Hospital sets aside room for smudging

BISMARCK, N.D. – Sherman Iron Shield used to sneak his son behind some elevators at St. Alexius Medical Center so he could burn sacred herbs to chase away evil spirits without setting off the hospital’s fire alarms.

He believes the practice, known as smudging, along with modern medicine, helped his son, George, recover from a gunshot wound to the head nearly a dozen years ago.

“My son is still alive,” Iron Shield said.

Now he and other members of the region’s large American Indian population can follow their traditions without worrying about the fire alarms.

On Thursday, the Roman Catholic hospital dedicated a $350,000 solarium and meditation room that may be used for such things as burning sage or sweetgrass, and for singing or drumming.

Tex Hall, chairman of North Dakota’s Three Affiliated Tribes and president of the National Congress of American Indians, said smudging is allowed in Indian Health Service hospitals and clinics on reservations, but generally not outside the reservations.

“I think this is the first of its kind in a privately owned hospital,” Hall said of the St. Alexius meditation room. “It’s a long time coming and a tremendous step forward for native people. I think we’ll see much better healing and recovery.”

The meditation room is intended for people of non-Christian faiths, or those “for whom the main chapel is not suitable,” said Sister Renee Zastoupil, the hospital’s director of pastoral programs.

The room also features a window situated so Muslims can pray toward Mecca. Syed Hassan, a physician at St. Alexius, said he and the dozen or so other Muslim doctors at the hospital use the room for daily prayer.

“We are all children of God,” Hassan told the crowd of about 200 people at the dedication ceremony on Thursday. “We are more similar than otherwise.”