Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians 7
=Low Birch= (_Betula pumila_ L. var. _glandulifera_ Regel.) “bîneˈ
mîcins” [partridge tips]. Among the Pillager Ojibwe, the Low Birch
is a valued source of medicine. Although it is plentiful around the
Flambeau Reservation, none of them seemed to consider it medicine,
although their name agreed, “bîneˈ mîc”, without the diminutive. The
Pillager Ojibwe use the tiny cones upon a plate of coals as an incense
to cure catarrh. No doubt the resinous covering of the twigs and cones
in this variety causes the aromatic incense. Also a tea made from the
cones is drunk by women in their menses. Such tea is also accounted
strengthening when the patient is enfeebled by childbirth. The leaves
probably possess diuretic properties as do other species of _Betula_.
No record of its use by white men has been discovered.
=Hazelnut= (_Corylus americana_ Walt.) “mûkwobagaˈ nak” [bear nut].[99]
Bearskin said that the bark of the hazelnut bush is medicine. It is
boiled and used as a poultice on cuts to close and heal them. No record
of its medical use by white men has been discovered.
=Beaked Hazelnut= (_Corylus rostrata_ Ait.), “bagaˈn” or “bagaˈnak”
[nut] Flambeau names, and “bagaˈnamijic” [nut tree], Pillager name.
Bearskin assigned the same properties and uses to the bark of the
Beaked Hazelnut as to the Hazelnut. The Pillager Ojibwe used only the
hairs of the hazelnut husk as a medicine to expel worms. Eclectic
practitioners have used it in the same manner as an anthelmintic,
depending probably on the irritant effect of the tiny stickers.
BORAGINACEAE (BORAGE FAMILY)
=Hound’s Tongue= (_Cynoglossum boreale_ Fernald), “masaˈn”. Three terms
are used to denote the action of such plants as this, which are burned
upon live coals that the patient may inhale the fumes. They are: “abaˈ
bûson”,—to revive or “head standing by smoke”; “sasaˈ bîkwat”,—to
snuff it; and “nokweˈ sîkûn”,—“smell as it comes”. They are used
interchangeably in designating the use of the plant. Hound’s Tongue is
specifically fumed to cure a headache.
Among the whites, Hound’s Tongue has been recommended as a sedative and
demulcent in the treatment of bronchial and pulmonary affections. It
is said to be of value also in dysentery. The fresh leaves are used
locally as a remedy for superficial burns and abraded surfaces.
CAMPANULACEAE (BELLFLOWER FAMILY)
=Marsh Bellflower= (_Campanula aparinoides_ Pursh.) Although plentiful
around the Lac du Flambeau region, our informants said that this is not
used.
=Harebell= (_Campanula rotundifolia_ L.) “adotaˈgons” [little bell].
The Pillager Ojibwe use the root of the Harebell combined with three
other unnamed roots for lung troubles. There is no record of its use by
whites.
CAPRIFOLIACEAE (HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY)
=Bush Honeysuckle= (_Diervilla lonicera_ Mill.), “osawaˈ skanet”
[yellow fluid]. The Flambeau Ojibwe use the root together with other
plants such as the Ground Pine, for their most valued urinary remedy.
It is also known among white men as a diuretic and a remedy to relieve
itching.
=Red Elderberry= (_Sambucus racemosa_ L.), “papaskatcîksiˈganaˈtîg”
[popgun wood]. According to the Pillager Ojibwe, this bark is an emetic
or a purgative, depending upon how it is prepared for use. It is a last
resort purgative to be used when other remedies for the same complaint
are of no avail. It may be said that the Ojibwe have more plants for
physic than for any other purpose, thus the Red Elder will be seen to
be their most important one.
Four internodes of the stalk are taken, because four is their magic
number. These sections are measured carefully from the point of the
ulna to the point of the humerus. The inner bark is secured by peeling
downward. This is steeped and boiled, and the resulting liquid is
drunk for constipation. It is supposed to thus save the life of one
threatened with serious constipation. It is reserved for extreme cases,
because of the many other physics they employ, and they consider it
drastic and dangerous otherwise. If these same four sticks had been
peeled upwards and the resulting tea drunk, then it would have acted as
a powerful emetic. The writer can testify to its strength, but notes
that it works both ways at once, no matter how prepared, so that the
method of preparation is doubtless superstitious.
Among the whites only the elder flowers are recognized in the New
Formulary, but the inner bark has been known to produce death in
children, a short time after being eaten, with symptoms similar to
Poison Hemlock (_Cicuta_). In moderate doses, it is also known to
produce vomiting and purging. The active alkaloid evidently works only
in the fresh state, as it loses its potency in a dried state.
=Snowberry= (_Symphoricarpos racemosus_ Michx.) “anîgomijiˈ
mînagaˈwûnj” [little crow bush]. Among the Pillager Ojibwe, the root
of the Snowberry is used to make a tea to clear up the afterbirth, and
enable quicker convalescence. Among the Meskwaki Indians the same use
is ascribed to the Wolfberry (_Symphoricarpos occidentalis_). There is
no record of its use by white men.
=Nannyberry= (_Viburnum lentago_ L.), “atîteˈ tamînûn” or “atîteˈ
tamînagaˈwûnj.”[100] The Pillager Ojibwe collect the inner bark of the
trunk, down low next to the ground, to yield a tea which is used as a
diuretic.
Among the white men, Nannyberry is often sold as _Viburnum prunifolium_
which is official in our pharmacopoeia. The virtues assigned to this
class of medicine are as feeble as they are numerous. It has been used
as a nervine, astringent, tonic, diuretic and has been said to have
value as an uterine sedative and preventive of abortion.
=Highbush Cranberry= (_Viburnum opulus_ L. var. _americanum_ [Mill.]
Ait.) “aˈnibîmîˈnûgaˈwûck” [anib means elm, berries, bush].[101] The
Pillager Ojibwe used the inner bark as a physic, and also drank the tea
to cure cramps in the stomach.
Among the white men, _Viburnum opulus_ is considered to be the same
as _Viburnum prunifolium_, only less potent. It is recommended as
an antispasmodic in asthma, hysteria, puerperal convulsions, and
dysmenorrhea.
CARYOPHYLLACEAE (PINK FAMILY)
=White Campion= (_Lychnis alba_ Mill.) “basiˈ bûgûk” [small leaf]. The
Flambeau Ojibwe use the root of this for a tea to physic a patient.
There is no record of its use by white men.
CELASTRACEAE (STAFF TREE FAMILY)
=Climbing Bittersweet= (_Celastrus scandens_ L.) “manîdobimaˈ kwît”
[spirit-twisted]. The Pillager Ojibwe use the red berries of this plant
for stomach trouble.
The white man uses the berries for decorative purposes, and has used
the bark for emetic, diaphoretic and antisyphilitic purposes.
COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY)
The composite family is represented by many species in northern
Wisconsin and also in northern Minnesota. There are probably three
times as many plants in this family as in any other, hence it furnishes
numerous medicines.
=Woolly Yarrow= (_Achillea lanulosa_ Nutt.), “waˈ bîgwûn”
[white-flower]. The Flambeau Ojibwe, under the name given, use the
leaves of this plant as a poultice to cure the bite of a spider. The
dried flowering heads are smoked in mixture with other things, much as
kinnikinnik, not for pleasure, but more for ceremonial purposes.
It has not been distinguished by the eclectic practitioner from the
Common Yarrow, which was used for its bitter and aromatic principles.
It was used as an emmenagogue and for various ailments of the
reproductive organs. It was sometimes used to cure diseased conditions
of the entire gastro-intestinal tract.
=Yarrow= (_Achillea millefolium_ L.), “adjidamoˈ anûk” [squirrel
tail].[102] The Pillager Ojibwe used the florets in ceremonial smoking
and placed them on a bed of coals inhaling the smoke to break a fever.
Yarrow has always been a home remedy of the white man, and the Germans
still use the dried flowers in a tea, called “schafesgarbetee”, to
break a fever. Other uses are the same as above.
=Pearly Everlasting= (_Anaphalis margaritacea_ [L.] B. & H.), “basiˈ
bagûk” [small leaf]. The Flambeau Ojibwe use the flowers of this plant,
calling attention to the fact that it smells like acorns, reducing them
to a powder which is sprinkled on live coals as a “nokweˈ sîgûn” or
perfume. This is inhaled by a party who has had a stroke of paralysis
and is said to revive him.
The Pearly Everlasting has never been properly analyzed by white men,
but the flowers have been locally used by them as soothing expectorants
and are known to have more or less marked stomachic properties.
=Lesser Cat’s-Foot= (_Antennaria neodioica_ Greene) “gagîgeˈ bûg”
[everlasting leaf]. The Flambeau Ojibwe use the whole herb as a valued
remedy to make a tea to be given to the mother after child birth. It is
to purge the afterbirth and heal them internally.
Eclectic practitioners have used this plant as a hemostatic.
=Common Burdock= (_Arctium minus_ Bernh.), “giˈ masan” [big stickers].
The Flambeau Ojibwe use the root of burdock as one of the ingredients
of a medicine for pain in the stomach. It is also supposed to have a
tonic effect.
Burdock root has quite a reputation among home practitioners among
the white men as a diaphoretic, diuretic, alterative, aperient and
depurative. It has been used for rheumatism, gout, pulmonary catarrh,
chronic skin diseases such as scrofula and syphilis, and to dissolve
urinary deposits. Externally it has been used as a salve or wash for
eruptions, burns, wounds, hemorrhoids and swelling.
=White Sage= (_Artemisia ludoviciana_ Nutt.) “îmbjîˈgoa” according to
White Cloud, Bear Island Ojibwe, but “wîngûskw” or “bebejiˈgogaˈnji”
[horse medicine] by John Peper, another Bear Islander. Peper said the
Pillager Ojibwe used it as a horse medicine, but the Sioux smoked it.
Miners and frontiersmen prized it in their treatment of “mountain
fevers.”
=Large-leaved Aster= (_Aster macrophyllus_ L.), “naskosiˈ îcûs”. The
Flambeau Ojibwe consider this a feeble remedy but also good as a charm
in hunting. Young roots were used to make a tea to bathe the head for
headache. The informant giving this latter use called it “megîsiˈ bûg”
[eagle leaf]. There is no record of its use by the whites.
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