Honoring the Medicine: Native American & Indigenous Healing Traditions

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Honoring the Medicine: Native American & Indigenous Healing Traditions

Indigenous Traditional Medicine: Education, Culture, & Activism He was one of the first to lecture about Native American medicine in U.S.

Kenneth Cohen is a health and cultural educator, and traditional healer who has lived, practiced, and studied First Peoples medicine ways for most of his 70+ years. Although deeply respecting his Ukrainian and Russian Jewish ancestors, he was not raised with knowledge of this tradition. Ken was mentored by respected Native American medicine people since his youth and maintains close ties with his adoptive Cree family. Ken is committed to honoring the teachings, songs, ceremonies, and values that his beloved elders so generously shared. Ken speaks the Chinese language and is a noted teacher of Tai Chi, Qigong, and other Chinese healing and martial arts. He calls this his "day job"-- what pays the bills-- as in accord with indigenous protocols, there is no fee associated with traditional healing and ceremony. medical schools and has been sponsored by the Mayo Clinic, Health Canada, the Iskotew Elders Lodge, and numerous indigenous communities and conferences. Ken is the winner of the leading international award in energy medicine, the Alyce and Elmer Green Award for Innovation and Lifetime Achievement and author of Honoring the Medicine: The Essential Guide to Native American Healing (Random House), as well as numerous journal articles about spirituality, health, and social justice. A Word About Diversity: "Native American/ First Nations medicine, like other indigenous healing traditions, is based on widely held beliefs about healthy living, the repercussions of disease-causing activity or behavior, and the spiritual principles that restore balance. These beliefs cross tribal boundaries. However, the particular methods of diagnosis and treatment are as diverse as the languages, landscapes, and customs of the more than 700 Nations that comprise the indigenous people of Turtle Island, one of the original names of North America." (from "Native American Medicine" by Kenneth Cohen, in Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine 4:6, Nov. 1998), Kenneth Cohen seeks to communicate the richness of these original ways, informed by his studies, life experiences, connection to Nature, and, most importantly, the wisdom shared by his elders. However, he does not claim to represent any Native Nation or any person other than himself.

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

11/28/2025

Thinking of the way to***co and the pipe speak a universal language and communicate their teachings directly to a person’s spirit, even if far away from their lands of origin. A good example is how to***co culture developed among indigenous people in Siberia.

Russian traders were the first to introduce to***co—originally grown only in the Americas—to indigenous people that practiced shamanism in Siberia. Russians taught them to smoke the to***co, European style, in clay pipes. But when they returned to Siberia a year later, the tribal members were not smoking the to***co as a relaxing or social custom. Rather they would hold the to***co in their hands and then offer it prayerfully into a camp fire. The Russians were irate. “We didn’t teach you to use to***co like that!” Where had they learned this “heathen” usage? A shaman replied, “The to***co taught us how it is to be used.”

And interesting how to***co once circled back, closer to its place of origin. There is evidence that Inupiat people in Alaska first acquired to***co and pipes not through trade routes across the continental United States but, rather, by trade with related Inuit peoples from Siberia. The to***co was sometimes mixed with ashes from burnt fungi or with pieces of dry, pulverized wood and then smoked in pipes made from various local or traded materials such as wood, copper, ivory or bone.

Photo: An Inupiaq wooden pipe and an ivory pipe, taken by me at the Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka, Alaska

11/21/2025

Opening of winter ceremonies beginning today in the Pacific Northwest medicine society I belong to. Below is a poem that I wrote in 1991 after a ceremony on the Swinomish Nation.

The reference to Jesus is not unusual, as elements of the the Indian Shaker Church are often well represented in these ceremonies. Mystical elements of Christianity do combine easily with other indigenous traditions such as the Native American Church, Mexican Curanderismo, and Afro-Brazilian Candomblé.

You are welcome to share as long as you include the entire post.

In The Name
©Kenneth S. Cohen

Warrior Jesus would be proud of the People
Who, separated by time and place,
So deeply honor his teachings.
Instead of temples of moneylenders,
Smokehouses for the Potlatch.
Instead of greed for gold
Songs of gratitude for life
Instead of status and capital-ism,
Live in the humble realm of kinship.

"I am the Way"--this is our trail
through the woods, brushed by the cedar trees;
this is our path through the wilderness--
the black unknown.
"I am the Truth"--this is our vow,
our commitment and dedication,
our love for the Creator.
"I am the Light"--this is the Red Road,
the blood of Mother Earth,
And smoke we send out
for seven generations.

Warrior Jesus
Dances the round dance with the People.
His kingdom is already on Earth
For those who have eyes to see it.

Photo by me, Thunderbird at the top of a Totem Pole carved by Richard Hunt in 1979 and on display outside the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

11/12/2025

The sky is talking everywhere! What does it tell me? We are the Sky People. We are your beautiful Mother Earth. Do not give up! Do not lose hope! Protect our beauty! Be a warrior, an activist, a lover for the Earth and the Night Sky!

It started with the most unusual sunset clouds in the mountains where I live in Colorado. Then, two days later, Northern Lights (extremely rare), with spectacular displays throughout the far North. I will add a caption or comment to each photo so you know where they were taken and by whom.

11/11/2025

Thinking of the Opening of Winter ceremonies soon to take place in one of the medicine societies I belong to in the Pacific Northwest. I wrote this poem more than 30 years ago while watching an elder share his song, dance, and vision.

Spirit Dance

For the sake of the future and unborn generations
To provide a spirit trail for them to follow
The old man dances.
In a candle lit cedar planked room
Wooden benches along the walls
Filled with the community of prayer helpers.
The old man dances.
He is beyond age.
He breathes calmly as his feet stomp
to the strong drum beat.
His eyes are penetrating, already looking
through this reality to the next.
The old man dances.
Though dressed in poor work clothes,
I see him in what he has earned--
Red and black flowing cape with shell-button totems:
They are dancing with him.
The old man dances
To honor the Creator's gift.
He knows that a gift not honored
a gift not given
Is quickly lost.

10/25/2025

Thinking about one of the keynote talks I delivered thirty years ago at the World Congress on Energy Healing in Basel, Switzerland. The theme seems even more relevant, in fact far more relevant today than back then. You may not agree, and some may get offended that I speak my mind.

My opening talk was to announce that I had founded a university without walls, The School of Agnosia, a school of unknowing (agnosis). Although there are many degree-granting institutions of higher learning, I believe that mine was the first to offer DE-CREDENTIALIZING services. Thus if you have earned a MA, Ph.D., MD, etc, your head will be shrunk, you will learn how to return to your innate simplicity, and you will be certified as no longer having a degree.

The talk was an hour long, translated into multiple languages for the approximately 2,500 attendees. To my surprise and disappointment a gentleman approached the stage at the end and said, quite seriously, that he was interested in applying but I had failed to give the address or registration information.

Royalty-free photo from Pixabay

10/15/2025

"Nature As Healer: Indigenous Ways of Connecting" Sunday 26th Oct, 8-9:30 am PT, 11 am -12:30 pm ET. 90 minutes online live streamed class.

I will share Native American/First Nations ways of connecting with Nature’s healing power to enhance personal well-being and to “charge your batteries” to be of greater service to others. From an indigenous perspective an energy healer does not transmit his/her own energy, but rather facilitates a blessing from the realm of spirit.

You will learn how to unify with healing energy from the elements of earth, water (rivers and ocean), fire (the sun) and air (wind). Discover how expressions of gratitude, through words and offerings, open channels of communication with plants, animals, or any aspect of nature. The class will not be recorded or available for replay.

To register and for further info, please send an email to info@sacredearthcircle.com (I do not use FB Messenger). Include your your name, phone number, country, and the subject “Nature As Healer”. (Photo by James Wheeler, from Pexels.com)

10/03/2025

A few days ago one of my heroes passed: Jane Goodall. I had the good fortune to hear her speak in person twice and was not surprised that her brilliance, wisdom, compassion and deep spiritual insight matched what I had sensed from her writings. A mystic and lover of nature.

“Lost in awe at the beauty around me, I must have slipped into a state of heightened awareness. It is hard – impossible really – to put into words the moment of truth that suddenly came upon me then. Even the mystics are unable to describe their brief flashes of spiritual ecstasy.

It seemed to me, as I struggled afterward to recall the experience, the self was utterly absent: I and the chimpanzees, the earth and trees and air, seemed to merge, to become one with the spirit power of life itself. The air was filled with feathered symphony, the evensong of birds.

I heard new frequencies in their music and also in singing insects’ voices – notes so high and sweet I was amazed. Never had I been so intensely aware of the shape, the color of the individual leaves, the varied patterns of the veins that made each one unique. Scents were clear as well, easily identifiable: fermenting, overripe fruit; waterlogged earth; cold, wet bark; the damp odor of chimpanzee hair, and yes, my own too. And the aromatic scent of young, crushed leaves was almost overpowering.

That afternoon, it had been as though an unseen hand had drawn back a curtain and, for the briefest moment, I had seen through such a window. In a flash of “outsight” I had known timelessness and quiet ecstasy, sensed a truth of which mainstream science is merely a small fraction. And I knew that the revelation would be with me for the rest of my life, imperfectly remembered yet always within. A source of strength on which I could draw when life seemed harsh or cruel or desperate.”
~ Jane Goodall

Photo from the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada.

10/01/2025

In a place like this, dreams and waking reality are not so different, as long as you are seeing with both your ordinary eyes and spirit eyes!

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