Native American Beliefs Concerning Health and Unwellness

Abstract

Most Native American cultures have a high degree of integration between their religious beliefs and their beliefs about health. Healing cannot be separated from culture, sacred narratives or religion, nor can the social behavior of the Indians be separated from these things (Levy, 1963). Kluckhohn and Leighton (1962) have noted that healing ceremonies are an integral part of the community experience for the Navajo, and that there is no distinct Navajo term for “religion” in the Western sense. Kahn et al. (1975) observed while doing a study of Tohono O’odham ceremonies that the investigators were unable to distinguish between healing and worship. Aberle (1966) noted little difference in religious and traditional healing practices of American Indians. To the Navajo and Tohono O’odham, as well as other tribes, it would seem that there is little or no difference between religion and medicine, between church and a hospital. Preston and Hammerschlag (1983) observed that “partaking in Indian (healing) ceremonies represents no essential difference from eating communion wafers or wearing prayer shawls”. In this American Indian belief system, then, health is, as Carl Hammerschlag (1985) has observed, “not only a physical state, but also a spiritual one”.