Giving Compass' Take:
- Rachel Cramer examines the long history of cultural appropriation of Native American healing practices, which dates back to the 19th century.
- How do corporations continue to profit from the appropriation of Indigenous cultures?
- Learn more about how you can support Indigenous peoples.
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Sarah Dees pulls several yellow-tinged booklets out of plastic bags. Flipping through one titled “Life Among the Indians,” she points out sections on ceremonies and customs. Toward the back are ads for so-called “Indian remedies,” products like “Kickapoo Indian Sagwa” and “Kickapoo Indian Worm Killer.”
Dees, an assistant professor of American religions at Iowa State University, explains the booklets were part of a larger marketing campaign by the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company. It was founded in 1881 by two Euro-American men, one of whom claimed a Kickapoo healer had saved his life with “Sagwa” and divulged its secret ingredients.
“While the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company no longer exists, there are many examples today of companies that appropriate Indigenous cultures to turn a profit,” says Dees. “By examining these historical instances of cultural appropriation, we can better understand more recent forms that have spread over the course of the 19th and 21st centuries and grapple with tough questions about appropriation vs. appreciation.”
In her paper in the journal American Religion, Dees emphasizes it’s common for people to draw from other cultures. But misrepresenting cultures or “hijacking narratives” for economic gain can cause harm, especially when unequal power dynamics are at play. Dees shows how the Kickapoo Indian Medicine Company pushed stereotypes and claimed authority on Indigenous cultures to sell products to non-Native consumers.
She also highlights several ironies. As “Indian remedies” became mainstream, the United States government rolled out policies to restrict Indigenous healing and spiritual practices, which Dees explains are often intertwined.
In the late 1800s, Dees says there was growing interest in “medicines purported to draw on Native American medicinal knowledge.” Part of this was a backlash to the Industrial Revolution and Western medicine’s harsh, sometimes deadly treatments, like bloodletting and mercury compounds.
Read the full article about the appropriation of Indigenous healing by Rachel Cramer at Futurity.