Medicine Women Curanderas and Women Doctors NS 241

Medicine Women, Curanderas, and Women Doctors NS 241 C. H. A. S. E. Krysten Leas June 22 nd, 2009 Donald L. Williams

Annie Kahn • “The Flower That Speaks in a Pollen Way” http: //www. cowtownonline. com/ct? PAGEID=36&class_dat=&SID_dat=

Annie Kahn History • Navajo medicine woman • Water Clan • Lukachukai, Arizona on the Navajo Reservation • Her name is Americanized • Began her education in becoming a medicine woman before birth • A blessing ceremony was held over Annie’s pregnant mother • “I was blessed in a Blessingway before I was born, ” she stated. “The Blessingway is a Ph. D. in my culture, before birth. ” • As a child she used the fives senses to connect with nature • Learns about the four seasons at a young age • Learns the concepts of illnesses before the healing process

The Six Steps of Healing • Consciousness raising • Organization and order • Obedience and faith • Power and spirituality • Preparation for the ceremony • The selected ceremony itself

… • The healing will come slowly and in dreams • Healing comes from faith and chants • The plants are used to determine the consciousness raising • Works with AMA doctors when they need consulting and when she has come to a dead end as well

Tu Moonwalker “Apache Weaver of Healing” http: //bearmedicineherbals. com/? cat=113

Tu Moonwalker History • Everyone in her family were medicine men or woman • Special characteristics at birth • Tu past the ancient tests which are part of the puberty rites. It is one week down in the desert and one week up in the mountains alone • Learned about healing plants and herbs at a young age • Spent her first years fighting infantile paralysis • Listened to the descriptions of the plants • Learned the art of the Apache basketmaking and healing • Vision quest

The Healing • Can use herbs to calm emotions • Uses psychology to help people with there problems • Tu Moonwalker is a double reference with psychology. The knowledge she gained from the tribe, and from formal education • “Half of medicine is psychic, ” she says. “You know immediately what's wrong with someone. They don’t tell you. Their soul will. ”

• “Each basket that Tu sells bring to its new owner the spirit of Apache healing-indeed an uncommon way to cure. ” http: //www. lodestartraders. com/Western-Apache-Basket-Circa-1910 -sp/b 79700. htm

Dhyani Ywahoo • Priestcraft holder of the Ani Gadoah Clan, Tsalagi (Cherokee) Nation http: //medicineshieldpathways. com/spiritualtools. html

Dhyani Ywahoo Accomplishments • A medicine woman for the • Delegate to the United Cherokee Nations in Geneva • Graduated from New York • Is keeper of the sacred University crystals for her tribe http: //www. amerak. com/cherokee. htm • Founder and director of the Sunray Meditation Society • “Which has grown out of traditions of Native American Indians. Offering programs in meditation, music, dance, and the healing arts.

Dhyani Ywahoo History • She was referred to as “the old man before birth” • Had the need to be quiet as a child • Ceremonies consisted of messaging, pulling, and tugging to shape her • Ywahoo and the fire understand each other • She chose to be a medicine woman at a young age, no one chose her to be • Was taught to think and speak • Also taught to never show emotion through facial expressions

Healing Ceremonies • Preparation for healing ceremonies is silence and fasting for three or four days • Gathering frequencies • Gain a certain pitch (every organ has a certain pitch) • Great preparation is needed to tune ones voice • In the ceremonies the bundles of crystals are past around

Overall… • Each of the three women had become medicine women of there tribes, they all new at a young age of what there lives were going to consist of • The medicine women have there own accomplishments of being known for what they have done for there own nations • All agreed to be interviewed to get there different ways of healing out into the world

Work Cited Page • Perrone, Bobette, Stockel, Henrietta, and Krueger, Victoria. Medicine Women, Curanderas, and Women Doctors. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.