Man determined to keep medicines from becoming extinct

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The sun is barely up, but Derick Pitawanakwat has been awake for hours. Every second Friday he rises at 4 a.m. and builds a huge fire near his home on the Wikwemikong reserve in northeastern Ontario.

Two huge cast-iron cauldrons are suspended over the fire by heavy chains attached to a wooden tripod. Inside the cauldrons, small bits of wood, roots, bark and leaves float in a bubbling, reddish brown liquid. You could call it herbal tea, enough for an army. But Pitawanakwat calls it medicine.

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He's reviving an ancient tradition of healing taught to him by his grandmother. Today, he's making two types of medicine, but he knows how to make a few dozen others.

In one cauldron are 13 ingredients, along with water from a nearby spring. He adds a maple log to help weigh down the pot and also to sweeten the mixture.

Pitawanakwat never uses tap water because the chlorine would interfere with the plants' medicinal effects. Before he starts making the medicine, he thanks the Creator for the plants with a prayer and a tobacco offering.

The mixture needs to boil for about seven hours before it will be ready for use as an immune system booster. It cleans the blood, fights certain infections, boosts circulation and improves vision, Pitawanakwat says.

In the other pot, five medicinal ingredients are simmering. That combination lowers blood cholesterol. Pitawanakwat doesn't like to tell just anyone exactly what ingredients he uses, because that is sacred knowledge. In earlier times, healers were chosen to learn the craft by tribal Elders. He started learning when he was about eight years old.

"A lot of knowledge was lost," since modern medicine was introduced to Native people in the 1920s, he said. "There's only a few people left with knowledge of the medicine."

That's why, three years ago, he started a program called Save Our Medicines. Students work with him each summer, helping to gather medicinal plants. Together they have produced a catalogue of the plants he uses and recipes for the medicines.

Wikwemikong is on Manitoulin Island, which Pitawanakwat said is an especially good place to find medicinal plants.

"Once, all our ancestors gathered here. It's known as the Great Spirit's Island. They all brought their seeds and planted them here and this is why we're rich in medicines."

Throughout the morning he tends the fire, stirs the mixtures occasionally, and adds water when the level gets low. Just before noon, the immune booster is finally ready. He scoops out the plant material with a pitchfork and places it on the fire.

"Everything goes back to the Creator," he explains. "That burns and the smoke goes back to the Creator."

Once the large pieces are out the mixture is poured through a strainer and, once it cools, into one-gallon jugs. Each jug contains about a one-month supply for a single patient.

"I don't say my medicine is better than the drugs the doctor gives you. It's their choice," he says. "And the same as with modern medicine, it's better if the illness is in the early stages."

Sometimes, people come to him after they've tried everything else and it's too late to help them.

When the medicine is completely cool, he'll refrigerate it over the weekend. On Monday, he'll deliver some of the bottles to people who don't have a car or are too ill to go out. Others will pick theirs up at his house.

And then there will be other people, not regular patients yet, who will phone or come to see him.

"People come at all hours. There's no Monday to Friday hours here. They come during the night and you've got to do the work," he said with a laugh.