- Joined
- Jun 30, 2005
- Messages
- 4,223
So last weekend I attended a class on medicinal plants & how to make a tincture. Class was held maybe 15 minutes from my house at a park that use to be a Cherokee Indian Village. The instructor was of Cherokee descent and has a business selling various tinctures/salves/soaps/etc. on her website. Right from the start I could tell there was going to be a lot of Indian spiritual lore discussed. Not an issue as long as there is good information passed along, and it might even add to the class.
Red Flag 1 came about during this part when the instructor claimed to have undergone a vision quest for 7 days with NO WATER and no food. Thinking I'd misheard her I asked for clarification and the same info was repeated. From that point on my outlook on the class was tainted.
Red Flag 2 was watching her continually walk past Dandelions without any mention of their benefits. At first I though maybe she was focusing on some lesser known plants or maybe ones tied to Cherokee lore. When she started in on Pine Needles an Plantains (Plantago Major) I knew that wasn't so.
Red Flag 3 was getting the use & meaning of a plants name wrong. When telling us about the plant Boneset she stated the name came from it's use as a salve or poultice to place over sites of a broken bone to aid in healing. The actual meaning came from it's use to treat Dengue Fever - also know as Break Bone fever due to the horrible joint pain it can cause.
Basically what she knew she knew, but what she didn't she would improvise - usually with some Cherokee story thrown in. Morale of the story: research & quantify the information you are given, don't just take it as Gospel. This is especially true in regards to use of plants as food & medicine.
Some humor was provided by the young 20 something couple that asked about "mushrooms" a couple times. There was also the lady wearing cheesy Indian jewelry that struggled with remembering simple plant traits, but knew right off what SSRIs were. Then there was the guy that thought the Cessna flying overhead was a drone.
That said I did come away with some knowledge. I can better identify some plants & learned of a couple new ones. And at the very least I got out from in front of my computer screen and into the woods.
Red Flag 1 came about during this part when the instructor claimed to have undergone a vision quest for 7 days with NO WATER and no food. Thinking I'd misheard her I asked for clarification and the same info was repeated. From that point on my outlook on the class was tainted.
Red Flag 2 was watching her continually walk past Dandelions without any mention of their benefits. At first I though maybe she was focusing on some lesser known plants or maybe ones tied to Cherokee lore. When she started in on Pine Needles an Plantains (Plantago Major) I knew that wasn't so.
Red Flag 3 was getting the use & meaning of a plants name wrong. When telling us about the plant Boneset she stated the name came from it's use as a salve or poultice to place over sites of a broken bone to aid in healing. The actual meaning came from it's use to treat Dengue Fever - also know as Break Bone fever due to the horrible joint pain it can cause.
Basically what she knew she knew, but what she didn't she would improvise - usually with some Cherokee story thrown in. Morale of the story: research & quantify the information you are given, don't just take it as Gospel. This is especially true in regards to use of plants as food & medicine.
Some humor was provided by the young 20 something couple that asked about "mushrooms" a couple times. There was also the lady wearing cheesy Indian jewelry that struggled with remembering simple plant traits, but knew right off what SSRIs were. Then there was the guy that thought the Cessna flying overhead was a drone.
That said I did come away with some knowledge. I can better identify some plants & learned of a couple new ones. And at the very least I got out from in front of my computer screen and into the woods.
