American Indian Healing Arts: Herbs, Rituals, and Remedies for Every Season of Life [Paperback]

E. Barrie Kavasch (Author), Karen Baar (Author)

Book Description

Series: Healing Arts | Publication Date: April 20, 1999

American Indian Healing Arts is a magical blend of plant lore, history, and living tradition that draws on a lifetime of study with native healers by herbalist and ethnobotanist E. Barrie Kavasch.

Here are the time-honored tribal rituals performed to promote good health, heal illness, and bring mind and spirit into harmony with nature. Here also are dozens of safe, effective earth remedies--many of which are now being confirmed by modern research.

Each chapter introduces a new stage in the life cycle, from the delightful Navajo First Smile Ceremony (welcoming a new baby) to the Apache Sunrise Ceremony (celebrating puberty) to the Seminole Old People's Dance.

At the heart of the book are more than sixty easy-to-use herbal remedies--including soothing rubs for baby, a yucca face mask for troubled skin, relaxing teas, massage oils, natural insect repellents, and fragrant smudge sticks. There are also guidelines for assembling a basic American Indian medicine chest.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Throughout their history, the American Indians have healed with rituals using herbs, fungi, and other natural materials. They have valued as sacred the spiritual side of life and their connection to the earth. Their medicine has always been holistic, treating the body and spirit as one and illness as a sign of imbalance. Now we can benefit from American Indian wisdom with American Indian Healing Arts: Herbs, Rituals, and Remedies for Every Season of Life. This book is organized by the stages of life, presenting different tribal perspectives on the significance of each, with ceremonies and healing rituals (songs, prayers, botanicals). The book includes more than 60 recipes for treating health problems and other needs, from "cramp bark tea" to "marigold-calendula deodorant cream." There are also directions for making tonics, ointments, tooth powders, and digestive remedies, and illustrations consisting of leaf-rubbings of 80 plants. Besides learning to use American Indian remedies, you learn fascinating facts about their ceremonies. The Navajo celebrate not only birth, but the infant's first smile and first laugh, for example. An Apache girl celebrates first menstruation by running and dancing for four days (guided and massaged by an elder woman). If you're interested in alternative healing, or intrigued by American Indian culture, this book will add to your knowledge. --Joan Price

From Booklist

Increased interest in complementary healing methods has provoked a flurry of books on Asian traditions, especially those of China and India. America has its own healing traditions, though--the herbal medicines and rituals of the Indian nations. This comprehensive volume includes the traditions of many peoples, such as the spidery dream catcher of the Algonquin and the Cree, the Cheyenne's sacred arrow blessing, and the Iroquois' winter solstice dances. That in itself would make this accessible, engaging book a good choice for libraries where interest in the healing arts is high, and its impressive collection of herbal remedies, all employing American wild plants, only increases its appeal. Digestive tea made from bergamot (bee balm), insect repellent from sassafras, hair conditioner from the soap plant, deodorant from calendula and marigold--recipes for these and many more useful substances distinguish this well-conceived and executed book. Patricia Monaghan

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; 1 edition (April 20, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553378813
• ISBN-13: 978-0553378818
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 0.7 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #367,490 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

E. Barrie Kavasch was born in MoundBuilders territory in Ohio more than half a century ago. She honors both European and American Indian bloodlines, and is a direct descendant back through 16 generations to Pocahontas. Barrie has written a variety of natural history books especially on the cultures and cuisines of American Indians. She is an herbalist and ethnobotanist with more than 25 books in print. She has recently published her fifth book of poetry, HAIKU MOMENTS (2009). Barrie teaches creative writing, poetry, and American Indian ethnobotany; her home and studio are in the Northwest Hills of Connecticut.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting "new" classic in this fine field of healing!, August 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: American Indian Healing Arts: Herbs, Rituals, and Remedies for Every Season of Life (Paperback)

My gratitude to the authors & publisher for this fabulous new book! These many fine recipes & healing guidelines are so valuable! The leaf rubbings & illustrations give this book vary special character & depth, & the plants' spirits seem to fill each page with strength & re-newed energies. Quite a big accomplishment! I will enjoy using this book for many years!

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique One-Of-A-Kind Book on this subject! Fine artwork!, July 3, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (The IAIS in Washington, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Indian Healing Arts: Herbs, Rituals, and Remedies for Every Season of Life (Paperback)

This long overdue book is a great credit to this subject! Co-authors Kavasch & Baar have delved deeply into this vast therapeutic subject with sensitivities and real passion for this work! This book will change the way people think about Native American healing traditions! Plus, a portion of the author's royalties flow back into Indian education at many levels of benefit.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gift, November 24, 2001

By 

Stephanie Rose Bird "conjurer2" (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: American Indian Healing Arts: Herbs, Rituals, and Remedies for Every Season of Life (Paperback)

I've always had the fantasy of becoming an apprentice to a gifted Native American medicine woman--that is until reading "American Indian Healing Arts" by E. Barrie Kavasch and Karen Baar, when my fantasy became a reality. This book is rich with history, accurate herbal information, great medicinal recipes presented in an easy to follow format. "American Indian Healing Arts" is wonderfully reflective of Native American spiritual practices especially in its attention to rites of passage and stages of life. The tender manner with which the information is presented is welcoming, encouraging, inclusive and heartwarming--bound to lead many an apprentice down the path of pursuing greater understanding of Native American medicine.