Beyond the IHS: Indigenous knowledge and traditional approaches to health and healing

Indians of the Americas have had a long and successful tradition of dealing with health issues. Although Native traditions associated with health and healing have recently been seriously fragmented, this knowledge has not disappeared, as made evident by pharmaceutical pursuits to exploit Indigenous medicinal knowledge. This chapter examines ethnobotanical knowledge of select tribal groups of the Americas, discussing how this knowledge has been applied, historically threatened, and at times used as an alternative to Western society's "medicine men." This chapter also discusses the increasing number of hospitals allowing Native healers to apply their knowledge in the care of Native and, occasionally, non-Native patients.