For over 7 generations, many Native American Tribes cultivated and uses “teaching plants.” By far one of the most common and beneficial of these “teaching plants” is the cannabis plant. Nearly every ceremonial herb used by Indians has been illegal at some point in the United States, including salvia, peyote, mullen, psilocybin, mints, and sage. 

Outside of the medicinal uses, tribes have long used hemp as well.  Hemp is a cousin of medicinal cannabis and utilized as a food, fibers for clothes, rope and even as a building material.

Unlike their non-native counterparts, who used the plant for its adult recreational use, the first Nation Tribes (Canadian Natives) used cannabis in rituals.  Some tribes claim great visionaries used it with their sacred pipes,  and US Native Tribes, such as the Cherokee, used cannabis as a part of their ceremonies and healing rituals.

Faced with the pharmaceutical industry ravaging the landscape of Native America with narcotics, such as opioids, today tribal members are moving back to their native roots .  Data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that Native Americans (CDC), who make up less than 2% of the U.S. population, had higher rates of overdose deaths from prescription painkillers and illicit opioids than any other racial and ethnic group from 2003 through 2013. A 2018 report from the CDC found that Native American overdose deaths were likely substantially undercounted during that period. Since 2000, Native American overdose deaths from prescription and illicit opioids have increased nearly six-fold, faster than any other racial group.