You can burn sage if you want. There are over 700 species of sage, some of which were native to Europe and brought to America by European settlers. A species commonly known as Garden Sage is what our European ancestors used to burn and make teas and medicines from before Christianity took over.
So if you want to burn or use sage, use those.
What she's talking about is a species of sage commonly known as White Sage. It only grows in a particular place in the US, so it's of special spiritual significance to a select number of tribes of American Indigenous people. You'll have to fact check me here, but I think one of the tribes doesn't exist anymore. It's very significant to the Navajo. I think to the Pueblo too.
White Sage is a protected species as it's also a plant keystone species to the ecosystem it grows in. So it's actually illegal to harvest it for most people, transport it, purchase it, or have it. If you cross state lines, it's a federal felony. Obviously, it's not a law that is heavily policed because poaching continues to be an issue.
Stay away from White Sage.
If you can't tell the difference between the leaves when you buy some, don't buy it if it's labeled "white sage".
The thing here, is that a lot of what's labeled as "white sage" isn't. Sometimes, it's not even sage, any kind of sage at all. It's some other kind of aromatic plant. There's a lot of fraud in New Age markets.
This article is contradictory in places and problematic for a couple of reasons, but the author is not a native English speaker so that's probably part of it but it's unclear if she herself understands that there are hundreds of different species of sage all over the world. She's an Indigenous woman from Costa Rica, so White Sage was not special or important to her people either unless she also has ancestry with the tribes of Southern California and the Baja region. In fairness, she very well might. Again, unclear here. But you don't find White Sage as a native plant to Costa Rica.
There are several species of sage that are native there. I'd have to look it up, but from my Botany class I remember (and I may have the common names a little off) Costa Rican Blue Sage and I think (?) Hummingbird Sage.
These days there's plenty of habitat maps and reaources on this online. Back in the day, we spent many an hour identifying plants by wading through taxonomic keys, which is a skill you fucking work at. Believe me.
If you're curious, I encourage you to read through the Wikipedia article on White Sage, sage in general, and pull up some habitat maps for different sages.
Wouldn't hurt to always refer to White Sage by it's scientific name as well, to avoid the kind of confusion in this article. It's Salvia apiana. If you're just referring to sage in general, you'd say Salvia sp. Scientific names are supposed to be italicized as well, vut I'm at work and on my phone, which is old, and the mobile app won't allow me to do that in comments.
