What is a shaman?

What a loaded question! You'll read all KINDS of things about shaman. Do they exist as part of the Old Religion? Some Native Americans say that the "shaman" is nothing but an invention of the New Agers. SOME Native Americans say that shaman have been around for time and all eternity.

Healers.

  I've referred to shaman as healers. In this way, we'll avoid the controversy completely. EVERYONE agrees that all of the Native American tribes had healers, just as our modern culture has healers that exist completely outside of the medical culture known as the AMA.

Seers...healers...medicine men...shaman...

In the long run, all of these words refer to the same person: the spiritual protector of the people, the spiritual healer and the person that interfaces between the worlds of the Gods, the spirits, and the living and dead......... the name does not matter.

I give credit to my sis- in -law for this document