In the Appalachian Mountains, early settlers did not usually have access to medical assistance from trained physicians or nurses. Instead, mountain settlers invented a workaround: they learned to cure their own ailments using herbs, Native American folklore, and a variety of homegrown remedies. Nature’s Way shows that the practice of folk medicine has not disappeared from Appalachia. In this significant early Appalshop film, one folk practitioner, M.D. Machen, is filmed selling his cures in the traditional style of the patent medicine man.