Recently, on a camping trip in Ontario, I heard a wolf howl in the dead of night! Something I never imagined I’d get to experience! Those of us from the U.S. were skeptical until our Canadian hosts told us that it’s not uncommon in that part of Canada. There are still wolves roaming wild!
Photo Credit One of a few dozen remaining American Red Wolves
The fourth Stone Medicine treatment I learned, relatively early in my training, was called Wolf Stroke. However, a few months ago I realized I’ve never incorporated it into my bodywork practice by offering it to my clients. Instead, I had been favoring Sea Turtle Stroke, White Bear Stroke, Buffalo Stroke, Rainbath Aromatherapy, Cedar Stroke and Ancestor Stroke.
Suddenly, I had the desire to brush up on this almost forgotten treatment! I can’t say why I had been neglecting this treatment option or why I rediscovered an interest in it, but it has since become one of my favorites. All the clients who’ve received Wolf Stroke have been enthusiastic about it, one regular client even saying it’s her all-time favorite!
My curiosity piqued, I decided to learn more about wolves! I saw a wolf in the flesh for the first time the previous year at the Rockingham County Fair. One of the traveling acts, Wolves of the World, not only showcased the amazing performance abilities of rehabilitated, trained wolves but gave the audience an impassioned education about the important role of this keystone species in the rehabilitation of the food chain, ecosystem and eventually even the geography of water-ways in Yellowstone National Park! In looking for documentaries about Yellowstone, what I found was completely unexpected…. That I’m living on the traditional territory of the Red Wolf, a species I’d never even heard of!
Historically the Red Wolf, a smaller relative of the Grey or Timber Wolf, lived throughout the southeastern U.S., from central Pennsylvania to Florida and as far West as Southeastern Texas. According to the National Wildlife Federation’s website, “years of hunting and habitat loss had driven the species to the brink of extinction by 1970. As part of an ambitious captive-breeding program, the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service captured the 14 remaining red wolves they could find in the wild. These wolves are the ancestors of the 75 to 100 animals that now live in North Carolina, the first animal to be successfully reintroduced after being declared extinct in the wild.” Unfortunately, these last remaining red wolves are still misunderstood and endangered by humans.*
In the Stone Medicine tradition I practice, many of the treatment protocols are associated with a specific animal or plant and the wisdom those relatives have to offer. This is a worldview that was totally different from the colonial settler culture I was raised in, where plants and animals are considered objects only deserving of the designation “thing” and “it,” and not seen as worthy of the “grammar of animacy” as Robin Wall Kimmer calls it in her book Braiding Sweetgrass. What an incredible gift to be introduced to a worldview where the more-than-human world is called kin, each kindred having innate value, even intelligence and wisdom that we might learn from.
What things does the Wolf Species have to teach us? In re-reading my training manual I was amazed by the number of benefits of a Wolf Stroke treatment, including physical but also social and emotional benefits! Thousands of years of cohabitation, study and deep knowledge of the Grey Wolf species inspired and informed the Santee Dakota people who developed Stone Medicine. My hope is that we can all benefit from what wolves have to teach us, but also learn to live in harmony with this species and make room for them to live in the wild once again.
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