THE ATLANTIC SLOPE NATURALIST. 



35 



" Noticing in Number 2 of The At- 

 lantic Slope Naturalist that you 

 quoted the opinion of Dr. Washington 

 Matthews to the effect (in the American 

 Anthropologist) that the Indians did not 

 smoke the bark of red-willow, I wish to 

 say that I am confident that this is an 

 error. 



"During the two summers which I 

 spent (1895 and 1896) among the Cree 

 and Stony Indians of Northwestern 

 Canada I repeatedly saw them using the 

 bark of red-willow for smoking. They 

 would trim the long branches, and, after 

 scraping off the thin dark colored outer 

 bark, which left a green bark exposed, 

 they would carefully (with a blunt-edged 

 knife) scrape it almost the entire length 

 of the limb, leaving it attached to the 

 lower end where it hung in coil-spring 

 like shreds, clustered in a whorl. The 

 limbs were then stuck in the ground 

 about a camp-fire and the bark allowed 

 to dry. When thoroughly dry it was 

 taken between the palms of the hand and 

 rubbed until broken into fine particles, 

 and was then ready for use. 



"My half-bred guide smoked large 

 quantities of red-willow bark mixed with 

 tobacco and it was in general use among 

 the Indians we met. My memory fails 

 me as to whether it was used without 

 being mixed with tobacco or not. 



; 'This information is not given be- 

 cause I wished to deny the statement, 

 but because I thought that my observa- 

 tion might be of value to your readers." 



Mr. J. R. Barton, of Minneapolis, Minn., 

 on June 15th, 1903, wrote : 



' There is one little note on page 20 

 that I must take exception to. As regards 

 the article of Dr. Matthews in the Jan- 

 uary-March issue of the American An- 

 thropologist, from which you make a 

 statement. I cannot bring myself to be- 

 lieve that the Doctor conducted his re- 

 searches as thoroughly as stated. In the 

 time I have spent among the Chippewa 

 and also among the Sioux Indians I find 

 that a large number of the older genera- 

 tions still smoke the red-willow bark 

 and prefer it to tobacco. I believe that 



it was also much used among other 

 tribes. I would be pleased to furnish 

 you corroborations of this statement, if 

 you will." 



These two interesting and important 

 communications came unsolicited from 

 gentlemen with whom I had not pre- 

 viously cot responded and to whom 

 thanks are here very gratefully extended. 



Recognizing the importance, to the 

 ethnologist, of the subject involved and 

 desiring further evidence on the question, 

 I wrote to that distinguished and versa- 

 tile naturalist, Dr. Robert W. Shufeldt, 

 of New York city, and the following is 

 an extract from his reply: 



" I had already read the note on what 

 Dr. Matthews had to say about Indians 

 smoking the bark of the red-willow in 

 The Atlantic Slope Naturalist. I 

 believe my distinguished confrere to be 

 wrong in this matter, but it is difficult for 

 me to imagine how he could have fallen 

 into such an error of statement. I have 

 not been among the Indians for a num- 

 ber of years now, but I do know that I 

 saw a great deal of the Sioux in Dakota 

 and Wyoming during the years of 1877-82 

 and was in the field with them constantly. 



With parties numbering from five to 

 thirty, I have ridden over the prairies 

 with them for miles, day in and day out, 

 when I was the only white man in the 

 bunch. When thus riding I have smoked 

 with them over and over again, the big 

 Indian pipe being passed from horseman 

 to horseman, as we silently rode along. 

 They were using nothing then but the 

 dried bark of the red-willow, The older 

 Indians all preferred it. The young 

 bucks sometimes, however, smoked pure 

 tobacco (Durham, Lone Jack, etc.), and 

 sometimes they mixed it with the willow 

 bark." 



It seems to me that this statement of 

 Dr. Shufeldt' s settles, for all time, that 

 the American Aborigines did smoke the 

 dried bark of the red-willow. He not 

 merely saw them smoking red-willow 

 bark but he also smoked red-willow bark 

 with them as well. 



W. E. ROTZELL. 



