Iroquois
Medicine

Both male and female healers were knowledgeable in the use of herbs to treat illness, and could dress wounds, set broken bones, and perform surgery. Illness was believed to have a spiritual as well as a natural component, so spells, dances, ceremonies were used in addition to more practical treatments. There are three types of practitioners of traditional medicine: The "Indian doctor" or healer, who emphasizes the physical aspect of curing illness, the fortune-teller, who uses spiritual means to determine the cause of the patient's ailments and the appropriate cure, and the witch.

It was believed that knowledge of healing was given by supernatural creatures in the guise of animals.

In recent times, traditional medicine has co-existed with western medicine, with traditional practices more prevalent among followers of the Gaihwi:io (Longhouse Religion). People may resort to traditional practices for certain types of ailments, and to western medicine for other types, or they may use both traditional and western medicine to treat the same ailment as a form of double security.

The Iroquois societies are active in maintaining the practice of traditional medicine.
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