Curitive Herbs used by Houma Indians
Saving the healing herbs of the bayou BY MY-THUAN TRAN, LOS ANGELES TIMES SEP. 5, 2010 Jason Pitre grew up hearing stories of how his great-grandfather healed babies on the cusp of death using herbs and plants found along Louisiana’s bayous. The tribal healer, or traiteur , was known by the native Houma people for his potions and salves that seemed to treat any sickness. Now, the traditional herbs are in danger, Pitre said, threatened by decades of coastal erosion, hurricanes and development that have crept up on Golden Meadow in Bayou Lafourche, where many members of the United Houma Nation once lived. “A lot of the plants that my great-grandfather used and that my grandfather grew up with are no longer there,” he said. So Pitre, 26, and his grandfather began uprooting herbs to replant them on higher ground. Recently, Pitre visited a small blue house in Golden Meadow — the home of his grandfather, Whitney Dardar, 74. years ago, people came long distances ...