Remedies, Herb Doctors, and Healers Summary and Analysis

"Remedies" begins with an interview with Flora Youngblood, who is an herb doctor whose father was both an herb doctor and a faith healer. She also weaves honeysuckle baskets. Flora notes she was born in 1906 and was the seventh of nine children. Her father, Henry, was a gentle man who grew up near an Indian chief who raised his interest in herbal remedies. At the age of 21, Henry went to live on the reservation where he learned both herbal doctoring as well as faith healing. At 31, he began gold mining, farming, and married. He developed arthritis but continued to practice doctoring. People came from all over for his remedies, and Youngblood describes several occurrences where people were treated using such ingredients as alum, hog lard, barbell, whiskey, snake button, and others. Flora recalls...