1890. | HARRIS—ROOT FOODS OF SENECA INDIANS. ins 
thence, via Chesapeake bay to the Ocean, and it is well understood that 
the Indians of New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia were in constant 
intercourse (in fact the Iroquois claimed the country from Lake Ontario 
south to the Tennessee river), and that the customs and foods of the 
natives of those sections were in many respects the same. Swetland, 
unfortunately, gives no description of the root he calls ook-te-haw ; 
but evidence in the hands of the writer shows that the pioneers of the 
Genesee Valley and County of Ontario, used the Indian turnip Arum 
triphyllum as a substitute for flour, and that they obtained their knowl- 
edge of the manner of preparing this root from Seneca Indians. It 
would seem that the cos-cus-haw of Herriot, the loc-ka-whough of 
Smith, the wake-robin of Carver, the tuc-ka-hoo of the South, the 
taw-ho of Kalm, the o-a-o-sah of the Senecas and the ook-te-haw of 
Swetland, were identical and that the bread root mentioned by Luke 
Swetland was Arum triphyllum. 
Was it not a pressing necessity, that first induced aboriginal man 
to test the nutritious qualities of the most nauseous of all wild plants 
Symplocarpus fetidus, commonly known as pole-cat root or skunk cab- 
bage? The early Swedish settlers on the Susquehanna river called this 
plant, byron blad, or bear’s leaf, and some termed it byron retter, or 
bear’s root, from the fact that bears on leaving their winter habitations 
in the spring were excessively fond of it. The early Senecas called 
the plant o-sha-ta. They used the root for all purposes of food and 
medicine where arum could be. employed. As a bread root it was 
roasted or baked to extract the juice, in much the same manner as 
arum. When the Seneca towns were destroyed by General Sullivan in 
1779, the Indians found themselves utterly destitute and many moved to 
Fort Niagara where the British fed them, mainly on salt meats, during 
the following winter. Asa result hundreds died of scurvy ; but those 
who used the root of skunk cabbage as an anti-scurbutic, recovered 
their health. 
That beautiful and curious plant, Solomon’s seal, was also a 
welcome addition to the aboriginal larder in times of necessity. Many 
years ago a Seneca who was roving over the ground now named High- 
land Park, in this city, called the attention of his boy companion, the 
late John Nutt, to Solomon’s seal as a plant once highly prized by 
Indians. He said it was formerly much used by the Senecas as a 
medicine, and that they also boiled the young shoots in the spring and 
ate them. The mature roots were gathered in the fall, dried, ground 
or pounded, and made into bread. 
