Native Plants Native Healing

A working herbalist's guide to twenty-two medicinal plants of the Eastern woodlands, written from inside the Muskogee root-doctoring tradition. Tis Mal Crow's voice is rare in print — a Cherokee and Hitchiti herbalist sharing teachings learned at the side of tribal elders since childhood.

The book covers twenty-two common Eastern woodland plants — among them sweet leaf and wild bergamot, bloodroot, echinacea, calamus, sassafras, St. John's wort, dandelion, and field horsetail — with instruction on identifying each one, honoring it, and harvesting responsibly. Crow walks the reader through the doctrine of signature, traditional preparation methods (liniments, lotions, oils, salves, teas, tinctures), and which ailments each plant has long been used to address. A central thread of the book is conservation: many of these plants face extinction from overharvesting, and the book argues for the practice of taking only what is needed and only when it is offered. Indexed by both plant name and condition.

Details

• Author: Tis Mal Crow (Cherokee/Hitchiti)
• Publisher: Native Voices Book Publishing
• Published: 2001
• Pages: 144

About the Author

Tis Mal Crow

Cherokee and Hitchiti herbalist and root doctor. Crow studied the medicinal use of plants and traditional Native root-doctoring techniques from childhood, learning at the side of tribal elders. He taught herbal classes and workshops for over twenty-five years and worked internationally with Indigenous healers and herbal communities to advance the medicinal use of herbs and the conservation of the wild habitat that sustains them.