Braucherei or Brauche (Pennsylvania Dutch language), in English commonly called powwow or pow-wow, is a system of Christian folk practice originating in the culture of the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 1700s. Braucherei includes a range of healing rituals used primarily for treating ailments in humans, livestock, and crops, as well as securing physical and spiritual protection, and a wide range of everyday uses. Along with folk plant medicine, Braucherei forms one of two traditional healing practices among the Pennsylvania Dutch, although some researchers consider them to be the one and the same.Kriebel 2017: 341: "... the two characteristic forms of folk medical practice among Pennsylvania Germans-powwowing (known in the Pennsylvania German dialect as Braucherei, or Brauche) and herbal medicine. Some scholars would not distinguish the two, since powwowers have frequently employed plant substances as material components in spells and used herbal cures as an adjunct to their supernaturally based healing practice."
Although the term powwow is a Native American loanword into English, these non-Native folk practices by European immigrant settlers are of European origin and were brought to colonial Pennsylvania in the transatlantic migrations of German-speaking people from Central Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Braucherei draws from earlier material in German-speaking Europe, including European grimoires, folk belief, and a variety of Christian texts. Like most folk traditions, Braucherei practices changed and evolved over the years. Braucherei has been described by scholars as a part of a broader spectrum of North American healing traditions categorized by the blending of ritual, healing and faith.
The practice has been influential in American folk culture, with scholars noting that it seems to have been influential especially in Appalachia and the rural South and the Ozarks. Braucherei was highly visible in population centers in the region until the 1920s. In more recent times it has inspired new religious movements. It remains a subject of study among scholars and a point of public interest.
Terminology Powwowing is the most commonly used English language term to refer to the ritual traditions of the Pennsylvania Germans.Donmoyer 2017:13: "Although the word "powwow" is certainly Native American in origin, this term has also been used extensively since the eighteenth century to describe American healing practices of European origin. For better or for worse, powwowing is the most common designation today for the ritual traditions of the Pennsylvania Dutch. These practices are not to be confused with Native American traditions of the same name. Nonetheless, certain similarities with other traditional and indigenous healing systems may indeed be part of the reason that this term developed such a distinctive connotation in Pennsylvania." The word powwow is a borrowing into English from Narragansett and Massachusett languages, where it meant 'Indigenous priest, shaman, healer' and ultimately derives from Proto-Algonquian *pawe·wa, meaning 'he (who) dreams'. The word has been in use in English in the region since the 1600s.Oxford English Dictionary, “powwow (n.), Etymology,” March 2025, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1035585549. * Oxford English Dictionary, “powwow (n.),” March 2025, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1025731429. The use of the word powwow in this context in Pennsylvania may originate from perceived similarities among Pennsylvania Dutch healing practices and those of Native Americans. The term powwow appears in an English language edition from around 1900 of Hohman's Der lange verborgene Freund (Pow-Wows; or, Long Lost Friend).Harms 2012: 22: "Issued by Philadelphia's Royal Publishing Company, this might be first edition to include the phrase 'pow-wows' in the title." Hohman's book was influential in regions like Appalachia in the early 20th century and in the Ozarks and the use of the word power doctor there (compare powwow doctor) may be a result of the influence of Pennsylvania German powwow.Kriebel 2007: 80: "The similarity of the term "power doctor" to "powwow doctor" is probably not coincidental, even though "power doctors" are found hundreds of miles from Pennsylvania, in the Ozarks. As anthropologist Jean Moser points out (Barney 2000, 26), by the early twentieth century Hohman's "powwow book" served as a critical reference for many Appalachian people."Milnes 2007: 39.
Claimed Native American connections, however spurious, were a key element of the 19th century development of American Spiritualism. Although some powwowers of Native American descent have practiced powwow and some powwowers have claimed that Native American spirit guides have assisted them in healing rituals, the tradition is distinct from the Native American practice of powwow.Kriebel 2007: 13: "Powwowing is not to be confused with the Native American "pow-wow," although individuals of Native American descent have practiced powwowing in the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition, and some powwowers claim that Native American spirit guides have assisted them in conducting healing rituals." The "powwow doctor" (in the Ozarks, known as a "power doctor") was also a common role across the country at this era's medicine shows.
In the Pennsylvania Dutch language, these practices are known as Brauche or Braucherei and in the folk tradition they are contrasted with Hexerei ('black magic') performed by Hexe ('witches' or 'sorcerers'). For example, the Braucher is typically called upon to remove a curse placed by a Hex on someone but the division between the two can be ambiguous.Kriebel 2006: 101 & 105. The Pennsylvania German words Brauche and Braucherei are often translated as "trying" and "treating" but other proposals include "blessing" (from an iteration on the Hebrew bracha), "needing or wanting" (from the High German verb brauchen), or "using" (from the Old High German verb gebrauchen).Kriebel 2007: 13-14: "While the origin of the term is obscure, powwowing is known as Brauche, or Braucherei, in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect. These dialect terms are often translated as "trying," although other meanings have been proposed, including "blessing" (as a mistranscription of the Hebrew baruch) and "needing or wanting" (from the High German verb brauchen), or "using" (from the High German verb gebrauchen).
Usage and perception of these words do not align among speakers of English and Pennsylvania German. For example, according to Donmoyer: ... in the most basic sense, the English term "powwow" generally holds a neutral connotation, as opposed to Braucherei, which is generally positive to speakers of Pennsylvania Dutch. On the other hand, to some monolingual English speakers, the controversial word Hex can also be neutral. In Pennsylvania Dutch, however, Hex (meaning either a witch or a curse) carries an extremely negative connotation, but Braucher (synonymous with a powwow practitioner) is positive rather than neutral, unless the context is one of humor or disbelief.Donmoyer 2017: 18.
Practitioners are variously referred to as powwowers, Brauchers, powwow doctors, Brauch doctors, powwows, brau doctors, hex doctors, or less commonly, in High German, Hexenmeisters. Individuals who oppose Braucherei practices may use the word witch or sorcerer or the Pennsylvania Dutch word Hex. In Pennsylvania German, the infinitive form of 'to powwow' is brauche, and is cognate with older use of the High German word brauchen.Kriebel 2007: 14: "Practitioners are referred to as "powwowers," the term used in this article, but also as "powwows," "powwow doctors," "brau doctors," "brauchers," "brauch doctors," "hex doctors" or, rarely, in Pennsylvania Dutch, hexenmeisters. Those who oppose the practice use the terms "witch" or "sorcerer" or the Pennsylvania Dutch term "hex." The infinitive form of the verb "to powwow" in the dialect, is brauchen ("to powwow" in English)."
Practice and diffusion Traditionally, Brauchers use a variety of gestures, body movements, and incantations along with material objects and substances. Incantations are typically performed subvocally (moving lips without making an audible sound), so that the patient can see the act performed but hear nothing. In a publication from 2015, Kriebel says that the incantations were typically memorized as part of oral tradition but also included a variety of texts (see below).Kriebel 2015: 990: "Powwowers have traditionally used a combination of incantations, gestures, body movements, and material objects or substances to heal or perform other functions. When an incantation is uttered it is almost always done subvocally, so that the patient or client sees the powwower's lips move but cannot hear what he or she is saying. Today these spells are mostly memorized, but powwowers have relied on". The practice flourished until the 1920s, when the practice went underground. Before that, Brauchers could be found advertising their services in Pennsylvania German cultural regions.Kriebel 2015: 990.
Pennsylvania Dutch Braucherei appears to have spread into other regions as Pennsylvania Germans migrated and brought their folk traditions with them, especially but not limited to Appalachia and the Ozarks, influencing or developing into localized traditions.Kriebel 2015: 990: "The practice appears to have been carried through Appalachia into the rural South, since there are marked similarities between the rituals used by powwowers, "fire doctors" (burn healers in North Carolina), "power doctors" (healers in the Ozarks), and other groups. These other healing traditions also use collections of spells and recipes, as in John George Hohman's The Long Lost Friend, a book originally published in 1820 and reprinted many times since then in several editions."
Development, use of texts, and 1929 'witch trial' Braucherei as a distinct tradition developed in the 1700s as primarily German-speaking migrants (along with migrants from the British Isles) settled in Pennsylvania. This folk culture developed from a variety of Christian traditions in Europe. Although the population was primarily protestant, elements of Catholic tradition are reflected in braucherei, such as the invocation of Catholic saints for healing."In "powwowing" (Brauchen, Braucherei), Pennsylvania's continuing brand of occult folk-medicine, which uses charms in the attempt to heal the ills of man and beast, to quote the title of the principal powwow book still in use, the saints make a brief post-Reformation appearance, occasionally trailing parts of their legends behind them." (Yoder 1971: 160, see also note on this page regarding Hohman) "The Pennsylvania German folk-culture, which was built up in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, reflects the passive continuance of much of the medieval Catholic world view and saint lore that marked the earlier European Protestantism, that is, the "Old" Protestantism before it was retreaded in the eighteenth century by Pietism and Rationalism. In the twentieth century, the specific knowledge of the saints' legends is of smaller consequence in Pennsylvania German culture than the general survival of bits and pieces of the European medieval saint complex that was so large a part of the pre-Reformation folk-mind." (Yoder 1971: 159)