Circumpolar traditional healing techniques and their application in contemporary allopathic settings

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Circumpolar traditional healing techniques and
their application in contemporary allopathic
settings

• Carl M. Hild, PhD, MS
• Associate Professor
• Director, Health Services Administration Program
• Business Administration Department
• Alaska Pacific University
• 29 May 2009
• International Society for Shamanistic Research
  Presentation
• Anchorage, Alaska

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Work based on an Arctic Council report
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Acknowledgments

• National Institutes of Health - National Center
  for Minority Health and Health Disparities R24
  MD000499 funding to the University of Alaska
  Anchorage for the Institute for Circumpolar
  Health Studies.
• National Library of Medicine Specialized
  Information Services funding to Alaska Pacific
  University through a Professional Service
  Agreement for the preparation of two motion
  pictures - Understanding the Healing Hands of
  the Maniilaq Tribal Doctors

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Acknowledgments

• Helen Bolen, Chief Executive Officer, for
  permission to access Maniilaq Association staff,
  files, and records to learn more about the Tribal
  Doctor Program.
• Leland Barger Sr., Executive Director of the NANA
  Regional Elders Council and the Inupiaq Language
  Program, and Tribal Doctor, for his translation,
  insights, and sharing of alternative modes of
  healing, along with providing active interface
  with the Elders on these issues.

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OBJECTIVES

• To better understand how existing health systems
  can be structured to engage indigenous cultural
  values and techniques to promote healing and
  well-being.
• To better understand the healing aspects of
  special places and the environment.

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Foundation for the objectiveS

• This community-based participatory research was
  based on a two-year effort to identify the
  investigative needs within the Maniilaq
  Associations Tribal Doctor Program in Kotzebue,
  Alaska.
• Places of Ancient Traditional Healing (PATH) are
  similar to the allopathic clinics, hospitals, and
  spas, along with spiritual centers.
• Indigenous healers are similar to pharmacists,
  physicians, psychologists, and spiritual leaders.
  

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ENGAGEMENT Results

• The participants told personal stories that
  reflected the contemporary spiritual and healing
  attributes of a PATH, which were remarkably
  similar.
• They repeatedly requested that its solitary and
  rustic nature be preserved.
• The primary Inupiaq values identified with the
  place are respect for nature, spirituality,
  knowledge of the language, sharing, respect for
  elders, respect for others, and cooperation.

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Contemporary Utilization

• Medicinal Places that are used for the
  collection or preparation of healing products
  such as plants (fresh, dried, ashed, poked -
  preserved in seal oil), minerals (soil, crystals,
  talisman, jade for surgical knives), water
  (ocean, fresh, spring), animals (blood, organ
  tissue, skin, marrow, sinew, talisman), human
  (blood, milk, urine, saliva, breath, hair).
• Not unlike hospitals or clinics where medicines
  are received.
• Not just the biochemically active agents but the
  appropriate healing attributes for the
  individual.

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contemporary Utilization

• Physical Places that are used for healing the
  body such as hot springs, tidal areas, camps away
  from the village, places for sweat houses, birth
  houses, or journey paths to secure items or
  knowledge.
• Not unlike hospital or clinic settings, or spas
  and retreats, where there is a recognition that
  healing takes place.
• This includes all aspects of the environment, the
  body, and their interrelatedness.

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Contemporary Utilization

• Mental Places that are used for training
  traditional healers, or for gaining insight or
  clairvoyance. Also places that offer time to
  reflect or ones that require shifting from the
  regular routine to travel through new areas that
  offer benefits.
• Not unlike going away for medical training,
  hospital room views that are conducive to
  healing, or retreats for advancing well-being.
• This includes knowing who you are and your role
  within the community. It may include how to
  access information from non-local consciousness.

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contemporary Utilization

• Spiritual Places that are used for entering the
  spirit world, engaging spiritual strength, for a
  quest, or are noted as having spirits present in
  the form of ghosts or other entities.
• Not unlike hospital prayer rooms, meditation
  retreats, or religious houses where one can feel
  mystical support or a sensed presence.
• Places for understanding and honoring
  relationships in a respectful manner.

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Conclusion

• The application of Action Research (Stringer,
  1999) and Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider
  Srivastva, 1999) in a multicultural setting has
  been successful. This process is now proposed to
  be utilized under the title of Multicultural
  Engagement for Learning and Understanding (MELU).
  
• Milieu a central location, a setting, or an
  environment.

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Action

• Nenets Through the CAFF report are making their
  PATH known so that they may be protected.
  Investigators are documenting the knowledge,
  skills, techniques, and spiritual practices.
• Further mapping endeavors will enrich the
  knowledge of the healing attributes of these
  sites.
• A request by the Nenets to travel across the land
  to indentify new sites has been made. This
  process could be documented.

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Action

• Sami Interest in the traditional knowledge,
  skills, practices, and spiritual nature of their
  techniques and healing places is being renewed.
• Understanding the relationship of such places and
  their associated practices is seen as important
  to climate change adaptation.
• Engagement of allopathic settings has been
  requested documenting the physician and
  psychiatrist like services.

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MELU Action

• Medicinal - Indigenous knowledge of healing
  materials have been and continue to be the
  foundation of the pharmaceutical industry.
• Physical - Knowing that the environment is
  healthy is part of knowing that ones culture and
  body is well.
• Mental - Knowing that traditional practices
  continue to be of value builds self-esteem and
  confidence.
• Spiritual - Accessing non-local consciousness for
  diagnosis and treatment is an art to be learned.

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MELU Action

• The Maniilaq Association is assessing their new
  electronic database of nearly 5,000 Tribal Doctor
  encounters.
• This data is now being utilized to document the
  services and secure funding for further endeavors
  to understand the techniques and knowledge being
  applied.
• A proposal from 2000 to NIH on chronic pain
  management maybe revised and resubmitted.

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MELU Action

• An inventory of Alaskan Places of Ancient
  Traditional Healing has been initiated with the
  digitization of over 2,200 BIA 14(h)1 survey
  reports, which can now be word searched.
• Cultural use mapping is being employed to
  document such locations for future management and
  protection.
• Alfs 2009 Alaska Pacific University
  Environmental Sciences Thesis was completed on
  this topic.

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MELU Action

• The National Library of Medicine supported
  editing 25 year-old video tapes of renowned
  Inupiaq traditional healer Della Keats into
  Understanding the Healing Hands of the Maniilaq
  Tribal Doctors for allopathic caregiver
  orientation and Tribal Doctor Trainees.
• An osteopathic physician provided commentary on
  the techniques being used in the videos.
• Gaps in the documentation have been identified
  and funding is being sought to secure new
  materials for an expanded program.

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Grateful Thanks are extended To

• The Tribal Doctors of Western Alaska, who are the
  foundation upon which this work has been built
  and without whom it could not have moved forward.
• Those from around the circumpolar region who have
  shared their personal stories of the PATH and
  participated in this work.
• Those who have passed along the knowledge of the
  PATH over generations.
• Those who supported and contributed to these
  investigations academically, fiscally,
  intellectually, programmatically, and
  spiritually.

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Thank You For this Opportunity

• Are there questions please?
• Carl M. Hild, PhD, MS
• Director, Health Services Administration Program
• Business Administration Department
• Alaska Pacific University
• Anchorage, AK
• 907-564-8227
• child_at_alaskapacific.edu