When it comes to Native American Herbal Remedies, many of us are familiar with the benefits of Echinacea or purple coneflower as an antibiotic, willow bark as a pain killer, and aloe as a topical anesthetic and treatment for skin conditions. But that’s common knowledge compared to the insights and treatments that Native American medicine men discovered and used.
Native American medicine men developed a wheel very similar to the yin/yang of Asian medicine. The use of herbal remedies and other alternative forms of treatment was the cutting-edge medicine of their day. This was a holistic approach to medical treatment that relied heavily on plants and their unique benefits.
What follows is a list of indigenous plants, trees, fruits, and flowers unique to North America that have surprising benefits as defined by Native American tribes.
If and when times are tough, it might be good to keep some of these ancient cures in mind. They also are good for everyday needs when you consider how effective some of them can be.
Licorice tea for a sore throat is a good example. It’s also interesting that many of these natural cures are still in use today, including beeswax and bee pollen, chamomile, and others. It’s a good demonstration of the benefit of wisdom developed over centuries.
It’s hard to know how Native Americans determined which plants might have medicinal properties, although trial and error was probably one approach. It’s also thought that they observed sick animals eating certain plants and determined that those plants must have a certain property worth exploring. Since that time, scientific studies have verified the medicinal value of many plants. In fact, common aspirin is derived from salicin, a chemical in the inner bark of willow trees that was used in ancient times for fever and pain.
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These medicines were usually administered via teas or pastes that were either ingested or applied externally. Sometimes the plants were eaten as food or added to food or water. On occasion, a salve or poultice was applied to open wounds. I would strongly recommend that you avoid the latter, given the risk of infection from wild sources.
I’ve omitted many of the natural remedies. There was a use for mistletoe that I came across, but mistletoe is essentially poisonous and if not used properly the results could be counter-productive, if not deadly.
Indigenous plants, trees, fruits and flowers that were used as Herbal remedies by the Native American to treat different illnesses
1. Alfalfa:
Relieves digestion and is used to aid blood clotting. Contemporary uses included treatment of arthritis, bladder and kidney conditions, and bone strength. It enhances the immune system.
2. Aloe:
A cactus-like plant. The thick leaves can be squeezed to extrude a thick sap that can be used to treat burns, insect bites, and wounds.
3. Aspen:
The inner bark or xylem is used in tea to treat fever, coughs, and pain. It contains salicin, which also is found in willow trees and is the foundation ingredient for aspirin.
4. Bee pollen:
When mixed with food it can boost energy, aid digestion, and enhance the immune system. If you’re allergic to bee stings you will most likely be allergic to bee pollen.
5. Beeswax:
Used as a salve for burns and insect bites, including bee stings. Intended to only be used externally.
6. Blackberry:
The root, bark, and leaves when crushed and infused in a tea are used to treat diarrhea, reduce inflammation, and stimulate metabolism. As a gargle, it treats sore throats, mouth ulcers, and inflammation of the gums.
7. Black Raspberry:
The roots of this plant are crushed and used as tea or boiled and chewed to relieve coughs, diarrhea, and general intestinal distress.
8. Buckwheat:
The seeds are used in soups and as porridge to lower blood pressure, help with blood clotting, and relieve diarrhea.
9. Cayenne:
The pods are used as a pain reliever when taken with food or drunk in a tea. Also used to threaten arthritis and digestive distress. It is sometimes applied to wounds as a powder to increase blood flow and act as an antiseptic and anesthetic to numb the pain.
10. Chamomile:
The leaves and flowers are used as tea to treat intestinal problems and nausea.
11. Chokecherry:
Considered by Native American tribes as an all-purpose medicinal treatment, the berries were pitted, dried, and crushed into a tea or a poultice to treat a variety of ailments. These include coughs, colds, flu, nausea, inflammation, and diarrhea. As a salve or poultice, it is used to treat burns and wounds. The pit of the chokecherry – much like apple seeds – is poisonous in high concentrations. Be sure to pit the cherries if you’re considering this for any use.
12. Echinacea:
Also known as purple coneflower, this is a classic Native American medicine that is used to strengthen the immune system, fight infections, and fever. It also is used as an antiseptic and general treatment for colds, coughs, and flu.
13. Eucalyptus:
The oil from the leaves and roots is a common treatment when infused in a tea to treat coughs, sore throat, flu, and fever. It’s used to this day as an ingredient in cough drops.
14. Fennel:
A plant with a licorice flavor, is used in a tea or chewed to relieve coughs, sore-throat, aid digestion, offer relief to diarrhea, and was a general treatment for colds. It also is used as a poultice for eye relief and headaches.
15. Feverfew:
Used to this day as a natural relief for fever and headaches – including severe headaches like migraines – it also can be used for digestive problems, asthma, and muscle and joint pains.
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16. Feverwort:
Another fever remedy also is used for general pain, itching, and joint stiffness. It can be ingested as a tea or chewed, or crushed to a paste as a salve or poultice.
17. Ginger root:
Another super plant in Native American medicine, the root was crushed and consumed with food, such as tea or a salve or poultice. Known to this day for its ability to aid digestive health, it also is anti-inflammatory, aids circulation, and can relieve colds, coughs, and flu, in addition to bronchitis and joint pain.
18. Ginseng:
This is another contemporary herb that has a history that goes back across cultures for millennia. The roots were used by Native Americans as a food additive, tea, and a poultice to treat fatigue, boost energy, enhance the immune system and help with overall liver and lung function. The leaves and stems also were used, but the root has the most concentration of active ingredients.
19. Goldenrod:
Commonly thought of today as a source of allergies and sneezing, it was actually considered another all-in-one Native American herbal remedy. As a tea, an addition to food and a topical salve, it is used to treat conditions from bronchitis and chest congestion to colds, flu, inflammation, sore throats, and as an antiseptic for cuts and abrasions.
20. Honeysuckle:
The berries, stems, flowers, and leaves are used to topically treat bee stings and skin infections. As a tea, it is used to treat colds, headaches, and sore throat. It also has anti-inflammatory properties.
21. Hops:
As a tea it is used to treat digestive problems and often mixed with other herbs or plants, such as aloe, to soothe muscles. It also is used to soothe toothaches and sore throat.
22. Licorice:
Roots and leaves can be used for coughs, colds, sore throats. The root also can be chewed to relieve toothaches.
23. Mullein:
As an infusion in tea or added to a salad or other food, this is a plant that has been used by Native Americans to treat inflammation, coughs, congestion, and general lung afflictions. It is quite common and you probably have it growing in your backyard or somewhere close.
24. Passion flower:
The leaves and roots are used to make tea to treat anxiety and muscle pain. A poultice for injuries to the skin such as burns, insect bites, and boils also can be made from passionflower.
25. Red clover:
It grows everywhere and the flowers, leaves, and roots are usually infused in tea or are used to top food. It is used to manage inflammation, improve circulation, and treat respiratory conditions.
26. Rose hip:
This is the red to orange berry that is the fruit of wild roses. It is already known to be a massive source of vitamin C and when eaten whole, crushed into a tea, or added to food it is used to treat colds and coughs, intestinal distress, as an antiseptic and to treat inflammation.
27. Rosemary:
A member of the pine family and used in the food and as a tea to treat muscle pain, improve circulation, and as a general cleanser for the metabolism.
28. Sage:
A far-reaching shrub across much of North America, it is a natural insect repellent and can be used for the standard list of digestive disorders, colds, and sore throat.
29. Spearmint:
Used consistently by Native American tribes for treatment of coughs, colds, respiratory distress, and as a cure for diarrhea and a stimulant for blood circulation.
30. Valerian:
The root as an infusion in a tea relieves muscle aches, pain and is said to have a calming effect.
31. White Pine:
Ubiquitous and the needles and the inner bark can be infused in a tea. Used as a standard treatment for respiratory distress and chest congestion.
If you’re an expert on Native American cures I’m sure you can add many to this list of Native American Herbal Remedies.
There are some excellent books on nature’s cures and the specific medicinal properties that Native American tribes discovered. Natural remedies are worth considering both from a historical and potentially practical point-of-view. Just make sure you identify them properly.
Ending this article, I highly recommend this book to everyone. 300 pages, color, paperback. The Lost Book of Remedies is helping Americans achieve medical self-sufficiency even in the darkest times using the time-tested methods of our grandparents without spending lots of money on toxic drugs and without side effects. A great asset when doctors and hospitals won’t be available any more given the current situation. You may not be Claude Davis, but you can make use of his procedures and techniques to increase your chances of survival!
Before you go to bed tonight, do this ONE “stupidly simple” Greek ritual to reverse your diabetes…This diabetes-reversing trick was previously known ONLY to the inhabitants of a small, barely populated Greek island, 4800 miles from home… check it out here.
Medicine from plants is a ancient and UNIVERSAL thing/practice. EUROPEANS have always practiced NATURAL & HERBAL MEDICINE first and foremost, like all of those products always for sale in the Apothecaries in Germany ( I think a lot of those products have their origins from the medieval Catholic monasteries and convents that grew those plants in their gardens for medicinal use, that’s why some of them have pictures of and reference to monks and nuns on their packaging and in their names up to now still like “KLOSTER FRAU” ( just like BEER & CHAMPAGNE was invented by CATHOLIC MONKS ). If I’m recalling correctly here the man who invented HOMEOPATHY was also German. Same thing in Austria and Switzerland and I guess all over Europe. And in countries like Poland and Russia, if I recall correctly in countries along the Baltic where AMBER comes from they believe that wearing AMBER JEWELRY has medicinal benefits on the wearer of it.
If I recall correctly medicinal ALOE was also used by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks ( and maybe by the Romans too ).
I can’t think of what other kind of medicine they would have practiced throughout the Bible times.
Africans practice it. Asians practice it ( China practices TCM and India practices AYURVEDIC medicine ). I guess that all of the MAJORITY ISLAMIC/ MIDDLE EASTERN countries practice it. Like I already said because it’s the ORIGINAL & ANCIENT & UNIVERSAL PRACTICE OF MEDICINE & HEALING.
All of those BIG PHARMA pills and other “medicines” are what’s truly UNNATURAL & ABNORMAL( and that’s exactly how they affect you whenever you take any ) and I have NEVER EVER been a fan of taking any of that crap ! I really consider all of that modern pharmaceutical CRAP to come from SATAN ( out of SATAN’S LABORATORIES ) ! It’s also DESTROYING OUR ENVIRONMENT too. That’s why we don’t live as long as some of the people in the Holy Bible did because just imagine how much our environment has been POLLUTED & DESTROYED since they lived ! They also didn’t have anything NUCLEAR up until ALBERT EINSTEIN and my German grandmother told me when I was a child about how she had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING PLASTIC growing up ( all of those plastic products didn’t exist yet, or at least they didn’t in Germany when she was growing up there ) and by now there is PLASTIC EVERYWHERE ! PLASTIC ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER ! It makes me think of that Japanese song on YouTube titled : PLASTIC LOVE.
And every time I see those ST.JUDE and SHRINERS commercials on TV, I always suspect that at least most of those children are sick because of ENVIRONMENTAL origins. Like on that ERIN BROCKOVICH movie.
Don’t all of those modern pharmaceuticals these days fit to what is in the book of Revelation about the PHARMAKEIA of the end times/last days( spelled something like that, I don’t even see the word in my Bible dictionary right now, I think it’s a Greek word ) ?
Just like WITCHCRAFT is the ancient and original and universal religion of FALLEN HUMANITY according to the preacher DEREK PRINCE , which is TRUE. That’s why WITCHCRAFT/SHAMANISM was/ is practiced by ALL PEOPLES in this world.
Even while growing up in Germany in the 80’s I was a witness to old or even ancient European PAGAN/SHAMANIC practices still being practiced.Like at the end of one winter these people dressed up in costumes I guess kind of like DEVILS walked along the path by my grandparents house CRACKING THEIR WHIPS LOUDLY IN THE AIR TO USHER OUT THE WINTER, I was outside in my grandparents yard by the fence as they walked by doing that, I was told that they were ethnic Germans from Siebenburgen Romania . It was kind of comparable to the scenes in LOREENA MCKENNETT’S ( don’t know if I spelled her last name correctly ) “MUMMER’S DANCE” video.
And look up the OCCULT version of WALPURGISNACHT celebrations. The OCCULT version of WALPURGISNACHT was what HITLER and those close to him were into.
In Scandinavia they still have SHAMANS, I saw one on TV before, he was dressed all in leather ( probably even BUCKSKIN ) and wore ANTLERS on his head and looked Scandinavian.
The Native Americans came into contact mostly with Europeans from SPAIN and ENGLAND. And I think that the conflict between them and THE PROTESTANT SETTLERS/COLONISTS FROM ENGLAND was the worst.
And the Amish call everyone in the USA who isn’t Amish “THE ENGLISH”, ” BE YE CAREFUL AMONG THEM ENGLISH “, I heard that said in a movie about the Amish set in contemporary times.
I believe that information/knowledge about medicinal plants and other natural medicinal things and healing can be gotten from BOTH the Kingdom of God ( like the Catholic monasteries and convents of Europe, like some Catholic Saints did and through prayer for some examples )and from the Kingdom of Darkness ( from THE FALLEN ONES, through witchcraft,sorcery, shamanism, rituals to/for “THE GOD’S” , for some examples )
Because in the above article there is wondering about HOW the Native Americans got the knowledge of these plants, my answer to that is they got it the same way all the other PAGAN/HEATHEN peoples on this earth got it : THROUGH CONTACTING THE FALLEN ONES for that information, usually through A SHAMAN ( or “MEDICINE MAN” ), that’s exactly what SHAMANS are for, and many different people all over this globe have THEIR SHAMANS, all of this is not unique only to Native Americans. Even in some Japanese Anime there are SHAMANS, why ? Because even in Japan they still have SHAMANS too. Also in South Korea, I saw a female one there on TV. THE SHAMANS ( or “MEDICINE MAN” ) MAKE CONTACT WITH THE SPIRIT WORLD ( known to Christians as THE FALLEN ONES, FALLEN SPIRITS ), they become MEDIUMS of THE FALLEN ONES( who can still also do some GOOD & HELPFUL/BENEFICIAL & HEALING deeds too, just like THE FAIRY FOLK ).This stuff is practiced ALL OVER THE GLOBE.
Just a few days ago I bought a Tony Hillerman SKINWALKERS audio book and am working my way through listening through it. In the past I looked at the Tony Hillerman episodes on PBS. Ever since about my pre teens I was interested in the SOUTHWEST U.S. and still always want to go visit that desert ( and drive through it , like a Thelma and Louise/ Route 66 road trip with eating at diners along the way the whole time) so I thought I better educate myself on these so called “SKINWALKERS” before I enter their territory.
They sound to me similar to WEREWOLVES.
DEREK PRINCE says that Native Americans are STEEPED IN WITCHCRAFT. His sermons are on YouTube. Derek Prince is one of the Protestant preachers/teachers that I like to listen to sometimes on some things, he was born in India so he had exposure to the kingdom of darkness and witchcraft early on in his childhood in India.
If your Native American a good movie to watch is : KATERI