“Ignorant of Any Rational Method”: European Assessments of Indigenous Healing Practices in the North American Arctic

• Published in: Canadian Bulletin of Medical History
• Main Author: Vanast, Walter J
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 1992
• Subjects: General Medicine; Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cbmh.9.1.57; https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/cbmh.9.1.57

By focusing on a single therapy—surgical treatment of headache—this article defines the broad pattern of early white reactions to native healing in the North American Arctic. Many Europeans, particularly those with medical training, denied the value of indigenous surgery. Missionaries, to the contrary, recognized its success, and thought its suppression necessary: "cutting" reinforced native religious concepts by providing an exit for illness-causing spirits. When they could not deny the efficacy of traditional therapy, Europeans resorted to naturalistic explanations. In practice, they realized, there was little difference between indigenous arctic and European surface surgery: both produced bleeding and counterirritation. Native healers, it followed, were unwittingly applying contemporary European treatments; alternatively, they had learned effective procedures through contact with whites. Only very rarely did newcomers incorporate indigenous therapeutic concepts into their treatment of native patients. With few exceptions, Europeans failed to recognize inherent value in traditional northern healing.