396 



EOSARIO — ROSS 



[b. a. e. 



dug and consumed large quantities of it, 

 and on account of the griping caused by 

 eating it, they ate clay with it as a pallia- 

 tive. The Pima, Hopi, and other Ari- 

 zona tribes habitually chewed the roots 

 of certain i:ilants having sweet or muci- 

 laginous properties. 



The Seminole of Florida possessed a 

 valuable plant called coonli (q. v.), the 

 bulbous starchy root of which was con- 

 verted into flour. The apparatus em- 

 ployed in the coonti industry comprised 

 mortars and pestles, platforms, mash ves- 

 sels, strainers, and vats. The starch, 

 separated from the mashed root by wash- 

 ing and sedimentation, was fermented 

 slightly, dried on palmetto leaves, and 

 made into bread. A demand among the 

 Avhites for coonti flour has led to the 

 establishment of several mills in Florida 

 The coonti industry is similar to the cas- 

 sava industry of the West Indies and 

 South America, and it seems probable 

 that the method of manufacture in Flor- 

 ida did not originate there. Hariot men- 

 tions 6 plants the roots of which were 

 valued as food by the Virginia Indians, 

 giving the native names, appearance, oc- 

 currence, and method of preparation. 

 Many of the medicinal roots of eastern 

 and southern U. S. were adopted by the 

 whites from the Indian pharmacopeia; 

 some of these are still known by their 

 native names, and about 40 are quoted 

 in current price lists of crude drugs. 

 Indians formerly gathered medicinal 

 roots to supply the trade that arose after 

 the coming of the whites. Many roots 

 were exported, especially ginseng, in 

 which there was an extensive commerce 

 with China; and, curiously enough, the 

 Iroquois name for the plant has the 

 same meaning as the Chinese name. Gin- 

 seng was discovered in America by Lafitau 

 in 1716, and imder the French regime in 

 Canada many thousands of dollars' worth 

 were sent yearly to the Orient. In Alaska 

 ginseng was used by sorcerers to give 

 them power. Although the use of edible 

 roots by the Indians was general, they 

 nowhere practised root cultivation, even 

 in its incipient stages. In the U. S. the 

 higher agriculture, represented by maize 

 cultivation, seems to have been directly 

 adopted by tribes which had not advanced 

 to the stage of root cultivation. See 

 Basketry, Di/es and Figments, Food, Medi- 

 cine and Medicine-men. 



Consult Palmer, Food Products of the 

 North American Indians, U. S. Agric. 

 Rep. 1870, 1871; Chamberlain in Vehr. 

 d. Berliner Gesel. f. Anthr., 551, 1895; 

 Chesnut, Plants used by the Indians of 

 Mendocino co., Cal., Cont. U. S. Nat. 

 Herb., vii, no. 3, 1902; Coville, Notes on 

 the Plants used by the Klamath Indians 

 of Oregon, ibid., v, no. 2, 1897; Leiberg, 



ibid., v, ho 1, p. 37; J. 0. Dorsey in 3d 

 Rep. B. A. E., 308, 1884; MacCauley in 

 5th Rep. B. A. E., 1887; Hariot, Briefe 

 and True Report, 1590; Hrdlicka in Bull. 

 34, B. A. E., 1908. (w. H.) 



Eosario. See Nuestra Senora del Rosu- 

 rio. 



Roscows. A former Kecoughtan settle- 

 ment in Elizal )eth City co. , Ya. — Jeffer- 

 son (1781), Notes, 129, 1802. 



Ross, John. Chief of the Cherokee; born 

 in Rossville, Ga., Oct. 3, 1790; died in 

 Washington, D. C, Aug. 1, 1866. He 

 was the son of an immigrant from Scot- 

 land by a Cherokee wife who was herself 

 three-quarters white. His bo}diood name 

 of Tsan-usdi, 'Little John,' was ex- 

 changed when he reached man's estate 



JOHN ROSS 



for that of Guwisguwi, or Cooweescoo- 

 wee, by which was known a large white 

 bird of uncommon occurrence, perhaps 

 the egret or the swan. He went to school 

 in Kingston, Tenn. In 1809 he was sent 

 on a mission to the Cherokee in Arkansas 

 by the Indian agent, and thenceforward 

 till the close of his life he remained in 

 the puljlic service of his nation. At the 

 battle of the Horseshoe, and in other 

 operations of the Cherokee contingent 

 against the Creeks in 1813-14, he was ad- 

 jutant of the Cherokee regiment. He 

 was chosen a member of the national 

 committee of the Cherokee Council in 

 1817, and drafted the reply to the U. S. 

 commissioners who were sent to negotiate 

 the exchange of the Cherokee lands for 

 others w. of the Mississippi. In the con- 



