~Some plants used as medicine, like Lion's Mane, will be added below this page on the menu.~

 

"The usual practices of so-called "medicine-men" shall be considered "Indian offenses" cognizable by the Court of Indian Offenses, and whenever it shall be proven to the satisfaction of the court that the influence or practice of a so-called "medicine-man" operates as a hindrance to the civilization of a tribe, or that said "medicine-man" resorts to any artifice or device to keep the Indians under his influence, or shall adopt any means to prevent the attendance of children at the agency schools, or shall use any of the arts of a conjurer to prevent the Indians from abandoning their heathenish rites and customs, he shall be adjudged guilty of an Indian offense, and upon conviction of any one or more of these specified practices, or, any other, in the opinion of the court, of an equally anti-progressive nature, shall be confined in the agency prison for a term not less than ten days, or until such time as he shall produce evidence satisfactory to the court, and approved by the agent, that he will forever abandon all practices styled Indian offenses under this rule."

https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Code_of_Indian_Offenses

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/364.html

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Prion diseases like CWD are spreading rapidly in deer and other animals.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmissible_spongiform_encephalopathy

So far only one group of humans has developed an immunity to a prion disease. They are an isolated tribe that has avoided the melting pot more or less.

"It's absolutely fascinating to see Darwinian principles at work here. This community of people has developed their own biologically unique response to a truly terrible epidemic. The fact that this genetic evolution has happened in a matter of decades is remarkable."

— John Collinge, Medical Research Council 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease)

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Indigenous medicines and sciences are wholistic. Their purpose is to protect not only the individual but also the environment within which the individual lives. They are built around first learning, then acting.

Industrial melting pot 'medicine' has led to many new diseases which are manifesting slowly in developed countries, but accelerating. It is based on first establishing an authority, then using coercion to force obedience.

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Traditional indigenous medical systems always start with a new, original paradigm or worldview. 

When that worldview is destroyed or 'disappeared' by a conquering system it does not become irrelevant or untrue, it becomes ignored, invisible.

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A mysterious fungus has wiped out dozens of amphibian species in recent years. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature10947

Just in the last few decades that disease has become the most catastrophic historic illness scientists are aware of.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/bd-frogs-apocalypse-disease/585862/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/06/health/drug-resistant-candida-auris.html

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2019/04/whats-causing-an-outbreak-of-a-mysterious-fungal-infection-americas-farms-offer-a-clue/

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Thousands of generations ago, all of modern humans were in Africa.

https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/indigenous-medicine-and-traditional-healing

Some people ventured east.

Some went west. 

A lot of medical traditions developed. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_medicine

Each of them had unique qualities, quirks of their development, that did not exist in other medical traditions. 

These thousands of medical traditions dispersed over the planet, each becoming more and more refined with each generation. 

Then Europeans started winning the battle for land.

Very quickly medicine became a way to enforce cultural supremacy. If you can force somebody to use your medicine it becomes proof that your culture is "best". Just like language, religion and many other things, the only tool you need to prove your medicine is superior to your neighbors' medicines is better guns than your neighbors have. As long as you can conquer your neighbor you can 'prove' your medicine superior. 

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When medicine has become stagnant, as with western medicine, it loses its 'art' aspect and becomes a steadily declining effort to extract the remnants of its tradition, like developing a thousand flavors of ice cream and pretending that they are a thousand different foods. 

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Today, as it becomes fashionable to cultivate indigenous cultures, governments are trying to justify themselves by showing that "their" melting pot has things of value. 

http://www.indigenousmedimini.gov.lk/

The problem is that once a group is "owned" by the melting pot their development stops and all that is left is refinement. 

Unless there are numerous isolated groups with distinct languages and traditions, medicine becomes more and more like a glider with one good wing, flying in smaller and smaller circles. 

 

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Native_American_peoples_in_the_United_States 

There are still a few tribes, scattered around the world, that have the means to solve difficult medical issues in new ways.

In many cases they become pawns to local political interests, often at the boundaries of issues that governments and wealthy groups use to subdue local populations, such as resources, 'illicit' drugs, etc. 

http://chihuahuanoticias.com/2018/04/18/asesinan-al-luchador-social-de-los-tarahumaras-en-madera/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarahumara_people

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarahumara_language

~In progress~