Creek Indian Medicine Ways - by David Jr Lewis & Ann T Jordan (Paperback)

About the Book

In Creek Indian Medicine Ways, Jordan traces the written accounts of Mvskoke religion from the eighteenth century to the present in order to historically contextualize Lewis's story and knowledge. This book is a collaboration between anthropologist and medicine man that provides a rare glimpse of a living religious tradition and its origins.

Book Synopsis

Called the Mvskoke in their language, the Creek Indians of Oklahoma continue to practice traditional medicine. In Creek Indian Medicine Ways, David Lewis, a full-blood Mvskoke and practicing medicine man, tells about the medicine tradition that has shaped his life. Born into a family of medicine people, he was chosen at birth to carry on the tradition. He shares his memories here about his childhood training and initiation as a medicine man as well as his remembrances about his father and grandmother, who trained him. Lewis reveals part of the sacred story of the origin of plants and he identifies some of the plants he uses in his cures. He also describes several of the ceremonies his teachers taught him, stressing throughout the sacredness and importance of Mvskoke medicine.

Ann T. Jordan, a Euroamerican anthropologist, documents the place of Lewis's medicine family in the written record. Lewis is the great grandson of Jackson Lewis, who was interviewed in 1910 by anthropologist John Swanton. Jackson Lewis is mentioned numerous times in Swanton's classic works on Mvskoke medicine and culture, published by the Bureau of American Ethnology in the 1920s. David Lewis is the direct inheritor of his great grandfather's medicine knowledge.

Review Quotes

""Creek Indian Medicine Ways" is a carefully researched and nuanced work that makes a vital contribution to the scholarly discourse on Native American culture."

"Apart from its considerable value as a record of an indigenous medical tradition (minus sacred matter unsuitable for publication), this book also illuminates differences and respective utilities of the obsolete and current ethnographic methods."

"Lewis . . . tells about the medicine tradition that has shaped his life. Anthropologist Jordan documents the place of Lewis's medicine family in the written record and traces the accounts of Mvskoke religion from the 18th century to the present."