07/10/2026
🌿📚Ruby's Reccomendations: July📚🌿
A Cree Healer and His Medicine Bundle
by David Young, Robert Rogers & Russell Willier
Herbal medicine is not a "new" or "foreign" concept. For thousands of years, ancestors from all cultures all over the world have utilized the gifts of the plants growing around them.
In our area of the world, the medicines of our Indigenous peoples has always humbled me. How they approach the life around us. I do not claim to know much, as Ive not yet had the pleasure to spend time with a medicine man, and this knowledge has been traditionally passed on through verbal stories, not written down.
In a rare glimpse, we have this incredible book about Russell Willier's:
"...journey to regain the traditional healing knowledge of his Cree elders and claim his rightful place as a contemporary Cree medicine man." - Edward M. Croom
It is hard to describe how beautiful I find this book simply for the fact that Russell gives us a glimpse into his own growth journey, the dying traditions as young people do not share the intrests, and the ways he's helping people and spending time with the earth.
I recommend reading up more on the summary of this book at this link, if it intrests you, as it does way more justice as to what to expect than I can describe here!
https://www.herbalgram.org/resources/herbalgram/issues/115/table-of-contents/hg115-bkrvw-cree/
Overall:
🌿 It's beautiful
🌿 It's humbling
🌿 It will make you shift your view about foraging "just because it's there"
🌿 It gives you just a peek into a world very few are a part of and a tradition that is, sadly, dying with those who carry the sacred knowledge.
I reach for this book when I need some alignment with my purpose of learning again. 💚🌿
