INDIAN MEDICINES MADE FROM TREES 



209 



the bark which they carry off in great abundance. It is known be a certain remedy against the effect of this poison " 



as elkbark and Indian bark. Indians Qf ^ ^ ^^ ^ Qf ^^ Qf ^^ 



Barton must have had in mind a period much earlier placed much reliance on arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis) 



than his book, 1798. The Kanawha river is in West Vir- as a protection against snakes, though it does not appear 



ginia, and the Indians were driven 

 from that region by Gen. Andrew 

 Lewis in 1774, and they never re- 

 turned. The bark-gathering expedi- 

 tions spoken of must have belonged 

 to a much earlier date. It is worthy of 

 note, too, as a record of forest change, 

 that though the umbrella tree may 

 once have existed "in great profu- 

 sion" in that region, it is difficult to 

 find a single tree of that species in all 

 that country at the present time. The 

 report on the trees of West Virginia, 

 prepared by A. B. Brooks for the 

 state geological survey, makes no 

 mention of this species, and it is pre- 

 sumed that it was not met with in 

 the region where it was formerly 

 abundant. 



The Indians made an oil from 

 hickory nuts and black walnuts and 

 used it as a liniment "to supple their 

 joints," according to the testimony 

 of an old writer. That remedy was 

 employed frequently by Indian fishermen who waded 

 much in the water along the tidal rivers of Virginia and 

 Maryland where half the savage population lived by fish- 

 ing. Rheumatism and stiffening of the joints, due to ex- 

 posure, were common complaints, 

 and the frequent application of 

 nut oil gave relief. It seems prob- 

 able from early accounts that hickory 

 trees were more plentiful than any 

 other forest tree species in the Vir- 

 ginia coastal region at that time, 

 which was the period of first explo- 

 ration by white men. At that time 

 the loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) was 

 confined chiefly to tracts near the 

 mouths of rivers and had not yet 

 spread inland as it has since done, 

 and hickory held chief place in the 

 forest's makeup in that part of the 

 country. 



Most of the cures for snakebites, 

 which the Indians made use of, were 

 annual plants and therefore do not 

 fall within the scope of this article 

 which deals with trees only ; but the 

 white ash (Fraxinus americana) was 

 employed as a remedy, according 

 to Loskiel, who says in speak- 

 ing of the bite of snakes : "A de- 

 coction of the buds or bark of white 

 ash, taken inwardly, is said to 



LEAF OF SLIPPERY ELM 



No tree has a smoother inner bark and a 

 rougher, harsher leaf than slippery elm. The 

 bark was made into poultices by Indians. 

 White settlers learned the art, and all drug- 

 stores sell the bark. The ground article is 

 often adulterated with wheat flour. 



FLOWERING DOGWOOD 



The bark of dogwood was the best substitute for 

 quinine the Indians had. It was one of their 

 remedies for chills and fever. White people long 

 used bark, flowers, and fruit as fever medicine. 



that they actually applied it as a 



medicine. They went on the theory 



that an ounce of prevention is better 



than a pound of cure. It is written 



in volume 3 of the "Jesuit Relations" : 



In the forests (of the Huron country) 

 are seen abundance of cedars. The odor 

 of the tree is disliked by serpents, and on 

 this account its branches are used for 

 their beds when on their journeys. 



Arborvitae possesses a camphor- 

 like odor which is very perceptible 

 when the leaves and twigs are 

 bruised. The present day camper in 

 the country north of the Great Lakes 

 is glad to furnish his camp bed with 

 arborvitae boughs, which he calls 

 "spruce feathers." The odor might 

 have kept snakes out of the wigwams 

 of the Huron Indians two hundred 

 years ago in the palmy days of the 

 Jesuit missionaries ; but at the pres- 

 ent day the camper regards the deli- 

 cate odor as one of the luxuries of 

 forest life, and it is that which now 

 gives the boughs their value, and no one regards them as 

 protection against serpents. In fact, it is doubtful if 

 snakes shun this tree, for they hide in arborvitae hedges 

 as readily as in any other hedge. 



Indians had no infallible snakebite 

 cure. An early traveler in Florida 

 asked whether an Indian when struck 

 by the large, black rattlesnakes of 

 that region ever succumbed, and he 

 received the answer: "1 never knew 

 of one so bitten that did not succumb." 

 The blunt, thick rattlesnake of Ariz- 

 ona, known locally as the "sidewind- 

 er," is reputed to cause sure death 

 when it strikes an Indian; but that 

 point does not seem to have been in- 

 vestigated scientifically. So far as the 

 writer of this has been able to ascer- 

 tain from reports of the Bureau of 

 Ethnology, the only case reported of 

 an Indian bitten by a rattlesnake in 

 Arizona was one that proved fatal, 

 but it was assumed in that instance 

 that death resulted because the vic- 

 tim was unable to apply a remedy 

 promptly. Indians of Arizona and 

 surrounding regions made them- 

 selves leggings of hard leather as a 

 protection not only against snakes, 

 but also against the fierce thorns 

 which bristle on every leaf and stem 



