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How Medicine Came to the People

* Nominated *
2004 Oklahoma Book Award for Illustration & Design
* AWARDS *
2005 Oklahoma Book Award - Directors' Choice for Series

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Hardcover - 32 Pages
Retail - $15.00 USD

Story by Deborah L. Duvall
Drawings by Murv Jacob

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press ©2003

Excerpt:

"A long time ago, all the animals and people lived happily together.

But the people grew quickly in number and spread all over the earth.

The animals began to feel crowded in their beautiful world ... "

— Synopsis —

"A long time ago, all the animals and people lived happily together," begins this story of the origins of Cherokee herbal medicine.

As the people begin to outnumber the animals and then to hunt them for their hides and meat, the days of peaceful coexistence are over. The animals take their revenge on the people by making them sick, creating rheumatism, coughs and colds, aches and pains, fevers and swellings and rashes and allergies.

The people are saved by their only remaining allies; the plants and trees that the people have cultivated show the people how to use herbal medicine to survive.

Simply told and magnificently illustrated, this story is suitable for children, but eerily resonant for adults at a time of heightened awareness of the threat of disease and the usefulness of herbal remedies.

This book includes an appendix with drawings of common medicinal plants and information about their traditional, herbal uses.

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