Native American Series 1: Healing Rituals

By Eleanor Johnstone

Rochester, NY – ELEANOR JOHNSTONE:
For many Native Americans, physical and spiritual health are interdependent. Ganondagan site manager Peter Jemison, a Seneca Indian, calls faith a critical part of recovery.

PETER JEMISON:
The person who is being treated has to believe in what is being prescribed for them. They, if they believe in it, it can help them but if they really don't believe in it it's probably not going to help them.

JOHNSTONE: Take the smudging ceremony. In this important Native American healing ritual, a patient or caretaker burns sage to banish negative energies while saying a prayer of Thanksgiving to the Creator.

But in hospitals, smoke and fire are not seen as healers. Rochester's Strong Memorial doesn't allow them. So when a Native American family wanted to hold a smudging ceremony for their sick child a few months ago, the hospital faced a dilemma.

Dr. Les Moore is an integrative practitioner at Clifton Springs Hospital and Clinic. He works with doctors there to personalize treatments. And he firmly believes the mind affects the body. Moore says most hospitals need to pay more attention to their patients' personal beliefs. He says it's especially important for people who only go to the hospital when things get really bad.

LES MOORE:

Then, that's when you need to be open to how to take care of people with their particular cultural preferences, how to interact with them, b/c you can build up a wall.

JOHNSTONE: And when one wall goes up, others quickly follow.

Jeanette Miller, Director of the Friends of Ganondagan in Victor, NY, and a Native American, says many Native Americans don't trust doctors.

JEANETTE MILLER

You can imagine living in a small community with your people and then everybody's there, and then to have to come out and put your hands in a group of hist--people that the history wasn't all that good between the people, you know it's difficult, especially for the elders, y'know, to do that. The younger people are more accepting now because they're coming off the reservations much more.

JOHNSTONE: But it's typically the elders who have the greatest medical needs.

And Jemison says they often hide their preferences from their doctors. For example, Jemison tries to hold healing rituals at home or away from the hospital.

JEMISON:

I mean I may discuss it with the people I'm helping but I wouldn't discuss it with the hospital staff, because I don't know how they would take it, or what their reaction would be to it.

JOHNSTONE: This spiritual disconnect between doctors and patients might not be limited to Native Americans. A Gallup News Service survey shows 90-percent of Americans polled consider themselves to be spiritual, and there's growing demand for alternative healing therapies such as massage and acupuncture.

To build stronger relationships with Native Americans, some hospitals throughout the country are setting up smudging rooms. But Miller, a member of the Mohawk Snipe Clan, says even smaller changes are welcome. For instance, she says some Native Americans - including herself - would rather their doctor didn't walk into the exam room carrying a prescription book.

MILLER:

And I don't want to the goal to be a prescription. I want the goal to be 'Jeanette, this is what you have to do. You have to eat better, exercise, lose weight, you have to do this to get everything back under control.'

JOHNSTONE: The Associate Director of Chaplaincy Services at Strong, Bill Reynolds, says that as America diversifies, hospitals should be making adjustments.

BILL REYNOLDS:

And I think for instance in this establishment, in the medical community, this might involve expanding some of our notions of what healing is, and what's vital for healing, and that the surgery and the smudging might actually be very much connected. And it's not an either/or, it's a both/and.

JOHNSTONE: Strong found a both/and solution to the family's request for a smudging ceremony. They moved the patient outdoors to a children's play deck -- and held the ritual there. It may have been a one-time deal, but officials indicate it did light a spark that -- when fanned by awareness and innovation - will likely spread. Eleanor Johnstone, WXXI News.