REMEMBER THIS: Newmarket doctor learned from Indigenous healers

Indigenous peoples of our area were instrumental in the very survival of our ancestors. Let’s revisit the story of Dr. John Dawson, who would become a compounding doctor on the strength of the knowledge accumulated from the local Indigenous.

Dawson was one of those men who were already distinguished well prior to his arrival in northern York County. With his family and servants, he was to make his way to Upper Canada and Yonge Street, eventually purchasing 210 acres of land on the west side of Yonge Street, where he built Dawson Manor in Newmarket in the year the rebellion broke out in 1837.

Dawson appears to have established a symbiotic relationship with the Indigenous. According to family legend, the Indigenous shared their medical knowledge with him and Dawson compounded the medicinal cures they suggested. When the 1837 rebellion broke out, Dawson feared an attack by the rebels, and barricaded himself into his home while his Indigenous friends came to his assistance, encamping in his front yard in full war dress.

When early Europeans and settlers from the United States first arrived in our area, they were surprised to see the Indigenous recovering from illnesses and injuries that they considered fatal. Their herbal remedies were far superior to those known to the new immigrants in so many ways. We know the stories of how the Indigenous had no remedies for the “diseases of civilization” or white man’s diseases, such as measles and smallpox, which would wipe out thousands of them over the next few centuries.

Existing medicines were applied to treat these new ailments, and in some cases, new medicines were developed or compounded. For example, sweetflag (Acorus Americanus), already an important medicinal plant of the boreal forest region of eastern Canada, was used to treat smallpox.

Barestem lomatium (Lomatium Nudicaule), called q’əxmín in several West Coast languages, was used to treat tuberculosis, and came to be known as “Indian consumption plant.” Diabetes has become prevalent among Indigenous populations, and traditional medicines, such as the inner bark of devil’s-club (Oplopanax Horridus, a shrub in the ginseng family, Araliaceae), have been adapted to treat this new disease.

History tells us that not only did we lose so many Indigenous lives, but also bodies of knowledge that went to the grave with the healers. Despite the loss of some of the information, much of it has survived, and is now being utilized by Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike. Many modern medicines are based on plants and herbs that they used for thousands of years. More than 200 botanicals, derived originally from Indigenous sources have been or are still being used in our pharmaceuticals.

The Indigenous still use plants and other natural materials as medicine, having identified more than 400 different species of plants (as well as lichens, fungi, and algae) with medicinal applications. These medicine traditions, the plants used, the ailments to be treated, the protocols for their harvesting and application, and the modes of preparation are similar for Indigenous across the country.

In many Indigenous communities, there are recognized specialists trained in traditional medicine, and their practices often reflect the spiritual aspects of healing, as well as physical outcomes.Traditional medicine is part of a holistic philosophy of health and healing that is underpinned by a belief in the connectivity between emotional, spiritual, physical and mental well-being.

Even today, their application is little understood by western medical practitioners. Within Indigenous communities, specific methods of harvesting and preparation of medicines are considered intellectual property of specific individuals or families.

Dawson, being a transplanted British doctor would have heard the stories about healings and, to his credit, he began to isolate these ‘home cures’ into compounded agents to enhance his ability to treat his patients. His work with the Indigenous around Bradford and the greater Lake Simcoe area is well documented.

Newcomers to Canada quickly learned about and adopted many of the plant medicines used by the Indigenous. Family accounts, handed down by my Lundy Quaker ancestors, speak of how the acquired knowledge from their Indigenous neighbours facilitated their survival during those early years of hardship.

Historians tell the story of French explorer Jacques Cartier and his crew, who were suffering from scurvy while wintering at Quebec City in 1536, and how they were saved by the local Haudenosaunee who brought them sap from a coniferous tree (which Cartier named “tree of life”) and told them how to prepare it as a medicine. In turn, the Indigenous learned to use medicines from Europe and other parts of the world, such as the latex of the common dandelion (Taraxacum Officinale) to remove warts, or the fragrant pineapple weed (Matricaria Discoidea) to make a medicinal tea.

For the Indigenous, the line between food and medicine is blurred. There is a notable overlap between plant species that are edible and those with recognized medicinal qualities.

All parts of the plants, roots and underground parts, bark, leaves, buds, flowers, fruits, and sap or pitch have had recognized medicinal uses, and there are many different modes of preparing and applying them. Medicinal plants contain a range of diverse organic compounds, including alkaloids, glycosides, tannins, flavonoids, resins and volatile, or essential oils.

The quantities of these compounds vary with the lifecycle stage, plant part, location and genetic makeup of the plant, as well as what the weather was like recently and which plants are growing nearby. The specific compounds may interact in different ways to produce therapeutic effects.

Medicinal plants are treated with great reverence and respect by the Indigenous, in acknowledgement of their gifts and service to people. This quote that I came across during my research really resonated: “… everything on the Earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a  mission. This is the Indian theory of existence.”

When we talk about “traditional medicine,” we are referring to the knowledge and practices of the Indigenous that promote health and well-being, and that have been passed down from generation to generation over hundreds and even thousands of years.

The knowledge that informs traditional medicine derives from multiple sources, including traditional teaching, empirical observation, and revelation. This knowledge is often imparted by elders or healers through a plurality of forms and practices, including herbal medicines, dances, ceremonies, and counselling. Traditional medicine is closely tied to language, culture and the natural environment and is, therefore, specific to each community and connected to local knowledge and world view.

The Anishinaabe term for medicine, ‘Mshki ki’, for example derives from the words ‘Mshki’, meaning strength, and ki, which comes from the word ‘Aki’, meaning Earth. It translates as strength from the earth, and demonstrates the fundamental relationship in traditional medicine between the individual and natural environment.

The medicine wheel is used by many First Nations in healing and teaching practices, and it is an expression of the holistic nature of traditional medicine. Sometimes called “hoops,” medicine wheels also vary from nation to nation in terms of their use and significance.

Fundamental similarities, however, include their circular shape and division into four parts – representing physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual factors. The medicine wheel is a symbol of harmony, balance, continuity and interconnectivity as they relate to the individual, community and universe.

Sadly, the use of medicine wheels and other forms of traditional healing were foolishly repressed in many places during our early history. Today, however, Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities are once again recognizing the importance of traditional medicine as a means of improving the health and quality of life.

Plants growing under environmental conditions, such as mineral rich soils, are also being highlighted for their healing qualities. In fact, many herbal medicines are being “rediscovered” for their healing and health-maintaining properties, and research on their phytochemical properties, efficacy and applications is ongoing.

I find it rather interesting that today, the tide of medical theory has begun to swing back with many concerned about the pharmaceutical products’ toxicity, addictive properties, and side effects and thus we are returning to natural herbal remedies.

Sources: Indigenous Peoples’ Medicine in Canada, An Article by Nancy J. Turner; John T. Arnason, Richard J. Hebda and Timothy Johns, “Use of Plants for Food and Medicine by Native Peoples of Eastern Canada,” Canadian Journal of Botany (1981); The History of Newmarket by Ethel Trewhella; Nancy J. Turner, Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge (2014)Yadav Uprety, Hugo Asselin, Hugo Asselin and Nancy Julien, “Traditional use of medicinal plants in the boreal forest of Canada: Review and Perspectives,” Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (2012); James A Duke, CRC Handbook of Medicinal Herbs (1985)

Indigenous Traditional Medicine, Indigenous Heritage, Ontario Trust Published Date: Feb 12, 2016; Native American Ethnobotany: A Database of Foods, Drugs, Dyes and Fibers of Native American peoples Derived from Plants by D. Moerman, (2009)

Newmarket resident Richard MacLeod — the History Hound — has been a local historian for more than 40 years. He writes a weekly feature about our town’s history in partnership with Newmarket Today, conducts heritage lectures and walking tours of local interest, and leads local oral history interviews.