I have met with uniform courtesy, kindness, and hospitality at the hands of Indians of the several tribes in pursuit of my in- . Diddock, of Walthill, Nebr., daughters of Chief Iron Eye, otherwise Joseph La Flesche, of.
USES OF PLANTS BY THE INDIANS OF THE MISSOURI RIVER REGION
INTEODUCTION
In order to determine the origin of the latter - that is, the original center from which the cultivation of these plants spread - it is necessary to examine the historical, archaeological, philological, ethnological and botanical evidence of the past. the use of such plants by the native tribes of America. Ethnobotany is useful in suggesting new lines of modern production, for example, new methods of weaving cloth, as shown in the practical application of detailed studies of pueblo fabrics by Frank H.
NEGLECTED OPPOETUNITIES
The people of every country must finally subsist on the food which their own soil is best suited to produce. New articles of diet must be brought into use, and all the resources of our own country must be sufficiently developed.
ETHNIC BOTANY
In addition to this special plant knowledge, there was also a lot of knowledge about plants in general and their general uses, their range, habits and habitat, spread among the common people.
INFLUENCE OF FLORA ON HUMAN ACTIVITIES AND CULTURE
Throughout the range of the Plains Tribes they saw everywhere the Cottonwood, the Willow and the Cedar. And the winds themselves were the paths of the Higher Powers, so they were constantly reminded of the mystical character of this tree.
INFLUENCE OF HUMAN POPULATION ON FLOEA
It will be found that the sense of beauty and the pleasure-giving art of every nation will find outlet and expression in the natural products of its locality. All these scents are clean and wholesome, smelling of the clean outdoors and the freshness of natural garden breezes, and the furthest thing from any hint of hothouse culture and wetting the masses.
GILMORE] INT][,UENCE OF POPULATION ON FLORA 59 here by immigrants from those States; other species, for instance
In addition, seeds or living roots may have been deliberately brought and planted by priests and doctors without the knowledge of the laity. Due to the large areas on which the original vegetation was completely exterminated by the plow, there was a very large depletion of the meadow flora.
TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLAXTS USED BY INDIANS OF THE MISSOURI RIVER REGION ^
GiLMORE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 61 have been overgrazed until the original balance of vegetation has been destroyed by the unnatural competition caused between native species as well as by the added competitive factor of introduced species. The introduction and spread of species by human agency in Aboriginal times has already been discussed.
POLYPORACEAE ' BRACKET FUNGI POLTSTICTUS VERSICOLOR (L.) Fr
USNEACEAE UsNEA BARBATA Hoffm. Lichen
ERYTHRONIUM M ESOCHOREUM, HABIT OF GROWTH ON THE PRAIRIE
UILMORE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 71 LiLIACEAE
Among the list of personal names relating to the Ka'za gens of the Omaha tribe is that of Maa-zho'' Iloda, Gray Cottonwood. Before European customs had thus far supplanted native tribal customs, willow had its place in the funerary customs of the Omaha.
JUGLANDACEAE JuGLANs NIGRA L. Black Waluut
Wood was used for fuel; forked trees were used for poles in the construction of the earth lodge; parts of elm trunks were used to make large corn mortars, while presses were also made from this wood. From the name Dakota it appears that it was formerly used for making bows, but I have no direct information on that point.
MORACEAE
For this purpose it was administered by rubbing it mixed with a certain white clay on the horse's muzzle. The root of this plant was one of the most valued medicines of the Omaha and Ponca.
GILMOEE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 83 fancy it is expected will thus be captivated. Omaha girls were
An Omaha said that a strong decoction of the root is drunk as a remedy for kidney problems. A Winnebago medicine man said black currant root is used by women for uterine problems.
ROSACEAE
WOMAN OF THE TETON DAKOTA POUNDING CHOKECH ERRIES (PADUS MELANO- CARPA) TO DRY FOR WINTER SUPPLY
The Pawnee say that sometimes there are large, hypertrophied brown growths on the lower part of the stem, which, when charred. According to information from Omaha, a wash for inflammation of the eyes is made by eating the fruit.
THE SONG OF THE WILD ROSE
GiLMOHE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 89 The time of the sun dance was determined by the ripening of the cherries. The Pawnee told me that the dry pods of the plant, powdered, were used to cause sneezing to relieve headaches.
QILMOEE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 93
SPECIMEN OF FALCATA COMOSA SHOWING LEAFY BRANCHES WITH PODS AND SMALL BEANS PRODUCED THEREON FROM THE PETALIFEROUS FLOWERS, b. LEAFLESS BRANCHES
The pods produced by the petalled flowers on the uppermost leafy branches of the vine are 15 mm. They found Amorphu in the sandy loam of the valleys and Lespedeza on the hills of the loess plain.
ACERACEAE Acer saccharum Marsh. Hard Maple
A medicine man from Omaha, White Horse, said the fruit was boiled to make a styptic wash to stop bleeding in .. women after childbirth, and that a decoction of the root was used to drink in case of retention of urine and when urination was painful. An Omaha said that a poultice made from the leaves was applied wet in case of poisoning of the skin, as by an irritating vegetable oil.
GIL5I0BE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 101 languages of the several tribes is evidence of the aboriginal source
GIL5I0BE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS The language of the various tribes is evidence of its native source. The taste resembles that of Asian tea and is much tastier than that of South American yerba mate.
LOASACEAE NuTTALLiA NUDA (Pursh) Greene
Sometimes, because of a scarcity of food, the Indians had to use the stems, which they fried after first removing the spines. The mucilaginous juice of the stems was used as a size to fix the colors painted on hides, or on containers made from hides.
GILMORE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 105
The fruit was ceremonially used in feasts given in honor of a girl arriving at puberty. A "Winnebago medicine man said that the top of this plant was used in the smoke treatment for fainting and convulsions.
CORNACEAE
The Omaha and Ponca say that horses were so fond of Washingtonia roots that if you whistled to them while holding out the roots, the horses would trot up for a taste, and then they could easily be cauaht. An old Omaha medicine man said that the dried roots were pounded fine and mixed with beaver dung, and that the mixture was placed in the hole where the sacred stake was planted.
GILMORB] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 109 powere. Part of the sacred pole of the Omaha and Ponca is made
Little boys used the fibers from the mature stems of this plant to make popgun wads and chew them. Likewise, the Pawnee cabbage called karipiku tsahiks-taka, "white man's karipiku" {tsahiks, person; taka, white).
COXVOLVULACEAE
When the Omahas first saw the cabbage and found it used boiled when they cooked the vaKtha, they compared it to this, and thus called the cabbage waKtha umhe, "wa/ifha for the white man." IPOMOEA LEPTOPHYLLA (BUSH MORNING-GLORY), A PERENNIAL FLOWERING PLANT, DOMAIN OF THE SAND HILLS OF NEBRASKA, SHOWS HABIT.
GILMOKE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 111 Pine Eidge said his people call it rattlesnake food and say that
BORAGINACEAE LiTHOSPERMUM CANESCENs (Michx.) Lelim
One or more other forms may often be found wherever the last, ts-usahtu, the. I transplanted individuals of these two forms from the wild and observed them for five years in all seasons.
GILMOBE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 113 The Dakota used mint as a flavor in cooking meat. They also
SOLANACEAE
A Pawnee informant said that in olden times his people prepared the ground for planting this tobacco by gathering a quantity of dried grass and burning it where the patch was to be sown. The type of tobacco grown by the Winnebago and other tribes of the Eastern Woodlands was Nicotiana rustica L.
SCROPHULARIACEAE
It appears that this species was cultivated by all the tribes from the Mississippi Eiver eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. It is said that the forest tribes eagerly accepted gifts of prepared tobacco of the species Nicotiana quadnvcHvis from the tribe of the plain region and sought to obtain the seed of the same, but the plain tribes were jealously guarded against allowing these seeds to be exported to their neighbours. forest.
EUBIACEAE
Allusion is made to the gourd in some of the oldest religious songs of the Pimatribe in the Southwest. Sakaf'ide uke^i," the common watermelon, was known to the Omahas before the coming of the white men.
MELONS AMONG THE NATCHEZ
For an old Onidou Indian (of the six Iroquois nations) assured me that the Indians did not know the time before the Europeans came into the country and communicated it to the Indians. The French, on the other hand, have assured me that the Indians of Illinois had an abundance of this fruit when the French first came to them, and that they declare that they have planted it from time immemorial.
GIL5I0RE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 123 La tige de ce melon rampe coiuine celle ties notres. et s'etend jusqu'a ilix pieds
WHITE MEN
WATERMELONS AMONG THE ILLINOIS
MELONS AND OTHER CULTIVATED PLANTS AMONG TRIBES OF WESTERN PRAIRIES
GILMORE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 125
They also plant a bean on the same hill with corn, the stalk of which is self-sustaining. Their pumpkins aren't the best; they dry them in the sun to eat in winter and spring.”
GILMOBE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS , 129
Soleil is another very common plant in the fields of the Indians, and which rises to the height of seven or eight feet. The children collected gum from the upper parts of the stem, causing the gum to radiate and form large clumps.
GILMOEE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 133 The Teton Dakota say that this plant is always found in prairie-
WhiteHorse, of the Omaha, furnished information, which he obtained from the Oto, of a decoction of the root used as a remedy for pleurisy. The Omaha and Ponca made an infusion of the sf»ms of Lygodesmia for sore eyes.
ANCIENT AND MODERN PHYTOCULTURE BY THE
In the north, where Silphium laciniaium is not found, Lygodesm/ia was used for the production of chewing gums.
TRIBES
Consequently, I have found in every tribe the rudimentary stage of the domestication of certain wild fruits, roots, and other vegetable products for food or medicinal use, for tobacco or perfume. In this way a vivid conception may be formed of the factors which in prehistoric times brought about the domestication in Europe and Asia of our cultivated plants known to-day.
CONCLUSION
Thus I was privileged to see the beginnings of the culture of some plants which . may produce the main crop in the future. All these considerations of the relations between the native .. human population and the flora of the region are instructive to us as indications of what must have been in the early stages of the development of the present highly differentiated botanical science.
GILHOBE] GLOSSARY OF PLANT NAMES 139
146 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [ETH. ANN
ARRANGED ALPUABETICALLY UNDER DAKOTA NAME
ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY UNDER WINNEBAGO NAME
ARRANGED ALPHABETICALLY UNDER PAWNEE NAME
Glossary o/ i) hint names moUioiieU in this iii
BIBLIOGEAPHY
