Honoring the Medicine: Native American & Indigenous Healing Traditions

04/17/2026

I often feel that the Native American/First Nations view of death and reincarnation is, in many ways, parallel to that of Buddhism. On the one hand, there is clear evidence that the person or at least an aspect of their soul continues after death, perhaps reincarnating. And some people remember past lives or have experiences that cannot be explained any other way.

On the other hand, each of us is so linked with all beings ("All My Relations" or the Network of Jewels in Buddhism-- each jewel reflecting every other), that there may be only one being who reincarnates in many forms. Or perhaps we are all waves, different vibrational states, on the same sea. The same, yet different.

I remember, in particular, the strange events that happened after my friend and elder, War Eagle (Cherokee) passed. Here is one, adapted from my book "Honoring the Medicine"

Shortly after War Eagle died in the winter of 1990, some friends, unaware of his passing, visited his winter home-- actually, a trailer War Eagle and his wife, Helen (Commanche) maintained in Quartzsite, Arizona. The rest of the year, they lived in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

The friends knocked on the door. War Eagle answered and invited them in for a cup of coffee. Strangely, they did not see Helen anywhere. Perhaps she was gone for the day.

Not long after, the friends were driving through Arkansas and heard that War Eagle’s wife, but not War Eagle, had temporarily returned to their other home in Eureka Springs. Helen was sitting in a lawn chair outside when they drove up. After exchanging greetings, the friends excitedly told Helen about their recent visit with War Eagle, noting how healthy War Eagle appeared.

Laughing, Helen exclaimed, "That must have been his spirit. He's been dead for weeks!" Incredulous, the friends protested that it was clearly War Eagle. War Eagle had looked great, was walking normally, and told them that all his diabetic pain was gone.

A great mystic once told me, "We never die because we were never born. We've just forgotten who we are."

Photo by Ken Cohen, Helen & War Eagle, 1990

04/01/2026

It is April Fools Day. Although it is not a day I particularly celebrate, friendly humor is always good medicine.

Daylight Savings Time began recently in Colorado. Here's a related joke:

When a Native American friend was told about the reason for Daylight Savings Time, he replied "I can't understand why Americans believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket and sew it to the bottom of a blanket and have a longer blanket!"

03/28/2026

Wisdom and reminders from my friend and colleague, Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox, who reminds us, as always, that we are born not in "original sin" but with the "original blessing" of life and the earth and a spiritual responsibility and moral obligation to honor them.

Walking can be a spiritual practice. I have been privileged to participate in several of Thich Nhat Hanh’s “walking meditation” events held at Lake Merritt Park in Oakland, California, when Jerry Brown was mayor there. On returning from marching with MLK, Jr. at Selma, Rabbi Heschel told his d...

03/21/2026

So interesting to learn about this chapter of Mohegan history and the training of Gladys Tantaquidgeon, a medicine woman who I have long admired.

03/21/2026

During these chaotic times, I think of teachers and mentors who have been examples of peace and demonstrated through peaceful activism and education how to cultivate it in oneself, one's community, and the world.

“Peace is not only an absence of violence, but a presence of justice, a presence of equality, and a presence of cooperation.” -- Dr. Abdul Azziz Said (1930-2021)

03/15/2026

Colonialism, Reconciliation, and the Doctrine of Discovery. I have learned a great deal about these themes from my friend and colleague Steve Newcomb (Shawnee). His latest newsletter has a powerful summary and youtube link to a recent discussion of these themes:

"Indigenous land defenders are positioned as outside the law, while the state uses its own legal frameworks to authorize dispossession, extraction, and coercion. The question, then, is not whether law is being followed, but whose law is being enforced, and to whose benefit."

Episode 17 of the Domination Chronicles Podcast

03/08/2026

Honoring Women on International Women’s Day. As the war escalates in the Middle East, I am reminded of one of the great flaws in the U.S. Constitution and that is the lack of guarantee of the equality and leadership of women. I believe we would have a more peaceful world if the lifegivers, women, were more honored and had equal roles in government.

Constitutional scholars recognize that the constitution was based on the Great Law of Peace of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy which had established a democratic, consensus-based government among the member nations: Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Cayuga, Oneida, and Tuscarora. Clan Mothers, women elders noted for their wisdom and wise advice provided important checks and balances against patriarchy and abuse of power. They were the ones who had the authority to choose a candidate for chief and remove a chief who was unjust and did not properly care for the people, symbolically removing the chief’s deer horns of office (“dehorning the chief”). Such power in the hands of women must have been an affront to the United States' “founding fathers”.

On a personal level, on this day I think of the indigenous women who have helped shape who I am: the training I received from a Seneca elder, the songs and teachings kindly shared by a Lakota elder, the Cree Chief (first female Chief of Flying Dust First Nation) who honored my work as a traditional healer and encouraged me to write my book “Honoring the Medicine”, the Ute Grandmother who asked me to sing at her traditional medicine talk and ceremony, and so many others. I am deeply grateful.

I took this photo at a Buffalo Dance at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico

02/11/2026

It seems to me that the opposite of the love of power— an epidemic in these times—is the power of love. Most people think of love as belonging to one or more of these categories: spiritual love, romantic and sexual love, love of friends, and love of family. But what is really missing today is love of the earth, not as a resource; not as a source for finite commodities such as coal, oil, gas, minerals, jewels, and metals; not as a place for recreation; not as a subject for philosophy or science, whether geological, astronomical or ecological; but as our original and only home. A person who loves the earth is humble, knows how to practice humility and is a true human being--- all words that derive from the Latin “humus”, meaning earth and ground.

I am reminded of a teaching I received almost exactly fifty years ago from my dear elder, N’Tsukw (Innu), while walking together on a forest trail on Mount Royal (Parc du Mont-Royal) in the heart of Montreal. “Do you know why the names of so many indigenous tribes, when translated, simply mean “the People”?”, he asked. He continued, “Because we know that we are only just people, no better or worse, no higher or lower, than the other people: the Stone People, the Plant People, the Animal People, and yes, the other Human People.”

Photo by me, a wilderness trail near my home

01/21/2026

There is an old English poem by Thomas Campbell that begins:
"The more we live, more brief appear
Our life’s succeeding stages;
A day to childhood seems a year,
And years like passing ages."

It is true, and I don't think it is only because there is less melatonin in my brain! Yet even in one's senior years, there are times and days that seem to stretch, allowing one "to hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour" (William Blake). Nor is time linear. The past may indeed be like the wake of a ship, trailing behind us. But sometimes we are in a realm where a potential future, whether positive or negative, is reaching back to us now, asking us to consider carefully our actions, our state of mind, our words, so we can plant seeds for something better.

Photo from Pixabay

01/02/2026

Happy New Year! But do not forget Happy New Day! It is a good time to make a commitment to renewal, to greet each day fresh and with gratitude. Elder Bob Smoker told me that his mosom (grandfather) used to say each morning when he woke up, “I am so happy, my spirit woke me up, and I am breathing the breath of life."

We find this same message in every religion. There is a Chinese saying Chang Sheng Bu Lao, which means “If you are always fresh and new, then you do not grow old.” In the Bible Lamentations 5:21 says “Turn us to you, Divine Mystery [YHVH], that we may be turned. Renew our days as of old.”

Photo by Jill Wellington (pixabay)

12/09/2025

You have probably heard the story of how the bear taught herbal medicine to the Mohawk. It makes sense because bears are among the many animals that know how to find medicines in nature. Even a bear raised in captivity knows how to distinguish poison hemlock from osha root, difficult for many humans. And if the bear has a wound he/she will chew this natural anti-bacterial and blow the mastication over the wound, hence a reason for the other name of osha as "bear root."

There are many other examples of links between animals and plant medicines. Horses treat back sores by rolling in patches of artemisia ("sage"). Deer and elk consume yarrow to purge parasites. Ravens, crows, and other corvids combat bacteria by lying down on ant hills, and rubbing ants' natural antiseptic secretions on their feathers and skin.

I believe that humans also have this natural sense, but unfortunately it is generally atrophied or deeply hidden because of the conditioning effect of language based education and a lack of time spent in nature. So today, an unlearning, a quieting of the mind, is necessary to reclaim those skills.

Yet, I am not suggesting that you simply treat nature as an experiential laboratory. Most of us are not living in subsistence cultures where elders can advise us which plants have been found to be toxic. And there are new indications and contraindications to be considered because of modern diseases and prescription drugs. We have to combine the insights of natural medicine with sound advice from science.

Have you ever found an effective medicine in nature because of intuition, dreams or a direct spirit connection with the plant, and then discovered that your intuitive knowledge of the plant was confirmed by medical science?

Photo: Raven Friend in Wyoming, by Ken Cohen

12/03/2025

It is important to keep your “skepticals” on, that is, maintain critical thinking when listening to stories. Be open to possibilities, including miracles, but recognize that as in the “telephone game” (sometimes called “broken telephone”), information can become exaggerated or miscommunicated as it passes from person to person. Let me give you a personal example.

For about eight years I did not fly, but rather either drove or, more commonly, took trains across the U.S. and Canada to workshop and lecture locations. Although I certainly preferred the leisurely pace, the scenery, and food on the train, my reasons for avoiding air travel were entirely environmental/ecological. Driving had a much smaller carbon footprint—less greenhouse gas emissions. Today, both aircraft and cars are more efficient, and the carbon footprint of flying is less compared to one person driving a long distance, though it evens out with two people in a car.

Also, many commercial aircraft, especially the Boeing 747, used a byproduct of the nuclear industry—99% depleted uranium as the counter weight in the tail to improve stability. When a plane crashes, the uranium heats, oxidizes, and disperses a dangerous, radioactive substance. Thankfully, the airline industry began using tungsten instead in new aircraft, beginning in the 1990s, though some aircraft manufactured before 1981 may still have the old counterweights.

So, you understand some of my reasons for taking trains. And I still feel it is an ethically better travel decision than flying or driving.

Now the “telephone story”. In the late 1980s there was an FAA administrator and former air traffic controller in one of my New York state workshops. I had arrived there by Amtrak. As we spoke, he told me that he knew why I avoided air travel. His whole office was aware (by memo? conversations?) that I had a mysterious power that caused aircraft navigation equipment to not work properly! I could hardly stop laughing. I explained my actual reasons for not flying. And to make matters worse, or perhaps even more humorous, I heard the same story from an FAA employee at the other end of the United States, on the West Coast!

My objection must have made it into their memos because I haven't heard this crazy story since.

photo by Leesha S. from Pixabay