GOLDENSEAL

A woodland herb worth guarding

WHEN EUROPEANS stepped off their boats onto the land of the Native Americans in the early 1600s, there were no drugs or doctors as they had known them in their homelands. For healing drugs, they turned to the Native Americans who had been relying for thousands of years on the herbs that grew in the natural world they inhabited.

The natives themselves relied for medical help on a medicine man or woman or shaman, who was also considered a holy person because of the belief that their healing reflected the Creator's help and guidance.

The Europeans had just left their homelands where an estimated 60,000 women were burned at the stake for being witches during the years 1400 to 1775. Why? Because they used herbs to heal people.

These women's knowledge of herbs was considered magic. It was not sanctioned by the priests of those days, who also claimed their ability to heal came from God. And since the women healers' power didn't come through the church (and hence from God), they must be in league with the devil, and thus warranted burning.