Her car is fiery red. Bumper...

Her car is fiery red. Bumper stickers on it read “I am an Apache and proud of it. Indian native from nowhere. Another woman for peace.” But Kachinas Kutenai is no suburban armchair Apache. Raised at her grandmother’s knee on the Gila River Reservation, she has followed the path of the Apache medicine woman for more than 25 years. Kutenai now teaches American Indian healing through the Phoenix Phyre Bookstore in Encinitas. Kutenai was interviewed by Times staff writer G. Jeanette Avent and photographed by Bruce K. Huff.

My name, Kachinas, means prayer without ceasing and Kutenai means unity of mind, body and soul. When you have to live up to a name like that you have to walk a certain path. I made some vows to the Creator I would walk the medicine path when I almost died of a heart attack at age 35. I’m now 55, and I look younger than I am. It has its advantages, but sometimes people don’t think I know as much as I know or I base my knowledge on books.

I spent my early life at the Gila River Reservation in Gila Bend, Ariz. My blind grandmother was a medicine woman, and I saw people come to her with mental, physical and spiritual complaints. When they were well again, they’d come back, give her gifts and hug her. I learned about herbs from her.

They were stored in bags and I’d go get them for her when she was talking with someone. I learned by taste and smell what the various herbs were for.

Then I moved off the reservation when I was 9. I go back every year, as many Indians do. I became acculturated and became a nurse. I bought into the idea that the native American way was primitive, therefore invalid. But the whole time I was nursing, people, including young doctors, still came to me for herbs.

Many of our modern medicines are derived from plants, but in order to make them into pills, they are no longer the herbs the Creator placed on the planet for healing. I don’t ever tell anybody that herbal therapy is going to be able to avoid death, because I see death and life as normal as day and night. But I do know the quality of life regardless of the end is better if it is approached from the natural way. I do not tell people not to go to a doctor. I only suggest that they try some natural ways first. A broken bone must be set by an orthopedic doctor, but there are herbs which can hasten the healing process, which most orthopedic surgeons know nothing about. We should not be afraid to try Mother Nature’s medicine chest.

The Creator really did place herbs to address the ills of every organ in the body, if you have the knowledge. There’s not one part of you I don’t know an herb for. But I think you have to be born to be a medicine woman, and you have to learn about herbs. It took me 25 years.

Herbs aren’t a quick fix. They must be taken for a minimum of four days to reach an effective blood level, and a minimum of three weeks to effect a noticeable response from the body. People must never abruptly stop taking any prescribed drug. Since I am a nurse and a medicine woman, I gradually replace a drug with herbal intervention to achieve restoration of health.

But we need to do more than look to herbal medicine for healing. Americans need to start looking at the huge amount of money that is being spent on cancer research and wonder why we’re no closer to finding a cure. The medical profession has to assume the responsibility of working with the environmental agencies to honestly state the role the pollution plays in the inability of the body to heal itself.

If you have a lung problem and you’re living in Los Angeles and you’re putting up with the smog, common sense tells you your health problems are worsened.

I feel there is an urgency in the next 10 years to make some meaningful and lasting move to clean up the air, soil, and water. Each of us has to become our own Environmental Protection Agency and Food and Drug Administration because all life is threatened by pollution.

Realize that we are all going to die. But you should know that you have a choice as to how you will live or die. To be about the business of living, you must protect your body from as much pollution as possible. Figure it out. Is it better to fight cancer with preventive measures such as a good diet, natural herbs, mineral and vitamins? Or to fight cancer with powerful drugs which deplete the thymus and poison other vital organs?

A good regime of daily exercise, and a healthy attitude heals the mind, body and spirit. Surround yourself with positive people and positive energy. Do things which are artistic or musical. Take the time to be kind, loving and helpful to others. Pray and visualize yourself healthy. If you let yourself sink into depression or resentment, you cannot assist yourself in healing.