Origin of Medicine

At one time, animals and people lived together
peaceably and talked with each other.
But when mankind began to multiply rapidly,
the animals were crowded into
forests and deserts. Man began to
destroy animals wholesale for their skins and furs,
not just for needed food.
Animals became angry at such treatment by
their former friends, resolving they
must punish mankind. The bear tribe met
in council, presided over by
Old White Bear, their Chief.
After several bears had spoken against mankind
for their bloodthirsty ways, war was
unanimously agreed upon. But what kinds of
weapons should the bears use?
Chief Old White Bear suggested that man’s weapon,
the bow and arrow, should be turned against him.
All of the council agreed. While the bears worked
and made bows and arrows, they wondered what to do
about bowstrings. One of the bears sacrificed
himself to provide the strings, while the
others searched for good arrow-wood.
When the first bow was completed and tried,
the bear’s claws could not release
the strings to shoot the arrow.
One bear offered to cut his claws,
but Chief Old White Bear would not allow
him to do that, because without claws he could not
climb trees for food and safety. He might starve.
The deer tribe called together its council
led by Chief Little Deer.
They decided that any Indian hunters,
who killed deer without asking pardon
in a suitable manner, should be afflicted with
painful rheumatism in their joints.
After this decision, Chief Little Deer sent a messenger to their nearest neighbours,
the Cherokee Indians.
“From now on, your hunters must first offer
a prayer to the deer before killing him,”
said the messenger.
“You must ask his pardon, stating you are forced only
by the hunger needs of your tribe to kill the deer.
Otherwise, a terrible disease will come to the hunter.”
When a deer is slain by an
Indian hunter, Chief Little Deer will
run to the spot and ask the slain deer’s spirit,
“Did you hear the hunter’s prayer for pardon?”
If the reply is yes, then all is well and Chief
Little Deer returns to his cave.
But if the answer is no, then the Chief
tracks the hunter to his lodge and strikes
him with the terrible disease of rheumatism,
making him a helpless cripple unable to hunt again.
All the fishes and reptiles
then held a council and decided they
would haunt those Cherokee Indians,
who tormented them, by telling them hideous
dreams of serpents twining around
them and eating them alive.
These snake and fish dreams occurred
often among the Cherokees.
To get relief, the Cherokees pleaded with their
Shaman to banish their frightening dreams
if they no longer tormented the snakes and fish.
Now when the friendly plants heard what the
animals had decided against mankind,
they planned a countermove of their own. Each tree,
shrub, herb, grass, and moss agreed to furnish a
cure for one of the diseases named by the animals
and insects.
Thereafter, when the Cherokee Indians
visited their Shaman about their ailments and if
the medicine man was in doubt, he communed with the
spirits of the plants. They always
suggested a proper remedy for mankind’s diseases.
This was the beginning of plant medicine
from nature among the
Cherokees a long, long time ago.