affected by witches, which can be male or female. Mooney writes, “Moreover, whatever the witch can steal of the life, and therefore of the vital principle, of the animus, the power, the ‘orenda’ of its victim, he adds to his own, and this is the reason why witches are always hovering about the sick, the feeble, the moribund people; invisible as they can make themselves, they put their mouths over those of the victims, and steal their breath; according to some informants ‘because they like the taste of sick people’s breath; it is so sweet’; according to others, because stealing their breath comes to the same as securing for themselves the victim’s vitality, which they add to their own. At the time the moribund expires, especially, the witch is careful not to miss his chance.” A sick person often had family members or friends watching during the night to protect from witchcraft. Burning tobacco could keep away the witch.

  In the Cherokee tradition, there are other influences of health and illness, too many for the scope of this book, including dreams and neglecting taboos. It was the intent of the healer to remove the cause of the illness, not manage the illness, and
to this end, much investigation and questioning occurred, including using dreams as an assessment tool and questioning about family life. This approach definitely made its way into Southern Folk Medicine, as we’ll discuss later.

  Native Americans had no remedies for the illnesses brought by the settlers. Measles, mumps, chicken pox, small pox, venereal disease, and tuberculosis took the lives of thousands and thousands of Native Americans who had never been exposed to those viruses or bacteria and therefore did not have any innate immunity against the pathogens. They reasoned that white man’s medicine was needed to treat white man’s diseases. To this end, Native healers were quick to learn the new invasive plants and how to use them. For example, according to the Encyclopedia of Cultivated Plants: From Acacia to Zinnia, edited by Christopher Cumo, “mullein quickly gained a foothold with Native American cultures who adopted it for a number of uses,” including tuberculosis. Other plants included catnip, chickweed, plantain, peppermint, Queen Anne’s lace, yarrow, elecampane, red clover, alfalfa, and dandelion.

  The more well-known native plants and their medicinal or food uses that were used by Native populations are too numerous to list in this short space, but I must mention a few that have continued to be used by herbalists today: black cohosh, blue cohosh, partridge berry, bay laurel, magnolia, dogwood, sycamore, tulip poplar, blue vervain, boneset, sassafras, sarsaparilla, black walnut, cayenne, corn silk, evening primrose, birch, goldenseal, American ginseng, fringetree, elderberry, echinacea, hydrangea, juniper berry, cedar berry, lobelia, poke, gravel root, prickly ash, red root, raspberry, pinkroot, skullcap, Solomon’s seal, spicebush, white pine, wild indigo, mayapple, bloodroot, angelica, osha, angelica, wild cherry, wild yam, yellow root, pipsissewa, huckleberry, rabbit tobacco, tag alder, sumac, sweetgum, and smartweed. Whew! A nice little list.

  The Trail of Tears

  The Trail of Tears played an important role in the ancestral lineage and herbal legacy of many folks in north Alabama and across the Southeast, including me. Though much has been written about the forcible removal of the Cherokees from North Carolina, I must add that all Southeast natives were removed including the Choctaws, Alabamas, Creeks, Hitachi, Seminole, Yuchi, and Chickasaw. Whites wanted the land in the Southern states to grow cotton, for it was in planting cotton that fortunes were made. Also, in 1828, gold was discovered near present-day Dahlonega, Georgia, on Cherokee land. This small gold rush was the added impetus to remove the remaining Cherokee. President Andrew Jackson drafted the Indian Removal Act in 1830, which paved the way for the Trail of Tears.

  In 1831, the Choctaw became the first nation to be expelled from their land and made the journey to Indian territory on foot, often bound in chains and without any food, supplies, or other help from the government. Thousands of people died along the way. It was, one Choctaw leader told an Alabama newspaper, a “trail of tears and death.” Thus was named the forced march. The rounding up and removing of Native peoples continued slowly until 1836 to 1838, when the process was sped up by the U.S. government.

  In 1836, leaving from Gunter’s Landing, Alabama, several thousand Creeks were forced to their new home. Many of these Creeks had been living with the Cherokees and were rounded up from Alabama to North Carolina. In 1838, the first group of Cherokees also made the long trip. They attempted to take the water route down the Tennessee River, which was in drought so that the barges couldn’t float.

  The natives were sent to base camps at various points around the Southeast. From the base camps, the natives were sent to detention camps at emigration points along the Singing (Tennessee) River. One such detention camp was at Gunter’s Landing at the big bend of the river at present day Guntersville, Alabama. The Tennessee River flows across the entire state of Alabama, entering in the northeast corner of the state and exiting at the western corner near Waterloo.

  During the drought, several hundred natives escaped into the hills and hollows of north Alabama where these “deserters” found a new home in a relatively sparsely populated land. For this reason, North Alabama has a rich Native American heritage. According to the website of the Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama, “The members of the Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama are the descendants of those Indian people who escaped the infamous ‘Trail of Tears’ by hiding out in the mountainous backwoods and lowlands of the Southeast. Others fled from the march after it began and others simply walked away and came home after reaching Indian Territory. They kept to themselves, did not speak the language, and did not teach it to their children for fear the child might speak it in the presence of someone who would learn the secret of their ancestry. If this happened, they could immediately be taken into custody and sent to Indian Territory in the west. Everything they owned could be given away by the state.”

  The fear of being sent to Indian Territory in the West was a very tangible one that I remember from my childhood. This very situation happened to a family member and became one of the stories within the Light family. And it was this fear that encouraged natives to take care of their own during sickness with the use of local herbs and traditional healing techniques. Though many of the healing stories were lost, the use of local herbs remained, and this information was often shared within local communities, thus adding to the richness of Southern Folk Medicine.

  African-American Influence

  Slavery did not begin in the New World, but its institution affected the development of countries and cultures in a way that was unprecedented in history. The first slaves to the New World were Moors brought by the Spanish, first to the coast of what later became South Carolina in 1526, by Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon, and also to Florida in 1565, by Admiral Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles. Moorish slaves, generally from North Africa, had been used by the Spanish and much of the Middle East and Mediterranean countries for several hundred years. Moorish slaves were highly skilled craftsman and artisans who were brought to help build houses, forts, and defensive walls, as well as to take care of their masters. During Spain’s history, slaves could be African, Moorish, or Christian, depending upon who was in power. When Muslims were in power, Christians were slaves, and when Christians were in power, then Moors were slaves. At the time of settlement of the New World, Christians were in power in Spain.

  Spain initially tried to use Native Americans as slaves, but this wasn’t successful. Natives were not familiar with the building techniques which the Spanish required, ran away whenever possible, and died in droves from European diseases. There was also the religious issue of using Native Americans as slaves (but not Africans or whites), and ultimately in 1542, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, decreed that natives could not be used as slaves. It would be many years before this decree reached full fruition in regard to Native peoples.

  The Spanish slave trade began in earnest when Portuguese slave traders brought several hundred African slaves to Spain. The Portuguese had been trading slaves to the West Indies, Hispaniola, and South America since about 1510, and had been actively trading in Europe since about 1450. By the sixteenth century, the majority of slaves in Spain, as well as those going to the Spanish Caribbean and Cuba to work in the sugar cane fields, were of African descent.

  The Dutch, who also supplied African slaves to the Spanish New World, initiated the North American slave trade when they brought eleven African slaves from the West Indies to what is now New York in 1626.

  The peoples of northern and western Africa who came willingly or unwillingly to the American South contributed an amazing spiritual framework to the folk medicine that survives today. Africa also contributed several foods that are now considered a staple of Southern cooking. The most common of these are okra, rice, black-eyed peas, sorghum, watermelons, and yams. These foods were brought aboard the ships to feed the Africans on the long voyage. Food that was leftover and seeds that were saved were planted by the slaves upon arrival in the South. Foods common in Southern cooking such as pinto, kidney, red, navy, black, and Great Northern beans, sweet potatoes, peanuts, and hominy are actually New World
foods.

  Initially, African slaves to the New World (North and South America) were males who had been slaves in Africa. Later males who were captured in war, were local criminals, or had been captured to sell were sent to the Americas. Slaves brought from West and Central Africa worked in agriculture, in the cultivation of tobacco and cotton, and in the milling of sugar and as domestic labor. Later, African women were brought as slaves and to become breeding stock for future generations of bound peoples. Children that were brought were generally sent to the Caribbean.

  By 1850, most of the slaves in the United States were third-, fourth-, or fifth generation Americans, and far removed from Africa. Ninety percent of Africans brought to the New World as slaves went to the Caribbean and South America, not North America.

  I’ve searched and searched for documentation of medicinal plants brought from Africa with the slaves, and there just doesn’t seem to be any. There is documentation that some Africans braided licorice seeds in their hair, but one conjecture was that the licorice seeds made the hair smell sweet and was attractive to the opposite sex. As far as my research has uncovered, the Africans who were taken or sold as slaves could not bring their medicine, their plants, or their healers with them. What they could bring were their healing framework of how to use herbs, rituals, customs, and their music and dances.