Medicine man

In the ceremonial context of Indigenous North American communities, "medicine" usually refers to spiritual healing.

Medicine people use many practices, including specialized knowledge of Native American ethnobotany.

As Nuttall writes, "An inquiry to a Native person about religious beliefs or ceremonies is often viewed with suspicion.

While non-Native anthropologists often use the term shaman for Indigenous healers worldwide, including the Americas, shaman is the specific name for a spiritual mediator from the Tungusic peoples of Siberia,[8] which has been adopted by some Inuit communities but is not preferred by Native American or First Nations communities.

There are many fraudulent healers and scam artists, known as plastic shamans who pose as Native American "shamans", and the Cherokee Nation has had to speak out against these people, even forming a task force to handle the issue.