UNITY -- Leslie Wood's personal vision quest took her from Kentucky to Pleasant Point, Maine, to learn the traditional medicines of the Passamaquoddy Indians, but after receiving a sub-zero reception, Wood was ready to leave empty handed.

While standing in a museum, however, Wood felt the tap on her shoulder that would change her life. Within weeks she would be working side by side with Passamaquoddy medicine man Fredda Paul and would soon be his wife.

Paul, a Passamaquoddy elder from the Pleasant Point reservation, and Wood, an artist and writer from Kentucky, have worked together since that meeting in 2002, preserving the tribe's vanishing knowledge of healing with native plants.

"My previous engagement to marry an oncologist was superseded by finding a real medicine man," Wood told a gathering of students and faculty at last Tuesday's seminar on Passamaquoddy medicine plants.

Wood, a former art teacher, discovered natural healing in the course of a revolt against the side effects of Western medicine she took for a series of illnesses. Wood had already written a book on the natural medicines of Kentucky when she felt an unexplained compulsion to repeat the effort for Maine's Passamaquoddy.

"I had an epiphany to go and write down the Passamaquoddy (traditions)," Wood said. "I was possessed."

That possession found an outlet in Paul, whose drive to keep the knowledge alive is fueled by the memory of his dead grandmother, who taught Paul much of what he knows of the ancient medicine practices.

"It's my grandmother's request," he said. "I have to follow that request. If I don't, I dishonor her. Before she died, she said, 'Well, grandson, it is up to you now to pass this on.'"

Paul has traveled all over the country telling others what he knows--he has even spoken at Harvard Medical School--but in Wood he found a companion who not only shares his conviction, but who has the talent to put the knowledge in writing.

"Fredda has some gifts that are amazing," Wood said.

Paul had expected Wood's arrival for years. A shaman spirit had told Paul of Wood's arrival long before she ever arrived at Pleasant Point, Paul said. He knew, as he walked into the museum that day, that he would ask Wood to be his apprentice.

Wood was no so sure.

"I said no because I didn't want people to think I was stealing the ancient ways," she said.

Paul's gift of healing, not to mention the continued encouragement of other elders in the tribe, soon changed Wood's mind.

Paul, now in his 60s, said he was kidnapped as a toddler and spent most of his first 13 years in Indian Residential School in Canada. When he was found and returned home he longed to learn the language and traditions of the Passamaquoddy to define his place in the world.

His grandmother, who had learned plant medicine during a time when native ways were despised or forbidden, was eager to be the teacher. She would sketch plants for Paul and send him into the woods to find them.

But she did more than provide the knowledge, she passed along her spirit, Paul said. Ideas for medicines come to him in his dreams. In a gathering, Paul said he often knows if someone is sick before he meets them. He described a detailed vision of a man coming to him for help with colon cancer. Years later, the man appeared, seeking help for colon cancer.

"It scares me sometimes when these things happen," Paul said.

By putting his ear to the ground, Paul said he can tell how many people are walking toward him from 10 miles away. He can listen in the air and tell what kind of bird is flying.

"I am still slow to believe things," Wood said. "You have to stand back and say, 'Wow, this is real.' "

Some of the knowledge passed down to Paul date back 12,000 years, Wood said, but now the stories and traditions are being pushed aside and the knowledge of native medicine is on the verge of being lost forever. Natural medicines are being ignored in favor of Western science.

"That's the tragedy," Wood said. "They're losing this part of their culture."

Unwilling to let them die quietly, Wood and Paul are on a mission to document and pass along the traditions and knowledge. They have created a newsletter, Npisun Harvest News, which is dedicated to preserving the heritage of traditional medicine through words, pictures, and interviews with other tribal members.

Paul and Wood speak at dozens of venues each year, often including a nature walk, and first came to Unity College last year -- the college will award him an honorary doctorate in botany during this spring's graduation. While stressing that the plants they talk about should never be used without qualified supervision, the couple shares qualities of the plants and Paul shares memories of their use.

"They want to teach people in their own tribe and in other tribes," said Julie Johnson, counselor at Unity College, who helped arrange last week's session with college student and faculty. "They want to keep it alive for young people, but they also think it's time to share it with other people as well because the knowledge dies with the elders," Johnson said. "They have been getting messages from elders saying, 'We really need to keep this alive.' "

Not everyone is so understanding, however. The cold reception that almost made Wood give up her quest to document Passamaquoddy medicine came from a few members who did not want Wood spreading tribal traditions.

"Any person that calls or knocks on my door, no matter what color they are, they are welcome in my house," Paul said. "I treat anybody."

Craig Crosby -- 861-9253

ccrosby@centralmaine.com