130 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [eth. ass.33 



COMI'OSITAE 



Hklianthus Axxurs L. Sunflower. 



Waluha-zizi (Dakota), "yellow flower" [waKcha, flower; zizi, re- 

 duplication of zi, yellow). 



Zha-zi (Omaha-Ponca), "yellow weed" {zha, weed; zi, yellow). 



Kirik-tara-ka-ta (Pawnee), "yellow-eyes" {kirik, eye; tara, hav- 

 ing ; kata, yellow ) . 



I can not find that the sunflower was ever cultivated by any of the 

 Nebraska tribes, although its culture among eastern tribes is re- 

 ported by explorers, and it was and still is cultivated by the Arikara, 

 Alandan, and Hidatsa in North Dakota. P. de Charlevoix, in a 

 letter written in April, 17:21, mentions smiflowers as one of the crops 

 of tlie tril>es of eastern Canada. 



The soleil is nnother very common plant in the fields of the Indians, and 

 which rises to the height of seven or eight feet. Its flower, which is very 

 thick, has much the same figure with that of the marigold, and the seed is 

 disitosed in the same manner; the Indians extract an oil from it by boiling, 

 with which they anoint their hair. ' 



Champlain observed the sunflower cultivated by Indians in Canada 

 in 1G15.= 



All the country where I went [vicinity of Lake Simcoe, Ontario] contains 

 some twenty to thirty leagues, is very fine, and situated In latitude 44° 30'. 

 It is very extensively cleared up. They plant in it a great quantity of Indian 

 corn, which grows there finely. They plant likewise squashes, and sunflowers, 

 from the seeil of which they make oil, with which they anoint the head. . . . 

 There are many very good vines and plums, which are excellent, raspberries, 

 strawberries, little wild apples, nuts, and a kind of fruit of the form and color 

 of small lemons, with a similar taste, but having an interior which is very 

 good and almost like that of figs. The plant which bears this fruit is two and 

 a lialf feet high, with but three or four leaves at most, which are of the shape 

 of those of the fig tree, and each plant hears but two pieces of fruit. [Podo- 

 phyllum peltatum, May apple?] 



Among the Teton Dakota a remedy for pulmonary troubles was 

 made by boiling sunflower heads from which the involucral bracts 

 were first removed. The Teton had a saying that when the sunflowers 

 were tall and in full bloom the buffaloes were fat and the meat good. 

 A Pawnee said that the seeds pounded Uf) with certain roots, the 

 identity of which is not yet ascertained, were taken in the dry form, 

 without further preparation, by women who became pregnant while 

 still suckling a child. This was done in order that the suckling child 

 should not become sick. The sunflower is mentioned in the Onon- 

 daga creation myth.^ 



' CliarIi>volx. Journal of a Voyage to North America, vol. i, p. 250. 

 'Champlain'g Voyages, vol. iii, p. 119. 

 • Hewitt, Iroquoian Cosmology, p. 174. 



