Yellowknife (Apr 21/03) - Traditional healer Besha Blondin is passing around little plastic bags containing plants and different kinds of bark to women at the NWT Native Women's Association.

Besha Blondin talked to women about traditional medicine recently at the NWT Native Women's Association. - Jennifer McPhee/NNSL photo

The little bags smell of the outdoors and Blondin explains how each medicine helps the body. Cedar is good for arthritis, she says, and drinking a cup of firewood tea helps calm the nerves. Labrador tea is full of vitamins and good for colds.

She uses medicine from the land, says Blondin and she's treated many people doctors couldn't heal.

Blondin tells the group about a 19-year-old woman whose whole body was twisted because of a tumour which couldn't be removed by doctors.

"She couldn't think in the right order and her body was crooked," said Blondin.

The young woman told her she wanted one day to have a boyfriend and children.

Blondin treated her using the inner part of birch bark. "In two weeks the tumour shrunk."

"Today she's got a boyfriend," added Blondin.

She related another story about an elder from Fort Good Hope, who had a bad scaly rash on his body. Blondin mixed up a concoction of fireweed, mushroom and bear fat and put it on his skin. When she returned to visit, his skin had fallen off "just like a snake."

Noeline Villebrun, who attended the talk, said Blondin told her she had a tumour. Afterwards, the tumour showed up on an ultrasound, which resulted in surgery.

Traditional healers are born with the gift to heal, said Blondin. "When people are born with this gift, we can heal people with our hands, medicines we pick and the tools we have," she said.

But healers don't actually do the healing. "It's our ancestors who do the healing through us," she said. "We are their helper."

Blondin says she recognizes other healers by the rainbow colours around them. "We see colours from them, that's how we know."

She's had this gift all her life, she says, but didn't tell people until she was 30 years old.

"Many people are skeptical of traditional medicine, Blondin told the group. But the Creator put all this medicine in the ground for us.

"We have all kinds of people coming to us who don't believe in it," she said. "Some of the people from communities don't want to believe in it. But in order to be healed, you have to believe in it."

Blondin travels around the North to various communities helping people. There are not enough traditional healers to go around, she says, so she often performs healing through ceremonies with groups of people.

"You can't just pull out sickness with medicine alone," she said. "Sometimes, you need ceremony."

Blondin was wary about releasing information about certain plants to the media because she fears people might rob the land.

She stressed people should never take new shoots from a plant, or pull plants from the root.

Chief medical officer Andre Corriveau says the NWT Health and Social Services Department does not control or regulate aboriginal healers. "It's been recognized as an area of jurisdiction for aboriginal government."

But the federal non-insured benefits program -- administered by the territory --covers some traditional healing expenses for Status Indians and Inuit.

Corriveau says there isn't much research specifically about aboriginal health practices. But he adds many traditional methods have positive impacts on certain conditions.

He points to aspirin, which was derived from the bark of willow trees. "It was used as a healing remedy for many thousands of years probably by aboriginal people in North America before it was actually discovered and synthesized specifically."

'Aspirin is not only a pain medication, but helps prevent heart disease and bowel cancer, he says. "They are discovering all these things that aspirin is good for in small doses."

However, he says there isn't a lot of good research that allows doctors to claim diseases such as cancer can be cured by traditional means. He recommends people also see a medical doctor.

If patients are seeing both a doctor and traditional healer, they should inform both about all the medicine they are taking.

"Sometimes (herbal medicine) has active ingredients that can interact positively or negatively with different types of medications," he said. "It's important to provide that information to your physician."

Healing with birch bark

recipe courtesy of Besha Blondin

Outer bark

The birch tree's outer bark is used for kidney and bladder problems and for the stomach and menstrual cramps.

Method: remove white layer of bark to orange inner bark and cut bark up in small pieces. Boil one cup of white bark with six cups of water for 30 minutes. Drink one cup in the morning and at night.

Inner bark

The birch tree's inner bark is used for the kidneys, rashes, cancer, liver and vitamins. Chew and swallow.

Method: separate from wood, cut in small pieces. Boil half a cup of bark in four cups of water for 45 minutes. Drink half a cup in the morning and night. If sickness is serious, increase to one cup morning and night.

Inner, inner bark

The birch tree's sap layer is used for insomnia.

Method: shave off or scrape surface of peeled log. Boil half cup of shavings with two cups of water for 15-20 minutes. This is a strong medicine, and only one cup should be taken before bedtime.

Wood

When burned, wood is used to treat cancer. Burn and turn in not too hot fire until charcoal. Crush one tablespoon of charcoal mixed with one cup of water and drink.