On May 26th, LPCP—alongside the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center and Native Roots Radio—hosted our Traditional Health & Wellbeing During COVID-19 And Beyond webinar! (Watch the recording on our YouTube page!) We welcomed an incredible group of panelists, including Tipiziwiŋ Tolman (Wičhíyena Dakota and Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta), Ella Robertson (Sisítuŋwaŋ Dakota), and Hope Flanagan (Seneca, Turtle Clan). We spent a jam-packed two hours learning about the importance of using our traditional plant medicines like cedar, elderberry, bear root, chaga and more through COVID-19 and beyond.
In this month’s blog, we’d like to highlight some of the amazing knowledge that was shared with us. Please remember that the recipes and practices described below come from generations of Indigenous communities. This knowledge has been passed down, almost exclusively as oral history, and is essential to the revitalization of many Native languages and cultures. The relationships that Native people have fostered with plant and animal relatives, and with Uŋči Maka, are sacred, and should be treated as such. With that, it is also our hope that this information strengthens our collective relationships with traditional medicines. We all deserve the opportunity to reconnect with our ecosystem, no matter where we come from or where we live. As our panelists were sure to note, though, we must be mindful of where, when, and how we participate.
Our panelists shared with us the knowledge that has been passed down to them, and below, we pass these teachings on once more. Many of these recipes have been particularly helpful for those suffering from COVID-19—but we find that many of these recipes will still be useful for our communities now and into the future!
Tipiziwiŋ Tolman shared the many ways that she has sought to care for her community in recent years. From the longstanding food apartheid that forces a scarcity of grocery stores and nutritious foods near tribal communities like the Standing Rock Reservation, to the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 across Indian Country, Tipiziwiŋ has sought to use traditional medicines and non-Western treatments to help address a wide variety of issues. In the past fifteen months of the COVID era, she has produced a number of products, often distributed free of charge, to support Native communities during this isolating time.
[This drink was particularly useful as a cough suppressant and immunity booster for those suffering from “COVID cough” symptoms.]
