Elder Bertha Skye talks about the power of Cedar

I'm yelder at ashes McMaster hospital and I do demonstrations with or native medicines and amongst the tribes across Canada cedar is one of the top highly recommended medications for different ailments that we have with our communities and I mean for me it's it's very powerful and I use it quite a bit with my medicines one of the things that I use it for is I was told because I'm a chef I did a lot of lots of cooking and bacon and I had carpal tunnel in my wrists and it was very painful and they said that I had to have an operation and I said I didn't want to have an operation and I said I would have cure myself or what a try so I started soaking my hands in cedar and and I'd soak my hands in cedar and I started exercising my hands by pulling them back as far as I could both hands if I was watching TV or just relaxing I still do that and and I got better with the cedar and where I knew it was really strong my friend was dying of cancer and she had cancer in a four stage and well why I what possessed me to go get cedar and I boiled it and she was on morphine and after she woke up I I said I would like to give you a cedar bath and okay she said it yes I'll try anything so I put her in a tub helped her and I poured the cedar in the tub and she said oh it smells so good when you boil it it smells like pine-sol and she's soaked in there and I said after you get out I said I want to give you a massage so I massage her feet first her feet and her legs and I started down her her back and just as I got an or spine I would bring my hand and she had a tumor in her spine and I burned my hand as I went over that word she had the tumor and I got scared I didn't know what to do so after I just got her dressed and I went to an elder and I said why did that happen I burnt my hand every time I went to that part of her where she had the the tumor and they said you are gifted if you had rubbed her back and pulled it out you could have helped her relieve some of that pressure and her pain that she had in her back and so after that I did pursue using this more I knew how powerful it was and I introduces with Oh with the with the the doctors or the interns that are going to school here in the mid waves and to me it's very powerful

Channel: ISHS McMaster

Views: 92,750

Rating: 4.9782844 out of 5

Keywords: Elder, Bertha, Skye, Cedar, Tree, Medicine, First Nations (Ethnicity), Six Nations Of The Grand River First Nation (Canadian Indian Reserve), Elder (Profession), McMaster University (College/University), Indigenous Peoples Of The Americas (Ethnicity), Traditional Medicine (Literature Subject), Aboriginal Peoples In Canada (Ethnicity), Western Canada (Location), Hamilton (City/Town/Village)

Id: D7dEYpTY71s

Length: 4min 49sec (289 seconds)

Published: Wed May 11 2011