Waasa-Inaabidaa Episode Four - A Healthy Way of Life

Episode Four: Bimaadiziwin – “A Healthy Way of Life” examines the Ojibwe’s holistic approach to good health and the role of traditional medicine and spiritual healers. Also chronicled is the devastating impact on Ojibwe health brought by European-born epidemics, a shrinking land-base, and government policies of assimilation and acculturation. This program looks at the affects of boarding schools, adoptions, and other traumatic events that caused generations of grief, anger, and dysfunctional family dynamics. Learn also how the Ojibwe people maintained their health through improvements in health delivery systems beginning in 1955 with the creation of the Indian Health Service, and continuing with the training of their own people in western medicine and treatment. This episode concludes with reaffirmation of traditional healing based on living a good way of life with renewed emphasis on spiritual healing. It examines important milestones such as passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act, the growth and success of culturally appropriate models of treatment for substance abuse and other social ills, as well as the resurgence of traditional medicine combined with their own modern health clinics.