Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians 1

Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians 1

Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians

 

Author: Huron H. Smith

 

 

CONTENTS Page

 

Foreword 333

 

Introduction 337

 

Ojibwe Medicines 348

 

Ojibwe Medicinal Materials 352

 

Other than plants 352

 

Ojibwe Medicinal Plants 353

 

Ojibwe Vegetal Foods 393

 

Ojibwe Food Plants 394

 

Ojibwe Vegetal Fibers 411

 

Ojibwe Fiber Plants 412

 

Ojibwe Vegetal Dyes 424

 

Ojibwe Dye Plants 424

 

Miscellaneous Uses of Plants 426

 

Conclusion 433

 

 

 

 

ILLUSTRATIONS

 

 

Plates

 

Plate XLVI. fig. 1. Ojibwe garden.

fig. 2. Ojibwe wigwam.

 

XLVII. fig. 1. Ojibwe dream dance.

fig. 2. Jerking deer meat.

 

XLVIII. fig. 1. Bead work.

fig. 2. Lac du Flambeau.

 

XLIX. fig. 1. Birch bark baskets.

fig. 2. Cradle board.

 

L. fig. 1. Pounding ash splints.

fig. 2. Making baskets.

 

LI. fig. 1. Rushes for weaving.

fig. 2. Ojibwe grave houses.

 

LII. fig. 1. Peeling birch log.

fig. 2. Birch bark roll.

 

LIII. fig. 1. Splitting cedar log.

fig. 2. Making canoe ribs.

 

LIV. fig. 1. Shaping canoe nose.

fig. 2. Canoe form.

 

LV. fig. 1. Jack Pine roots.

fig. 2. Coiled roots.

 

LVI. fig. 1. Boiling pitch.

fig. 2. Sewing canoe.

 

LVII. fig. 1. Pitching seams.

fig. 2. Launching canoe.

 

LVIII. fig. 1. Ojibwe garden.

fig. 2. Bark wigwam.

 

LIX. fig. 1. Piawantaginum.

fig. 2. White Cloud.

 

LX. fig. 1. Bear Island.

fig. 2. Tamarack branch.

 

LXI. fig. 1. Ground Pine.

fig. 2. Giant Puffball.

 

LXII. fig. 1. Balsam Fir.

fig. 2. White Spruce.

 

LXIII. fig. 1. White Pine.

fig. 2. Norway Pine.

 

LXIV. fig. 1. Bur Oak.

fig. 2. Red Oak.

 

LXV. fig. 1. Red Maple.

fig. 2. Mountain Holly.

 

LXVI. fig. 1. Sphagnum Moss.

fig. 2. Virginia Grape Fern.

 

LXVII. fig. 1. Pitcher-plant.

fig. 2. Cranberries.

 

LXVIII. fig. 1. Poison Ivy.

fig. 2. Box Elder.

 

LXIX. fig. 1. Balsam Apple.

fig. 2. Great Willow-herb.

 

LXX. fig. 1. Wild Currant.

fig. 2. River-bank Grape.

 

LXXI. fig. 1. Canada Mayflower.

fig. 2. Spikenard.

 

LXXII. fig. 1. Twisted Stalk.

fig. 2. Solomon’s Seal.

 

LXXIII. fig. 1. Meadow Rue.

fig. 2. Carrion-flower.

 

LXXIV. fig. 1. Wild Columbine.

fig. 2. Canada Anemone.

 

LXXV. fig. 1. Goldthread.

fig. 2. Wintergreen.

 

LXXVI. fig. 1. Red Baneberry.

fig. 2. Labrador Tea.

 

LXXVII. fig. 1. Agrimony.

fig. 2. Hawthorn.

 

 

 

 

FOREWORD

 

 

This bulletin is the third in a series of six, recounting the field

work done among Wisconsin Indians to discover their present uses of

native or introduced plants and, insofar as is possible, the history of

these plant uses by their ancestors. As far back as 1888 Hoffman[85]

reported that the medicinal lore of the Ojibwe would soon be gone. But

thirty-two years later, it is still partially recalled and practised

among the more primitive bands of these people. How long it will

persist is problematical. The Ojibwe are the most numerous of any of

our tribes and as long as they live in the northern forest and lake

district of Wisconsin, so long will the older Indians continue to

explain the natural history of their environment to the young men and

women of the tribe.

 

The writer deplores the brevity of the time that could be devoted to

each tribe, and applauds the similar study reported by Miss Frances

Densmore[86] in her fifteen years of research among the Ojibwe.

Necessarily the most valuable information comes from the oldest

Indians, and many informants have died since this study was made.

 

Three trips were made, usually of six weeks duration. The first was

made in June, 1923 to the Lac du Flambeau Reservation, in Vilas County,

Wisconsin. The same region was visited again later in the fall. During

the spring of 1924 one trip was made to Leech Lake, Minnesota, where

the remnant of the Pillager Band of the Ojibwe live on Bear Island,

(Plate 60, fig. 1), and the surrounding mainland. Since then, trips

have been made to Redcliff, Bayfield County, to Odanah, Iron County,

to Lac Court Oreilles, Clark County, and to scattered bands in various

sections of northern Wisconsin. The principal work was done at Lac du

Flambeau and Leech Lake. The Leech Lake trip checked results obtained

at Lac du Flambeau.

 

The writer thanks those officials and private citizens who assisted by

introductions to Indians and by making his stay among them comfortable.

Mr. James W. Balmer, Indian Agent, then at Lac du Flambeau, now at

Pipestone, Minnesota, and his chief clerk, Mr. Walter H. Shawnee,

a Shawnee Indian, still in service at Lac du Flambeau, and Mr. John

Allen, Ojibwe Indian and school disciplinarian all gave valued advice

and quartered us at their Teacher’s Club. Mr. Edward Rogers, of

Walker, Minnesota, a very successful Ojibwe attorney, and the Noble

brothers, Mr. John W. Noble and Mr. E. W. (“Van”) Noble, proprietor of

Forest View Lodge, directly across from Bear Island, rendered valuable

assistance with the Pillager band of Ojibwe.

 

The writer collected every plant he could find in each region because

he had been informed that the Ojibwe differ from other Wisconsin

Indians in that they believe that every plant that grows is some kind

of medicine or useful for something. The only plants discovered for

which they had no name or use were adventive plants, and one could

fairly well establish the date of their appearance in the state,

because the Indians pay much more attention to our native flora than do the whites.