An Introduction to Traditional Indigenous Medicine

As they entered the Active Learning Center, they saw tables dotted with plates filled with colorful leaves and herbs, roots and bark. Next to each was a typed description and questions that read like brain teasers for the clinical crowd:

• What is a tincture?
• Are there U.S. laws governing the use of traditional Indigenous medicines?
• Try this sample of “rat root.”
• What properties do you notice?
• What might be uses for this medicine? 

It was a tantalizing introduction to traditional Indigenous medicine, all courtesy of the event’s featured speaker, Terry Maresca, MD, clinical assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Maresca, a native New Yorker and member of the Kanienʼkehá꞉ka nation (located in upstate New York and southeast Canada), is a family medicine physician who also practices traditional Indigenous medicine in the nation’s largest tribal epidemiological center, located in Seattle. The clinic has a formulary as well as tribal and medicinal gardens. Maresca teaches in a residency program that trains physicians to practice both Western and Indigenous medicine.  

The workshop was part of an effort organized by medical students who were awarded a Jacobs School Social Justice Fellowship as a way to bridge education gaps in medical education regarding Indigenous health care. The goal is to develop a relationship with the Indigenous community in Western New York and create a curriculum for medical students to learn how to provide adequate, culturally competent and trauma-informed care. 

“Last year we surveyed students, faculty and staff to assess their knowledge level about Indigenous health and history,” said Amanda Bahgat, a student in the Class of 2026, who shares the fellowship with Danielle Falkenstein, Class of 2025.

The students connected with the UB Department of Indigenous Studies and with leaders from the local Indigenous community. They conducted outreach events and visited the Tuscarora Reservation, developing relationships to find out what the Indigenous community would like to see in the medical curriculum and what physicians need to do to better care for Indigenous patients. 

The feedback they received was instructive, emphasizing a strong preference for herbal and natural medicine over pharmaceuticals due to concerns about side effects and over-reliance on medications, as well as the need for greater support and funding for traditional healing practices and better integration between western and traditional Indigenous medicine. 

It prompted the students to host a lecture series on “Indigenous Health and History,” which included the talk by Maresca focused on herbal medicines and traditional Indigenous healing practices.

The samples at the event prompted convivial conversations, with Maresca sharing information about each medicine. One liquid-filled kettle was labelled swamp tea, used for centuries to treat coughs, colds, lung infections, and joint and arthritis pain. The plants live in cold, swampy environments in the Adirondacks, the Great Lakes regions and Canada.  

Maresca talked about the black cottonwood tree and how its pungent buds contain resin, which are salicylates, like aspirin, containing anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. Its bark, and growths on the bark, are used as an antiseptic, as well as on wounds. “Some people call it Indian Vicks,” she said. “You can use it as a chest rub.” 

She picked up black seeds that looked like lentils, noting, “These are rich in protein and they have fiber content that’s off the charts.”   

Following Maresca’s lecture and opportunities for everyone to check out the medicines and, if they wished, to sample them, attendees learned how to make their own natural lip balm from chickweed, plantain and a low-growing, creeping plant commonly known as selfheal.  

Maresca stressed that cultural and social factors should always be considered when deciding what to prescribe for a patient. She said, for example, an Indigenous medication might be more preferable for treating arthritis than the typical anti-inflammatory medicines that wouldn’t be appropriate if the patient has someone in the home who is struggling with addiction.  

She talked about how important it is for providers to take care in how they communicate with patients. “Sometimes I say, ‘I love that you’re using that, and I know why you are using it, but could we try to make it a little bit safer?’

“It has a lot to do with trust,” she said. “People bring their culture with them in medicine.”