A medicine man is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a group of native tribes and is primarily known here as a healer in the Native American community...their work is usually associated with spiritual healing...in days of old, those who were sick went to or were taken to the medicine man (or in some cases, woman) for help...it is said that many medicine men were very powerful and could heal many things...most Native Americans are very hesitant to discuss issues and practices that are related to medicine or medicine men with non-Indians...and in some cultures, the members will not even talk about such things with other Indians from other tribes...they are closely guarded secrets and to ask about such things is to invite suspicion...some tribes even code what is written down into their own language to make stealing the secrets more difficult...and with most tribes, medicine elders are prohibited from advertising or introducing themselves as healers...it can take many years before one is able to practice such ‘medicine’...often times, the medicine man would have a pouch commonly referred to as a medicine bag...this bag would contain items that would promote personal well-being...their contents were kept secret.
