The American Tradition Health
The tradition of herbal medicine has always been strong in North America, thanks to the pooling of European and Native American skills during the 18th and 19th centuries. Friendly Native American tribes shared their profound knowledge of healing with the first European settlers and introduced to them countless hitherto unknown medicinal and culinary herbs. Many herbs are particularly useful for women's problems, notably squaw vine and blue cohosh, both uterine tonics. The settlers in their turn brought with them the seeds and roots of their most valuable herbs, which took hold and flourished in their new environment. The religious sect called the Shakers lived by agriculture and were also the first white Americans to grow and sell herbs in commercial quantities. The Native Americans of Canada, the United States, and Mexico based their concept of natural medicine on the Great Spirit, and on the Medicine Wheel, within which we are all born and travel on life's journey. The Wheel ...