Supercharged Chew - Iqmik

People have used mushrooms as food, medicine and even for decorative and spiritual purposes. One interesting fungus used primarily by Coastal Alaskan people is the Phellinus igniarius.  In addition to using this fungus decoratively, they also use it for smoking and chewing.

About the Willow Bracket  

French mycologist, Lucien Quelet described this mushroom in 1886  as a very tough cork like fungus that is shaped like a hoof and looks as though it had been in a fire. The Phellinus igniarius mushroom brackets out from the bark of a dead log or infested tree and is most often found on a willow, birch or alder tree.  Each fall it sends spores out that land on diseased trees. The top of this mushroom is often a dark cracked crust that has a wood-like consistency.  It is quite hard and looks like it can survive the harshest of elements; removing it from a tree requires a saw. Each year a new layer forms and the flesh becomes harder with age. It can remain on the host tree feeding off of it for years after the tree has died.  

Native American Uses

Native Americans living in coastal Alaska made elaborate boxes to hold the ashes of the fungus that was used for chewing and smoking.  The Yupik and Dena peoples of Alaska's far northwest traded with the Yukon Indians to obtain these mushrooms, which they burnt to ash.  They made boxes of bone, ivory, and wood to store the ashes of this mushroom mixed with cottonwood bark which they would smoke or chew with Balsam Poplar Bark before the introduction of tobacco. The time spent and the beauty of these boxes demonstrate how important iqmik was to a variety of Native American cultures.

When tobacco became available, they mixed the ashes of the fungus with it and chewed or smoked it. It was reported that the addition of tobacco gave this mixture a powerful "kick".  It is now known that the alkaline of the ash quickens the effects of nicotine entering the bloodstream.  It’s no wonder that one Indian name for Phellinus igniarius is “elch’ix”, which translates as “burning taste.” 

Museum collections show that Phellinus igniarius was also used by the Micmac of Nova Scotia, Inuit of Labrador, Blackfoot of the North American Plains, and the Kwakiutl of the Pacific Northwest.

Iqmik is made by mixing shredded tobacco leaves and punk ash. It can also be made by rolling pieces of a tobacco leaf around a portion of the ash, forming a quid. Today, the ash-tobacco mixture is sold in native Alaskan communities under the Yupik name iqmik, or black bull that is also known as punk ash.  More than 50% of the Yupik Eskimo people in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta still use iqmik.

Did you know

Woodpeckers are known to favor this fungus as a good place to excavate a nesting chamber.

Extracts from this plant were found to be strongly anti-oxidant.

An extract of this plant is hispolon that has been found to exert anticancer effects on AML and have anti-tumor activity on lung cancer.

The use of iqmik is a serious problem in modern native Alaskan communities. Tobacco was introduced to Alaska and does not serve a ceremonial, religious or medicinal function in traditional Alaskan Native Culture according to tobacco-free Alaska.

Government programs and surveys highlight findings and implications for program planning for Native Americans in Alaska.