Medicinal Monday Boreal Yarrow

This little-known arctic plant that is native to Alaska can also be found throughout northern Canada to Maine. In Maine, it is a protected species. It has several medicinal uses that are used to treat a number of ailments.

About Boreal Yarrow

This plant is a colonizer that can be found in Alaska's meadows and fields in both wet and dry areas and can grow both in the soil as well as in gravel. It is a mat-forming perennial, that has simple toothed leaves, hairy stems, and flattened clusters of small, daisy-like flower heads. It flowers in late July and August. The flowers are white to pinkish and tend to become pinker with age. The ray and disc petals are the same color. The scientific name of this plant is Achillea millefolium var Borealis.

Medicinal Uses

The Gwich'in people used this plant for medicine. The whole plant including the flowers can be used to make a tea that relieves coughs and ulcers. A drink that prevents nosebleeds is made by boiling the white flowers in water for a few minutes. The white flowers can be crushed and placed in the nostrils to stop nosebleeds. The liquid from the boiled flowers can be used to soothe infected skin and sunburns or dry up skin rashes including eczema. A paste made from crushed flowers can be applied to insect bites. Leaves and flowers can also be crushed into a paste and put on wounds to control bleeding. The Aleut made an infusion of the leaves and used it to treat pain in the stomach, throat, and chest, and to treat colds. They would stuff the leaves in their nose to stop a nosebleed. The Costanoan made a decoction of the entire plant and used it as a wash for sores. They also made a poultice from the leaves and applied it to wounds to stop the swelling. Heated leaves were placed in the mouth to treat toothaches. Eskimo, Alaska, and the Eskimo, Nunivak used an infusion for general medicinal purposes, and the Kwakiutl used a heated poultice of leaves to relieve swelling.

Did You Know

This plant attracts bees and butterflies.

Boreal Yarrow is deer and rabbit resistant.

Twenty-Mile Germplasm boreal yarrow is ideal for seed mixes for revegetation. It provides diversity, color, and wildlife benefits. It is able to grow on poor soil and needs little surface preparation. 

The generic name Achillea is usually interpreted as a reference to Achilles, the legendary Greek hero of the Trojan War (about 1200 B.C.). He is said to have used the foliage of yarrow to stanch the flow of blood from wounded fellow soldiers. A less romantic interpretation of the genus name is that it commemorates a Greek doctor named Achilles who recorded the medicinal uses of the plant (Warwick and Black 1982).

Medicinal Monday - Delicious and Useful... Duck Potatoes

Potatoes are tubers... and normally we don't think of them as aquatic. But... there is a very popular potato eaten and used medically by Native American communities throughout the United States.  Known scientifically as Sagittaria latifolia willd this plant is commonly called the duck potato or arrowhead and is enjoyed in many ways.  

About Duck Potatoes

Sagittaria latifolia willd is a member of the Water Plantain Family. This plant can be found in shallow wetlands and is a colony-forming aquatic perennial that rises about water level to a height of about three feet. These colonies can form long bands that follow the curves of rivers, ponds, and lakes. They have very strong roots that can survive a variety of water levels and currents.  The plant reproduces by rhizomes that produce starchy purple tubers that were thought to be eaten by ducks, giving them another common name, duck potatoes. The plant produces a circular arrangement of leaves on a cluster of flowers on the main branch. The flowers are showy with three round white petals that are arranged in a whorled raceme. The flowers are male and female and can easily be distinguished by the number of stamens of the male and the dark green carpels of the female. Duck Potatoes can be found in most of the United States including Connecticut. The leaves are long and shaped like arrowheads, giving them another one of their common names.  

Medicinal and Culinary Uses of Duck Potatoes

This plant was once an important food source for many Native American communities as well as for medicinal treatments. The Cree called it "Wapato" and some Native American communities in California called these plants wappate or wapatoo.  In terms of medicinal uses, the Cherokee used the leaves to give a baby with a fever a bath and would make an infusion of the leaves to treat fever. The Chippewa used an infusion of the roots to treat indigestion. The Iroquois made an infusion of the plant and took it to treat rheumatism. They also made a compound decoction to treat constipation and boils around the stomachs of children The Potawatomi would take the starchy corms and pound them into a pulp and use it to treat wounds and sores. 

The Chippewa would boil or dry the end of the roots or the "potatoes" and use them for food. The Cocopa would peel then bake the roots and eat them mashed; they also used them in gambling games. The Dakota, Omaha, Pawnee, Pomo, Thompson, Winnebago, and Klamath would roast the tubers and eat them as food. The Meskwaki would boil and slice the tubers and string them on a piece of basswood and hang them to use as a winter supply of food. The Potawatomi made a dish of duck potatoes, deer meat, and maple sugar; they also strung the boiled sliced potatoes for storage and winter use.

Did You Know...

The genus name comes from sagitta, Latin for the word arrow in reference to the shape of the leaves. 

Even though one of the common names of this plant is duck potato, ducks rarely eat the tubers because, most of the time, they can't reach them. 

Beavers, North American Porcupines, and muskrats eat the entire plant including the tubers. 

Documentation has it that Native Americans have opened muskrat houses to obtain their collection of tubers.

Play Snow Snakes -A Traditional Native American Winter Game @ Institute for American Indian Studies

Do you like to play with snakes? If you do, don’t miss the snow snake workshop on Saturday, January 29 at 11 a.m. and at 2 p.m. at the Institute for American Indian Studies on 38 Curtis Road in Washington. At this special Native American workshop, you will make a “snow snake” and use it to play a traditional Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) winter game.

Snow snakes are hand-made from a flattened piece of wood with a notch at one end that makes them easy to throw. Some sticks are carved in intricate patterns that resemble a snake and then coated with wax. Participants in this workshop will learn how to make their very own snow snake with Susan Scherf, an educator at the Institute and a woodcrafter. This workshop includes materials and wood-burning kits. Participants are welcome to bring their own whittling knife if they have one although it is not required. 

The competitive winter game of snow snake is still played today in many Native American Communities. The object of the game is for players to see how far they can slide a snake across the snow, usually in a trough that has been built up and then grooved by dragging a log along its length. Players toss the snake, similar to a javelin thrower onto the track. The challenge is to throw the snake with just enough force to make it slide a long distance without using so much force that it jumps the track. A highlight of this workshop, weather permitting, is to go outside and try out your snow snake in a friendly competition. 

Space per session is limited and pre-registration is required. The price of participation including materials is $20 for non-members and $10 for members. For more information call 860-868-0518, email events@iaismuseum.org or click here to register online. 

About Institute for American Indian Studies 

Located on 15 acres of woodland acres the Institute For American Indian Studies preserves and educates through archeology, research, exhibitions, and programs. They have the 16th c. Algonquian Village, Award-Winning Wigwam Escape, and a museum with temporary and permanent displays of authentic artifacts from prehistory to the present that allows visitors to foster a new understanding of the world and the history and culture of Native Americans. The Institute for American Indian Studies is located on 38 Curtis Road, Washington, CT.

Medicinal Monday...the Ceremonial Smoke of Kinnikinnick and More!

Smoking was and continues to be a part of all Native American ceremonies. Bearberries are also known as Kinnikinnick, an Algonquian word that refers to a traditional herbal smoking mixture is made from the bark and leaves of kinnikinnick.  Recipes for this mixture vary and so do the uses, from social and spiritual, to ceremonial and medicinal. The word kinnikinnick derives from the Unami Delaware for mixture and from Algonquin, kereken for mixing by hand.

About Kinnikinnick

Kinnikinnick has many names and refers to its fruits, Arctostaphylos and uva-ursi both mean bear grapes. A type of cranberry, bearberry is a favorite snack of bears which is how it gets its common name. In North America, it grows from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic coastline and creeps south as far as Virginia and north into the Arctic. This ground trailing evergreen shrub has thick rubber-like paddle-shaped leaves that are rolled at the edges. The leaves are yellow-green in the spring, dark green in the summer, and reddish-purple in the autumn. Pink clusters of flowers bloom on flexible stems from March - June. Bright red berries succeed the flowers and can persist into the winter months. The bark is papery and reddish with an exfoliating bark that is typical of woody plants growing in the Northeast. It grows best in sunny well-drained soil. 

Medicinal Uses 

Two important medicinal uses of this plant were as an astringent and as a diuretic. The Woodland Cree used bearberry as an astringent. An infusion of bearberry was taken to bring about menstruation; women also drank this to avoid miscarriages and to help recover their health after birth. For back sprains, the Cheyenne made an infusion of bearberry by boiling the entire above-ground portion of the plant in water. The resulting infusion was drunk and the leaves were applied externally. If a member of the community became mentally deranged the Cheyenne would burn the leaves of the bearberry plant and use the smoke to flush out the evil spirits. The Blackfoot applied the berries externally to treat canker sores and sore gums. They also made a salve from the berries mixed with animal grease and boiled hoof to treat dry skin, rashes, and sores. Many Native American communities use an infusion of this plant as a remedy for urinary tract infections.

The Menominee added the berries to various medicinal mixtures to make them taste better. The Ojibwa used an infusion of ground bearberry to wash inflamed and painful parts of the body. They also made a decoction of bearberry bark to treat people suffering from internal blood diseases. Ceremonially the Ojibwa smoked the leaves in a ceremony to cause intoxication. The Chippewa smoked a combination of kinnikinnick and tobacco to treat headaches. The roots were smoked ceremonially to attract game before hunting. Many western communities use kinnikinick for ceremonial use. In the culinary realm, the berries were cooked with meat to provide additional seasoning. 

Did You Know...

This mat-forming shrub is often used as a ground cover because it is happy in full sun to part shade in dry soil. 

Kinnikinnick contains glycoside arbutin, which has antimicrobial properties and acts as a mild diuretic.

Bearberry is sometimes confused with bog bilberry and wintergreen. 

Pollinators, hummingbirds, and bears love this plant.

According to Mount Sinai Hospital until the discovery of sulfa drugs and antibiotics, this plant was a common treatment for bladder-related infections.

The Story of the Origin of the Indian Pipe Plant As told by John Rattling-Gourd

Before selfishness crept into the world- that was a long time ago- the Cherokee people were happy and peaceable. They used the same hunting grounds and fishing grounds as their neighbors. They fished in the same streams and hunted in the same stands of forest. There were no arguments about boundaries and there were no arguments about fishing rights. But this was before Men became greedy. All this changed when Men learned to quarrel. 

The first quarrel that arose was between Cherokee and a neighboring tribe. It was a long and bitter quarrel, so bitter that the chiefs of the two tribes decided to meet in council to try and settle their trouble. And so they met, one day, and they smoked the peace pipe in solemn council, but they did not stop quarreling. A puff on the peace pipe and a bitter was the way it went. Days passed and still, the council sat and smoked and quarreled. Now the Great Spirit was much displeased that the Indians should quarrel while smoking the pipe of peace. 

The Great Spirit said, “I shall have to do something to you men that will show you that people should live together in peace and that when Indians smoke the pipe, it must be done in peace.” The Great Spirit looked down at the old Men sitting in all that smoke. And he saw how gray they looked and how their heads hung down in weariness because it had been many nights since they had slept. And so he turned the old Men who smoked there in the council into small silvery gray flowers, their heads bent over and their petals hoary. 

In the woods where they are often seen clustered together, they appear to be little gray people sitting in long council. After the Great Spirit had changed the quarreling Indians into flowers and set them out in the forest, he noticed that the smoke from their pipes still hung heavy in the air above the place where the council had been. So he gathered up the smoke and draped it over the mountains as a reminder. And he left it there until such time as all Men shall learn to live in peace together.

If you should find one in the woods and turn it so that the head is down and the stem up, you will see that it looks like an Indian pipe, and so it is called to this day. 

Courtesy of John Rattling-Gourd

Have A Hoot of A Time @ Institute for American Indian Studies Make a Birch Bark Owl January 23

Many people love owls with their flat faces and forward-looking eyes, that look more like us than any other bird. If your children love this magnificent bird, sign them up for the craft workshop on how to make an owl out of birch bark at the Institute for American Indian Studies on Sunday, January 23. Participants can sign up for one of three timeslots @ 1 p.m., 2 p.m., or 3 p.m.  This workshop is perfect for kids five years and older. 

Kids will be hooting with enthusiasm about this engaging educational workshop to all their friends and family. They will learn about the cultural importance of owls to Native American communities while crafting their very own birch bark owl. In this way, children will connect and learn from a culture that has thousands of years of history in the area where they live.

There are diverse beliefs about owls in different Native cultures. While specific beliefs differed from tribe to tribe, owls were often both feared and revered. Many of these beliefs come from the very adaptations of owls that make them such great hunters. A special highlight of this workshop will be the lessons that can be learned from these stories and adaptations of owls.

Space is available per session and is limited. Pre-registration is required. To reserve your space please call 860-868-0518, email events@isismuseum.org or click here to register online. The cost of participation is $15 for non-members and $5 for members including materials. Please note that masks are required for all participants regardless of vaccination status until further notice. Space is available per session and is limited.

 Pre-registration is required. To reserve your space please call 860-868-0518, email events@isismuseum.org or click here to register online. The cost of participation is $15 for non-members and $5 for members including materials. Please note that masks are required for all participants regardless of vaccination status until further notice. 

Medicinal Monday - Ghostly Indian Pipe

Monotropa uniflora known as the Ghost Plant or Indian Pipe is a startling white color and is sometimes mistaken as a fungus. It is actually a flowering plant that has no chlorophyll. Surprisingly, it is part of the blueberry family. Both Native Americans and European settlers used this plant for medicine. The Ghost Plant or Indian Pipe plays a cultural role in American history as Native American tribes have passed down stories about this plant such as the Origin of the Indian Pipe by John Rattling-Gourd, a poem by Emily Dickenson titled "Tis whiter than an Indian Pipe" and a poem by Mary Potter Thacher Higgson called "Ghost Flowers."

About Indian Pipe

This waxy white plant grows in clusters in the shade of deep woods with a great deal of leaf litter. It is found throughout New England including Connecticut; it grows south to the Carolinas and west to Missouri. The stems are erect and grow up to a foot high, they are white, hairless, nearly translucent, and sometimes tinted pink. Each stem is terminated by a solitary drooping flower that resembles a shepherd's hook.  The bell-shaped flower has four to five petals and ten to twelve stamens. The flowers are cross-pollinated by bumblebees, both the nectar and pollen are floral rewards. The blooming time lasts only a week. After it blooms, the plant begins to turn dark brown and the flower is replaced by an ovoid-shaped seed that is easily blown about by the wind after it splits.

 Indian Pipes don't depend on light for photosynthesis and must get their food from an outside source. It is parasitic and lacks chlorophyll in its tissues; the root system is able to extract nutrients from fungal strands of certain kinds of fungi. Meanwhile the strands of the fungus tap into the host tree's roots. This is called a mycorrhizal relationship and these plants are classified as epiparasite. The Indian Pipe benefits from the mineral (especially phosphorous) uptake and the fungi benefit from the sugars translocated to the root by the tree. Both plants help each other out but the Indian Pipe doesn't give anything back to the fungus or the tree.

Medicinal Uses

The Cherokee mixed the sap of this plant with water and used it to treat inflamed eyes and to sharpen vision. The roots were made into a poultice and used externally to treat bunions, warts, and sores. The Mohegans use the stems and leaves, fresh or dried, as a tea for treating aches, pains, and fevers of common colds. The roots were used dried and powdered as a tea for treating convulsions, fainting spells, epilepsy, insomnia, muscular spasms, nervous irritability, and various female troubles. Water extracts were used as an antibacterial. The Cree and Algonkian peoples chew the flowers for toothaches. The Potawatomi made an infusion of the roots to treat female troubles. The Thompson dried the stems and applied the powder to sores or they would burn the stalk and rub the remnants on sores that would not heal.

Did You Know

Indian Pipe also had some edible uses. It could be eaten raw, roasted, or boiled. It is said to have a similar taste to asparagus.

Bears may feed on the flowers or may dig up the roots and eat them.

The Thompson believed that an abundance of Indian Pipe in the woods indicated that many mushrooms would grow in the coming season.

America’s eminent poet, Emily Dickinson, called the Indian pipe “the preferred flower of life.” In a letter to Mabel Todd, she confides, “I still cherish the clutch with which I bore it from the ground when a wondering child, and unearthly booty, and maturity only enhances the mystery, never decreases it.”

There is a Cherokee legend about the Indian Pipe: Long ago, when selfishness first entered the world, people began quarreling, first with their own families and tribal members, and then with other tribes. The chiefs of the several tribes met together to try to solve the problem of quarreling. They smoked a peace pipe together while continuing to quarrel among themselves for the next seven days and seven nights.  In punishment for smoking the peace pipe before actually making peace, the Great Spirit turned the chiefs into grey flowers and made them grow where relatives and friends had quarreled.

Medicinal Monday - Fly Amanita - A Fairytale Mushroom

Some mushrooms have made their way into popular culture through fairytales of enchanted forests. This attractive red mushroom with white spots known as Fly Amanita is one that you would expect to find in a magical forest with a fairy perched on top of it. Speaking of fairytales, this mushroom is featured in the story of Alice in Wonderland, and in the 1940  Walt Disney movie Fantasia. More recently it was featured in a Nintendo game. Looking at this brightly-colored pretty mushroom, that is poisonous, it is no wonder why it has made its way into popular culture.

Many cultures in the world consider mushrooms sacred and use them in rituals. Several subspecies of the Fly Amanita grow around the world including the Northeastern United States. Found in North America, the Amanita Muscaria var. guessowii mushroom is part of the Amanita mushroom family and is sacred to Native Americans. There is not a lot of documentation on what Native American communities use this mushroom for, although experts believe that many tribes use it for ceremonial purposes.

About Fly Amanita var. guessowii

The North American variety of Amanita muscaria is known as the American Yellow Fly Amanita Muscaria var. guessowii and abounds in forests across North America. It grows in moist soil and often pops up after heavy rain. It can be found growing alone or in "fairy rings" near conifers or deciduous trees, most often in the spring and fall. It has a more muted appearance than its Asian and European cousins with a yellow-orange cap that is more orange or reddish-orange toward the center. The surface of the cap is hairless and slimy when wet. It has pale cream-colored cottony spots that wash away with rain. Its white gills are closely packed and not joined to the stem. The white somewhat shaggy stalk is tapered with a bulbous base with two white rings with yellow edges. The spores are white and oval. It is commonly found in northeastern North America from Newfoundland and Quebec through Connecticut all the way south to Tennessee. This mushroom is poisonous and does not change color when cut.

Medicinal and Ceremonial Uses

As with other amanita muscaria the guessowii variety contains ibotenic acid and muscimol which can cause hallucinations. The Ojibwa shamans use Amanita muscaria in ceremonies where the shaman fell into a dream-like state followed by a deep sleep that produce vivid dreams. This state allows the shaman to interact with his surroundings and connect with the spirits who will reveal prophecies that foretell the future of the tribe. The smoke from the mushrooms is also used by shamans to perform ritual medicinal diagnoses. There are extremely deadly look a likes - the (Destroying Angel) Amanita bisporigera, Amanita ocreata, and the Amanita phalloides (Death Cap) so don't go out foraging.

Did You Know...

This fungus has a long history of religious and ritual ceremonies not only by Native Americans but throughout the world, particularly in Asia. It is the main ingredient in a sacred and hallucinogenic ritual drink in India and Iran called "soma" and in Siberia, shamans would give it out as a gift in late December.

The Mayan Indians of Mexico and Guatemala used this mushroom in relation to the Thunderbolt Legend.

This showy red and white mushroom was common on Christmas cards in Victorian and Edwardian times as a symbol of good luck. It is thought to have inspired the suit that Santa Claus wears.

It is part of the Super Mario Brothers video game and its Super Power Up.