OILMOEE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS IQl 



languages of the several tribes is evidence of the aboriginal source 

 of the article, for if they had first gotten sugar from the traders' 

 stores It would not have been associated in their minds with the sap 

 of trees. 



Prince Maximilian of Wied, in his journey up the Missouri River 

 in the spring of 18:i2, observed the process of sugar making. In 

 his journal of the latter part of April of that year he says, '^Auch 

 die freien Indianer ijenutzten jenen Ahorn'zur BereUung de> 

 Ziickers. ■' ' 



The Omaha and Winnebago names of this tree are gi\en from tlie 

 use of maple twigs to make a bhick dye. The twigs and bark of 

 new growth were boiled. A certain clay containing an iron com- 

 pound, found interstratified witii the Pierre shales e.vposed along 

 tlie Niobrara River, was mixed with grease and roasted. This 

 roasted clay and the water in which the bark was boiled were then 

 mixed, and the tanned hides which were to be dyed were soaked for 

 two or three day.-, to get the light color. Treatment for a short time 

 made them brown, and for a longer time black. 



Acer negcxix) L. Boxelder. 



Tmfikuda" (Dakota). In the Teton ilialect it is called by either 

 the name tfMkkado," or rh'i"-shaishka. 



Z lull J a- 1 a- z loo" (Omaha-Ponca). beaver-wood (zltuba. beaver: 

 zlw", wood; ta, genitive sign). 



Nahoah (Winnebago). 



Osako (Pawnee). 



This tree was iis<'d also for sugar making by all the tribes. The 

 Dakota and Omaha and probably the other tribes used boxelder wood 

 to make charcoal for ceremonial painting of the person and for 

 tattooing. 



Prexious information as to the making of sugar from the sap of 

 this tree pertained, among the Pawnee and Omaha, only to times 

 now many years in the past: but it has been found that among some 

 tribes sugar is still made from this source. In .Septeml>er, 1!>16, the 

 writer found a grove of trees on the Standing Rock Reservation in 

 North Dakota, of which every tree of any considerable size showed 

 scars of tapping which had been done the previous spring in sugar 

 making. 



Balsaminact-ae 



Impatie.ns pallida Nutt. and I. bifloka Walt. Wild Touch-me-not. 

 The stems and leaves of this plant were crushed together to a pulp 

 and applied to the skin as a remedy for rash and eczema by the 

 Omaha. 



' Maximilian, Rplse Id das Innere .Nord-America, vol. 1, p. 279. " All the fre« 

 Indians employ that maple for sugar-making." 



