HOME > ESSIAC FAQ > ESSIAC TEA OJIBWAY?
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IS ESSIAC TEA AN OJIBWAY FORMULA?
[Also spelled Ojibwe or Ojibwa]
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ESSIAC CIRCLE OF FRIENDS
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Essiac was originally a traditional Native American herbal tea that was given to an English woman with breast cancer who lived in Ontario, Canada in the late 1800s.
About thirty years later Nurse Rene M. Caisse obtained the eight-herb tea formula from this English woman who said she was given the formula by “a very old Indian medicine man”. [1]
There are many claims on the internet that Essiac is an “Ojibwe” tea, but Essiac historian Sheila Snow, who knew Rene Caisse personally, stated:
“There is no evidence to support the theory that the [Essiac] herbal formula came exclusively from the Ojibwe. There were a number of Native American Indian tribes living in Northern Ontario at the end of the nineteenth century including Algonquin, Cree, Cherokee, Huron, Iroquois, and Ojibwe. The old Indian medicine man could have belonged to any one of those tribes or he could have been a wandering seer from another region. [2]
In 1977 Rene wrote: “I want this clearly understood. I did not get my treatment from an Indian. In fact I never saw a real Indian in my life.” [2]
It appears that Sheila Snow herself may have inadvertently started the Ojibwe rumor in her first book, “The Essence of Essiac”.
On page 12 of that book she began her article about Sheep Sorrel with a quote from “Survival in the Bush” by Bernard Assiniwi: “No Algonquin Ojibwe child can ever forget ‘jiwisi’, the sour leaf.”
Whatever the case may be she appeared to correct the misunderstanding in her second book, “Essiac Essentials”. However, it may very well have been that the “very old Indian medicine man” was a member of the Ojibwe.
The religion of the Ojibway is called Midewiwin, commonly referred to as the “Grand Medicine Society”.
“There is still another class of persons termed Mashkī´kĭkē´winĭnĭ, or herbalists, who are generally denominated “medicine men,” as the Ojibwa word implies. Their calling is a simple one, and consists in knowing the mysterious properties of a variety of plants, herbs, roots, and berries, which are revealed upon application and for a fee….Although these herbalists are aware that certain plants or roots will produce a specified effect upon the human system, they attribute the benefit to the fact that such remedies are distasteful and injurious to the demons who are present in the system and to whom the disease is attributed. Many of these herbalists are found among women, also; and these, too, are generally members of the Midē´wiwin.” [3]
There is a theory that the term “medicine man” came from the early European settlers hearing the pronunciation of the word “Midewiwin” in association with their occupation as herbal/spiritual healers. Since “Midewiwin” sounded somewhat like “medicine man” this may very well have been the case.
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REFERENCES
[1] “I Was Canada’s Cancer Nurse”; by Rene M. Caisse; 1963; p. 1
[2] “Essiac Essentials”; by Sheila Snow & Mali Klein; 1999; p. 79
[3] “The Midewiwin or Grand Medicine Society of the Ojibwa” by Walter James Hoffman; 1891
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