Epidemics and the (Alter) Native Traditions

The Covid-19 pandemic has turned many readers to explore literatures of the past written during pandemics or epidemics across the globe. Reading or exploring such noted experiences sometimes reduces the effect of trauma that one is passing through or in some cases it is the other way round. To an extent, it also depends upon the choice of the reader and availability of the resources. The present article is an attempt to share how in the Native American tribal traditions literature or oratures function as curative or therapeutic during the time of epidemics.

The Native Americans, or the American Indians or the indigenous peoples of the United States, are known for their strong traditions of passing on stories of epidemics from generation to generation. These songs and stories not only narrate the sufferings of the natives, but also offer healing and hope in a unique way. Histories of the Natives in the United States clearly mention that almost all tribes of the Natives suffered epidemics due to germ warfare by the colonizers or in some cases unknowingly they faced epidemics due to their contact with immigrants. These Native people of North America had never been exposed to such germs before, and hence, they had been ‘naïve’ towards foreign bodies. Natives dwelled on the land that is historically known as the ‘Virgin-soil’; and the epidemics swept through populations that were vulnerable to the foreign elements in all senses. These Natives had no prior exposure to a particular disease, and therefore, had no natural immunity to it. Foreigners, especially the European settlers, brought diseases like smallpox, bubonic plague, chickenpox, cholera, the common cold, diphtheria, influenza, malaria etc.

Consequently, many tribes soon faced threats of extinction. The statistics of the killing of the Natives in the last five hundred years during epidemics are dismaying and depressing. Those who could defeat these diseases had ages old strong traditions of medicines and healing ways. The Native tradition of having Medicine Man or Woman knew more ways to fight against the unknown. Like in any indigenous cultural tradition, by mixing roots, herbs, and other natural plants, they could heal various medical problems. But, these herbal or medicinal remedies were not the only part of the Native American healing process and there was something more to the tradition.

The major difference between the Native American healing tradition and the general medicinal practice is the inclusion of emotional wellbeing in the healing process in the case of the former. The Native Americans believe that all things in nature are connected. Therefore, instead of isolating the diseased, the community helps an ill person in ceremonies, dances, praying, chanting and story-telling along with herbal remedies. The unity of the whole was preserved and reflected in their orature; and later in literature it is vividly mentioned. It is also true that orature or literature takes on more meaning when considered in terms of some relevant whole. Laguna Pueblo writer Leslie Marmon Silko, in her novel Ceremony, writes; “I will tell you something about stories. They aren't just entertainment. Don't be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death. You don’t have anything if you don’t have the stories” (02).

These indigenous peoples have preserved their healing ways in their oratures past many centuries down the line. Surviving on stories that heal and healers who use stories, these Natives have a unique bond with the words and techniques. It is a well-known fact that telling stories and singing prayers of earth and nature are common among all indigenous people. Evolution has wired our brains for storytelling / listening and thereby creating collective consciousness. In the struggle for survival, telling or listening to story or singing songs makes it easy to understand any incomprehensible or threatening situations especially during catastrophes and epidemics. Like many other oratures, the songs and stories of these Natives are less entertaining and more informative. The basic difference one finds is that for mainstream literature such stories and songs are occasional whereas for the indigenous or for ‘the others’ they are traditional. Passing on wisdoms of generations together through stories was also a way of survival for them. Oral histories including creation of myths, origin of tribes, genealogy etc. were all woven together into songs and stories and had become part of their cultural traditions. Salish Indian, Mourning Dove (1888-1936), the first Native American woman who published her novels, very strongly believes : “… everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease and herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence”. (Olsen 117)

For the Natives, intuition is primary. Healing is based on spiritual truths learned from nature, elders, & spiritual vision in the forms of prayers, songs and stories. They have a teleological view for every phenomenon, and therefore, they try to find an answer to the questions like what does the disease teach the patient? They also try to decode: is there a message or a story in the disease? Based on these experiences they practice community or collective healing. The Navajo Night Chant is one of the most famous examples of this tradition:
Happily I recover.
Happily my interior becomes cool.
Happily I go forth.
My interior feeling cool, may I walk.
No longer sore, may I walk.
As it used to be long ago, may I walk.
Happily, with abundant dark clouds, may I walk.
Happily with abundant showers, may I walk.
Happily with abundant plants, may I walk.
Happily, on a trail of pollen, may I walk.
Happily, may I walk.
………………………………
May it be beautiful all around me.
In beauty it is finished.

(Originally published in 1902, Washington Matthews's The Night Chant: A Navajo Ceremony)

The traditions of Medicine Songs were very popular among all tribes of the Native Americans. Singing songs was a serious occupation as long as the ceremonial rituals were performed across all tribes. Molly Larkin, a famous writer of her 1998 book, The Wind Is My Mother: The Life and Teachings of a Native American Shaman, remembers how the Bear Heart – the Healer- had once narrated the story of a cedar tree. She shares the story on her personal website. Bear Heart told her the ‘Legend of the Cedar Tree’ and how it became a gift from the Creator with its medicinal properties. She retells the legend that the Cedar Tree was a generous human being once upon a time who used to help each and every person in the village. He would bring food for the hungry, would take care of orphans and used to help the tribe at his best. The Creator noticed this virtuous man and decided to immortalize him and so he was turned into a cedar tree. Then, Bear Heart continues with the virtues of the cedar tree, how it stays green round the year and how the smoke of a cedar keeps everyone healthy and so on. The point here is: when a healer or a medicine man, before giving the herbs, tells such stories that would help generate a positive feeling in the patient towards the medicine. Recent studies in psychology also accepts the placebo effect from the faith created by healing stories.

Thus, for the Native Americans the storytellers are healers and the healers are storytellers. For the Natives, orature or literature is therapeutic and hence, their songs and stories offer alternative traditions of healing. Thus, over the ages, the Native Americans or the indigenous peoples of North America carry a strong tradition of having faith in the curative power of orature or literature : the (Alter) Native therapy.

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A few images of healing/storytelling Native art & craft from the personal collection of the author of this article:

References:

1. Allen, Paula Gunn. "Going Home, December, 1992." A Circle of Nations: Voices and Visions of American Indians. Ed. John Gattuso. Hillsboro, Beyond Words Publishing, 1993.
2. Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs and Steel : The Fate of Human Societies. W. W. Norton & Company 1999.
3. Dobyns, Henry. “Diseases”. Encyclopedia of North American Indians: Native American History, Culture, and Life from Paleo-Indians to the Present, 1996.
4. Dove, Mourning. Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography. Ed. By Jay Miller. University of Nebraska Press, 1994.
5. Larkin, Molly and Bear Heart. The Wind Is My Mother: The Life and Teachings of a Native American Shaman. Berkley, 1998. (www.mollylarkin.com)
6. Matthews, Washington. The Night Chant : A Navaho Ceremony. (1902). Literary Licensing, LLC, 2014.
7. Olsen, Brand. Modern Esoteric : Beyond Our Senses. CCC Publishing, 2017.
8. Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. (1977) Penguin Books, 2006.

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Dr. Rucha A. Brahmbhatt, Associate Professor, Dept of English, Samarpan Arts & Commerce College, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India.