88 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 33 
- Prunus Besseyt Bailey. Sand Cherry. (PI. 14.) 
Aoryeyapi (Dakota). The Dakota have a saying that if a person 
gathering cherries moves in the direction contrary to the wind 
the cherries will be good and sweet, but on the other hand if he 
moves with the wind the cherries will be bitter and astringent. 
The name ao"yeyap? expresses this idea. 
No"pa tanga (Omaha-Ponea), “ big cherry.” 
Kus apaaru kaaruts (Pawnee), “cherry-sitting-hiding” (hus, 
cherry; apaaru, sitting; haaruts, hiding). 
Prunus besseyi is peculiarly indigenous to the Sand Hills area of 
Nebraska. The bush is small, varying in height as the situation is 
favorable or unfavorable to vegetation from less than 1 foot to 24 feet. 
The fruits are purplish-black, 1.5 to 2 em. in diameter, exceedingly 
prolific and varying in quality, some bushes bearing fruit somewhat 
astringent, others very desirable fruit. 
All the tribes to whom the sand cherries were accessible made full 
use of them for food as a sauce during their fruiting season and 
laid up stores of them for winter by drying as they did the plums. 
An Oglala said these cherries produce fruit only about once in two 
years. 
Papus NANA (Du Roi) Roemer. Chokecherry. (PI. 13, 0.) 
Chapa (Dakota). 
No"pa-zhinga (Omaha-Ponea), “ little cherry ” (no"pa, cherry). 
Nahaapi nakaaruts (Pawnee) ; nakaaruts, cherry; nahaapi, tree. 
The fruit has long been highly esteemed by all the tribes for food; 
certain preparations of the cherry enter into old-time ceremonies and 
rituals as well as into stories, songs, and myths. In certain sleight- 
of-hand performances also this cherry is used. It is so highly 
esteemed as to give the name to one of the months in the Dakota 
calendar, Ca"pa-sapa-wi, “ The-month-when-cherries-are-ripe ” (lit- 
erally, “ black-cherry-moon”). 
The fruit was eaten with much relish while fresh and was dried 
for winter use. The gathering and drying of the fruit made a busy 
time for the community. The people traveled for miles to the 
streams along which the cherries were abundant. There they went 
into camp and worked at preparing the cherries while they lasted, or 
until as great a quantity as was required could be made ready. Since 
the pits were too small to be removed by any practicable method, the 
cherries were pounded to a pulp, pits and all, on stone mortars, and 
after being shaped into small cakes, were laid out to dry in the sun. 
A favorite food preparation of the Dakota is wasna, 1 sort of pem- 
mican or mincemeat, the dried cherry forming the fruit for the com- 
pound. 
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