Medicine Circles Defeating Tuberculosis in Southern California

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, two medicine circles existed in Indian country: one Native and one Euro-American. Traditional doctors among First Nations peoples approached disease in spiritual ways and also used herbal medicine to treat their patients. First Nations people tried to treat infectious diseases brought by newcomers through plant medicine, ritual, and ceremony. Generally unsuccessful, First Nations people and doctors of California learned from practitioners of Western medicine to care for tubercular patients, to avoid the bacteria, and to remove active tubercular patients to sanatoria. Native agency and Western medical practices intersected and worked successfully from 1928-48 to reduce cases and deaths caused by tuberculosis.