An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

WILLIER, Russell

1 entries
  • 10275

A Cree healer and his medicine bundle: Revelations of indigenous wisdom: Healing plants, practices, and stories.

Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2015.

"With the rise of urban living and the digital age, many North American healers are recognizing that traditional medicinal knowledge must be recorded before being lost with its elders. A Cree Healer and His Medicine Bundle is a historic document, including nearly 200 color photos and maps, in that it is the first in which a native healer has agreed to open his medicine bundle to share in writing his repertoire of herbal medicines and where they are found. Providing information on and photos of medicinal plants and where to harvest them, anthropologist David E. Young and botanist Robert D. Rogers chronicle the life, beliefs, and healing practices of Medicine Man Russell Willier in his native Alberta, Canada. Despite being criticized for sharing his knowledge, Willier later found support in other healers as they began to realize the danger that much of their traditional practices could die out with them. 

"With Young and Rogers, Willier offers his practices here for future generations. At once a study and a guide, A Cree Healer and His Medicine Bundle touches on how indigenous healing practices can be used to complement mainstream medicine, improve the treatment of chronic diseases, and lower the cost of healthcare. The authors discuss how mining, agriculture, and forestry are threatening the continued existence of valuable wild medicinal plants and the role of alternative healers in a modern health care system. Sure to be of interest to ethnobotanists, medicine hunters, naturopaths, complementary and alternative health practitioners, ethnologists, anthropologists, and academics, this book will also find an audience with those interested in indigenous cultures and traditions" (publisher).

"The Cree (CreeNēhiyawFrenchCri) are one of the largest groups of First Nations in North America, with over 200,000 members living in Canada. The major proportion of Cree in Canada live north and west of Lake Superior, in OntarioManitobaSaskatchewanAlberta and the Northwest Territories. About 38,000 live in Quebec.[1]

In the United States, this Algonquian-speaking people historically lived from Lake Superior westward. Today, they live mostly in Montana, where they share a reservation with the Ojibwe (Chippewa).

The documented westward migration over time has been strongly associated with their roles as traders and hunters in the North American fur trade.[3] "(Wikipedia).



Subjects: ANTHROPOLOGY › Medical Anthropology, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › Canada, NATIVE AMERICANS & Medicine, PHARMACOLOGY › Ethnopharmacology, TRADITIONAL, Folk or Indigenous Medicine, U.S.: CONTENT OF PUBLICATIONS BY STATE & TERRITORY › Montana