Tribes blend old, modern medicine

ONEIDA - Joellene Adams is nearing 70 and sees her doctor on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation regularly for her diabetes medicine.

She also is a faithful follower of the tribe's traditional healers and sees no conflict with turning to them for treatment of other ills.

“The medicine is the only way to treat the diabetes in my body but the old ways also help the mind and the spirit. Life requires balance,” said Adams, one of 150 Iroquois elders at a recent health conference for American Indian senior citizens at the Oneida Indian Nation in central New York, cradle of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy.