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No set boiling time. The general rule for mashkiki-wabo (medicine teas) is if you're gonna
drink it, just steep it, if you're gonna apply it externally, boil it till it LOOKS like a very weak
"tea".
The Anishinabe concept of "medicine tea" isn't necessarily STRICTLY "pharmaceutical". Coffee,
for example, is makade-mashkiki-wabo --- literally "black medicine tea". And, yes, it has
medicinal uses.
And, incidentally, if you want to show proper respect for the medicines, don't just chuck the
wet pulp or leaves or other strained material in the garbage. Please put in back on the Earth
and offer a simple thanks. The white people think we're nuts about that, but it DOES make
the green medicines work even better.
Why pay money to have a polluting factory make your medicines, when Mom offers them
freely? We have an old saying: Wabishke wab'shkindibe. "The white people are crazy."
Thanks - I will give this a shot as I am allergic to those &^@! noseeums. Heywood can attest as he saw my face swell up to twice its normal size (at that is huge!) back over the summer.
Typical WhiteBoy question..... Is more better? As in the number of seedpods to the amount of water? Also - does is matter about the type of mangrove (red or black)?
Sincerely,
Joe
“Buda! Wanna see the best thing about owning a Hobie???”
OK, look, "The Green Medicines" are very hard to understand from a white perspective. And when I say "white", I
don't mean racially, I mean culturally. Not all of the medicines are the same "level". You've got one type we call
the Creator Medicines, and the only way I can describe these are like this.....
In white culture, if your blood pressure is low, there's a medicine for that, if it's high, there's another one for that.
A Creator Medicine is one that when you take it, if your blood pressure is too low, it will raise it, and if it's too
high it will lower it, and if it's OK it will leave it alone. A Creator Medicine doesn't HAVE any "side effects". You
could drink five gallons of it, and it won't even give you the wobbles. White culture ("Western medicine") can't
even grasp something like that.
Mind you, also, these are not all plant medicines. Some are certain types of earth. Some of this stuff I can't talk
about. And so much of it has been perverted by what we refer to as "Crystal Twinkies". Picture the white chick
with dreamcatcher earrings who hangs around at the so-called pow-wows and tells you her "Secret Indian Name" is
Golden Soaring Hawk Crystal Rainbow Dove Woman or some hippie crap like that. She's also "one-third Cherokee",
or an "Indian Princess", or a "Medicine Woman", comprende?
Me, I'm not old enough to be a "medicine man". I'm only in my sixties. My "secret Indian name" is Pete. But
what I will tell you now, I tell you in the Creator's name:
What makes the medicines work is respect. You can't buy them. If you do, they won't work. You can't sell them.
If you do, they won't work. There isn't any "proper dosage" or "exact amount" I can tell you. So here's what
you do:
Get in your kayak very early one morning and paddle out to some quiet place with some mangroves. If they
have those pods hanging, like in that picture above, they are the right kind. Explain to the Grandmothers and
Grandfathers that you have a problem, and that you need some of these pods to help you. Explain to that
tree that you are grateful for providing the medicines to help you. Explain to it that, while those pods are
giving up their lives and will never get to become mangrove trees, they will not be wasted. They will be made
into medicines that will help yourself and others, and will never be sold, or used in a bad way. Thank those
trees for bringing beauty to the Earth, for providing the shelter of their roots to all the little baitfish and other
living things. Take three or four of those pods, no more. Snap them off, don't use a knife. Leave a little pinch
of tobacco if you can, but if you do not have it, the true gratitude in your heart is enough. Take those pods
home and mash them up, stop worrying about how much to mash them up. Boil them for a little while in a
pan of water. Quit worrying about how much water or how long or how dark or light the tea is. Strain the
tea and return that pulp to the Earth or the Gulf with the same respect in your heart.
When the tea cools, test a little bit on the skin on the inside of your forearm (the most sensitive skin on your
body). If you don't have a reaction within a few minutes, the stuff will never hurt you. (The mangrove pods
wouldn't anyway, but you never know what kind of crap has been put ON them, hein?) And don't EVER
*DRINK* any of that stuff, OK?
Now I am going to tell you one of those "Indian things" that sounds absoluteley loony to most of you Zhagnash,
but there is a great teaching in it. You know how, when you were a kid and you got sick, and your mother took
you to the white doctor, and he gave you something to make you better, and then he gave you a lollipop?
The Grandmothers and Grandfathers do the doctoring. The Medicine Teas are the lollipop.
