Becoming a Cherokee Medicine Man

Swimmer,
a Cherokee Medicine Man
circa 1880

Think you might want to be a Cherokee medicine man?  Are you ready to commit 15 to 20 years studying the 7 disciplines required?  Cherokee medicine, nvwoti (noo wat ee),  is a practice that has developed over the last 3,000 to 4,000 years  and can’t be mastered overnight!  A Cherokee medicine man, Didanawisgi, typically started studying very young as an apprentice with the dream of one day becoming the high master or  Uku!

Following is a list of the seven disciplines as described by Cherokee Medicine and Ethnobotany - ©David Winston, AHG, 2001:

1. Herbal Medicine - an in-depth knowledge of 400-600 plants, their medicinal and ceremonial uses as well as the plants "personality".
2. Physical Medicine - including the unique Cherokee massage (hiskoliya) using persimmon wood stampers, moxabustion, minor surgery, & midwifery.
3. Dreamwork - not only how to interpret dreams, but how to use them for personal growth, healing, and to gain knowledge.
4. Language/Myths/Laws - Cherokee is a language of amazing subtlety and power. The tsila learns not only the subtleties of every day spoken Cherokee, but a separate "medicine" language. Stories, myths, and laws give meaning to the world and help us to understand our place in the Great Life.
5. Ceremonies - the Cherokee traditionally had 7 major ceremonies, 6 of which marked the important yearly cycles, such as the first new moon of Spring, green corn harvest, mature corn harvest, falling leaves festival, and the beginning of winter/exulting ceremony. Many of these ceremonies are still done today and are as meaningful now, if not more so, than in times past. Ceremonial practice also
includes various types of personal, family, community, and national ceremonies that help maintain balance within the individual, the family, the community, and the nation.
6. The laws of nature - keen observers, the Cherokee have for thousands of years paid attention to the world around them. This collected body of knowledge is extensive and it explains why things act as they do and the cause and effect of their interrelationship - why animals behave certain ways, how the sun and moon interrelate, how men and women interact, the nature of water, the fire, the
earth (ela), and so on.
7. Conjuring - although there is no really good word in English to describe this, various words - conjuring, magic, manipulation, partially explain this practice. This is the ability to enlist the aid of spirits and elemental powers to change things, to heal or doctor, to "change one's mind", to bring luck and to protect the sick or weak from negative influences.

The Cherokee credit two sources for much of their knowledge of medicine .First from the plants (refer to  my  April blog, “A Better Healthcare Plan”).  The second from the ancient cannibalistic monster/wizard known as Stone-clad (nvyunuwi).  He was almost impossible to kill because of his incredible wisdom and because he wore  complete body armor made of stone.  But he met his end when he approached a village and the villagers went to their most knowledgeable wizard and asked for his help.  He summoned seven women, from the seven clans who were in their period, and placed them in the path of the advancing Stone-Clad.  James Mooney, in his "Myths of the Cherokee" describes what happened next,

"with each one that he saw his step grew weaker until
when he came to the last one, with whom the sickness had just begun,
the blood poured from his mouth and he fell down on the trail.

Then the medicine-man drove seven sourwood stakes through his
body and pinned him to the ground, and when night came they piled
great logs over him and set fire to them, and all the people gathered
around to see. Nuii'yunu'wi (Stone-Clad) was a great ada'wehi and knew many
secrets, and now as the fire came close to him he began to talk, and
told them the medicine for all kinds of sickness. At midnight he
began to sing, and sang the hunting songs for calling up the bear and
the deer and all the animals of the woods and mountains. As the
blaze grew hotter his voice sank low and lower, until at last when
daylight came, the logs were a heap of white ashes and the voice
was still."

So, the conjures and songs of Stone-clad and the medicinal plants formed the foundation for the last and first disciplines.  The rest were developed over time and taught orally to each generation.  Ready to enroll?