Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
First Advisor
Sean Jacobson
Second Advisor
Ansley Quiros
Third Advisor
Brian Dempsey
Abstract
Studies on traditional Cherokee medicine during the 1800s explained Cherokee religious beliefs and the treatments they used to heal the members of their community. However, no updated research has been done to see if Cherokees are still using traditional medicine and if they are, which kinds are they using in the 21st century. This is in part due to the fact that Native Americans and the U.S. government have a complicated relationship from centuries of mistreatment, broken treaties, and the removal from their ancestral homelands. This has created a distrust between native and non-natives. Today, traditional healers' identities are protected as they are important and sacred members of the community. This makes it difficult to know how many people are using traditional medicine, what is being treated with traditional medicine, and what are the beliefs surrounding traditional medicine. Political division between traditionalists and progressives among the Cherokee Nation has also made information on traditional medicine difficult to find as the former were wanting to continue in their traditional ways while the later wanted to assimilate into American culture and society. This divide has made it so certain members of the Cherokee Nation know more about traditional medicine than others. I argue that the Trail of Tears, the Civil War, allotment/statehood and the political divisions among the Cherokee Nation during these time periods created a distrust between natives and non-natives as well as created a divide in knowledge of traditional medicine, making it difficult to find information on it today.
Recommended Citation
Bills, Rebecca, "THE TRANSFORMATION OF CHEROKEE MEDICIAL PRACTICES AND THE HESITATIONS THAT SURROUND THEM" (2023). Theses. 33.
https://roar.una.edu/theses/33
