This book is a historic document in that it is, to the best of our knowledge, the first time that a Native healer has agreed to share in writing his or her repertoire of herbal medicines and where they are found. This is the culmination of a long process, beginning in the 1980s when Russell Willier had the courage to begin sharing his knowledge in the hope that a book on the topic (Cry of the Eagle: Encounters with a Cree Healer) might inspire Native young people to become interested in traditional Native culture, spirituality, and healing. He also hoped that demonstrating the effectiveness of Native medicine would help preserve it for the future and help pave the way for greater cooperation between Native healers and Western medical practitioners in the interests of improving health care.
At first, Russell Willier was criticized for sharing this knowledge, but over the years, other healers began to realize that there is a real danger that much traditional knowledge could die out as the elders pass on. Today, there is widespread support for recording knowledge of medicinal plants and how they are used for future generations. The Centre for the Cross-Cultural Study of Health and Healing (now the Centre for Health and Culture) at the University of Alberta, with the help of the director, Dr. Earle Waugh, and Clifford Cardinal, a prominent Native healer on staff, is spearheading an effort to document the medicinal knowledge of a number of Native healers across Canada. The task ahead is a challenging one, as there are numerous Native healers with priceless knowledge. It is not a matter of simply choosing a prominent healer from each cultural group, as different healers within the same group possess different knowledge that has been passed down to them from sacred traditions with considerable antiquity. Thus it may be necessary in some cases to include more than one individual from a cultural group. Other sources of variation in traditional medicinal knowledge include things like differing histories of cultural repression and differing geographical climates.
As the task progresses, however, a solid base of traditional medicinal knowledge will gradually be established to provide a foundation for future cultural revitalization, training of young healers, and education of aboriginals and others in medical schools. The database will also provide a foundation for conducting scientific investigations of the efficacy of Native medicine, how this efficacy can be explained, and how this knowledge can be used to broaden and increase the efficacy of health care systems as a whole. It is important to emphasize that future books on this topic will not reveal complex medicinal formulas that are intended to be used in a ritual context. This kind of sacred knowledge must continue to be safeguarded by healers and scientists alike to prevent it from falling into the hands of those who wish to use it for profit. Rather, future books will provide a valuable resource for aboriginal healers and elders who wish to instruct young people on what the traditional herbs look like and where they can be found. Instruction concerning how to combine the herbs into medicines and how to use these medicines properly must continue to be provided by qualified healers.