Gitksan Traditional Medicine: Herbs and Healing

The Gitksan people live along the Skeena River in northwest British Columbia, Canada. Gitksan traditional medicine is still practiced as an adjunct to modern allopathic medicine. Medicinal plants are used as decoctions, infusions, poultices, and fumigants, or are chewed for a wide variety of medical conditions. Traditional Gitksan life involved seasonal movement to utilize a wide variety of plant and animal resources. The Gitksan people viewed their environment as a harmonious interacting whole which included people as one of its elements, Maintenance of this balance was crucial to the health of the environment and the survival and health of the people. Shamans, bone-setters, midwives and herbalists all contributed to rnaintence of health and treatment of illness in the traditional system. Extensive use was made of plant products as medicines.