Native American Bodywork Practices
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In this piece, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, who is of Cherokee and Lakota heritage, shares insights into types of bodywork practiced by Native American peoples.
All peoples have methods for hands-on therapy, what we now call bodywork. The Cherokee people of North America, for example, were well versed in body therapies and energy healing. They developed a comprehensive, sophisticated bodywork system that encompassed a form of osteopathic massage and manipulation, breath, and energy work. Central to this technique are the alternation of deep pressure and gentle rocking release. The breath was also used to reanimate the body and "draw spirit" into affected tissues. They also used crystal scanning and healing as well as the channeling of spirits and energy medicine.
The Cherokee were also familiar with acupuncture meridians and used acupuncture, with needles made of thorns or porcupine quills, in healing. A nineteenth-century monograph, the Swimmer morificecript in the Smithsonian Institute, speaks to the use of acupuncture by the "primitive savages, when every civilized person would know that the proper treatment is bleeding with leeches."
You may read the complete article here:
http://www.kripalu.org/article/401