GiLarorE] TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 101 
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 1832, observed the process of sugar making. In 
his journal of the latter part of April of that year he says, “ Auch 
die freien Indianer benutzten jenen Ahorn zur Bereitung des 
Zuckers.”* 
The Omaha and Winnebago names of this tree are given from the 
use of maple twigs to make a black dye. The twigs and bark of 
new growth were boiled. A certain clay containing an iron com- 
pound, found interstratified with the Pierre shales exposed along 
the 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 days to get the right color. Treatment for a short time 
made them brown, and for a longer time black. 
Acer necunpo L. Boxelder. 
Tashkada" (Dakota). In the Teton dialect it is called by either 
the name tashkada" or cha"-shushka. 
Zhaba-ta-zho" (Omaha-Ponca), beaver-wood (zhaba, beaver: 
zho, wood; fa, genitive sign). 
Nahosh (Winnebago). 
Osako (Pawnee). 
This tree was used 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. . ‘ 
Previous 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 September, 1916, 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. 
BaALSAMINACEAE 
Impatiens paLyipa Nutt. and I. srrnora 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. 
1+ Maximilian, Reise in das Innere Nord-America, vol. 1, p. 279. ‘All the free 
Indians employ that maple for sugar-making.” 
