Interview by Nellie Pepabano
I always listen to the Elders when they tell stories and I don’t hear the Elders talk about medicine. I will talk about how I healed people who were sick.
I was then alone at my home when there was a sickness. It was at that time when Kaaidaabaaushit died. That was when the sickness reached the people. I was to only one who was able to move at my home.
The reason why I am like this is because I must have been completely exhausted. That was why I had back surgery. I was alone bringing in firewood and climbing up our teepee to close the smoke hole for the night and feeding our dogs. It was very difficult.
I was the only one who was able to move. When I didn’t want the fire to go out, I used to keep the fire going all night. Everybody was lying down in bed, even the children. They really had bad headaches also.
Samson really had bad nosebleeds also. I haven’t heard the Elders talk about what I did to heal him. He really frightened me when he was like that. His face turned completely pale. Then he couldn’t sit up. I said to the people around, “I will try what I have heard.”
I placed a stone in the fire. That is what I heard was done when someone’s nosebleed didn’t stop. I placed a stone in the fire until it was glowing hot. I prodded it out and placed it on a frying pan. I held his head over it. I told him, “This will make you stop bleeding.” He was very weak. His wife was holding him up from the other side. We were holding his head over the hot stone.
Once the blood drips on to the stone, you smell your blood. Of course, it was true. He smelled his blood. As it dripped, it sizzled. That stone was glowing hot. His blood stopped flowing.
When there is no one around to help, do that when you what to heal someone. He smelled his blood and it stopped flowing. I only heard about this being done. I think he would have been drained of blood if I hadn’t done that. He didn’t have nosebleeds again.
We were only two families at that time. We were not living with that old woman. She was wanted at Shiikihuunaansh because that old man, Isaac, was having a baby. He wanted that old woman to be there.
We also used black gun powder when our daughter had a really sore throat. It was used as a rub. She used to be rubbed right here on the throat. Of course, it healed her. Her tonsils are completely gone.
Recently, a doctor wanted to see her. The doctor asked, “Were your tonsils taken out?” She said, “No.” She said, “I told the doctor that my father healed me.”
For those of you who are disgusted by excrement, that was what I used also. I used it as a compress on our husbands’ heads. They really had bad headaches. I pressed it using a piece of cloth. That was the way I made it. It made him break out in bumps. That was when it healed him. I soon healed them. People are now disgusted by excrement. I wasn’t disgusted with what I did. I was not very sensible when I healed someone who was sick.
John was very sick also. I think he almost died. I was the one that worked on him. I used that medicine-goose fat. Then, he was doing well. We didn’t stop rubbing him with goose fat.
Today, I don’t think that people use fowl fat very much when their children are sick. That was what I always used – goose fat. As soon as a child is rubbed with goose fat, it really heals him/her.
A new sheet of flannelette was soaked in it. That was what I did with him. His coughing was really bad. I guess it was because he was exhausted.
