can Indians for uncounted generations and that at least one 
piscicidal plant was counted among the magical and, therefore 
most important, bases of their existence. 
V 
The moot question of diffusion versus independent origin 
arises anew when the question of plant piscicides in North 
America is considered. There is ample evidence of their use in 
both southeastern and western North America, but apparently 
none were employed between the Mississippi River and the 
Great Basin. There is not enough literary source material to 
assume a connection between the Gulf Coast and Mexico. Con- 
sequently, “‘it seems likely that [the southeastern United States 
area of piscicides] may be related to the Antillean (and ultimately 
South American) area of fish-drugging’’ (9). Successive Carib 
and Arawak migrations into the Caribbean from northern South 
America might account for the presence of piscicides in the 
Antilles, just as it accounts for the snuffing of Anadenanthera 
peregrina and other culture traits involving plants. Heizer (9) 
lists the following fish poisons employed in the southeastern 
United States; Choctaw, Delaware, Creek, buckeye (Aesculus 
sp.) nuts; Cherokee, Delaware, walnut (Juglans sp.) bark and 
green nuts; Catawba, black walnut (J. nigra) nuts; Yuchi, devil's 
shoestring (Tephrosia virginiana) roots; Florida, Jamaica dog- 
wood (Piscidia piscipula) and dogwood (Cornus sp.) roots. 
A somewhat different list for this area has been offered (20): 
(north to south) Indian turnip (Arisaema triphyllum); pokeweed 
(Phytolacca decandra); devils shoestring (Tephrosia 
virginiana), buckeye (Aesculus sp.); Cocculus carolinus, some- 
times called “‘false jessamine’’. Several species of Aesculus are 
called ‘‘buckeye’’. The most likely to have been utilized in this 
area Is A. pavia, the red buckeye. The common name of Coc- 
culus is *‘Carolina moonseed’’, a climbing vine found from 
Virginia to Florida. False jessamine is probably Gelsemium 
sempervirens, a climbing vine found from Virginia to Florida 
and Mexico, all parts of which contain poisonous alkaloids. 
Rostlund (20) concludes that it is not safe to assume that fish 
poisoning was an aboriginal trait in eastern and southern United 
States: he suggests that it could have been introduced in rela- 
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