Medicinal Monday - Black Western Chokeberry

One of the most useful plants used by Native American communities is the Black Western Chokeberry. It has a  multitude of uses as food, medicine, and an aid in hunting and fishing. Several Native American communities even used this plant in ceremonies. The Blackfoot for example made a berry soup that was used for most ceremonial events such as the transfer of a tipi design or the opening of a Medicine Pipe or beaver bundle. Women would prepare the soup and at the appropriate time in the ceremony, the soup was served to all participants. The Lakota tied branches to the sacred Sun Dance Poles and the Navajo use the leaves as an emetic in various ceremonies. The Winnebago, Ponca, and Pawnee use the fruit in a variety of traditional ceremonies.

About Black Western Chokeberry

Native to North America, the Black Western Chokeberry or Prunus virginiana is a small to a medium-sized shrub that loses its leaves, seasonally. This shrub can grow up to 20 feet tall and can have a trunk as thick as twelve inches. The leaves are oval with serrated edges and the flowers grow in shoots and bloom in the spring. The fruits range in color from bright red to black and have a very astringent taste that is somewhat sour and bitter. As the berries ripen they tend to get a bit sweeter and darker. The fruit contains a large stone in the center. 

Culinary Uses

For many Native American communities, chokeberries are an important source of food in their traditional diets. The fruit was highly prized and used to flavor meats, and stews, and made into beverages, wine, preserves, and syrups.  Many communities including the Algonquin, Paiute, Ojibwa, Apache, Omaha, Cahuilla, Dakota, Laguna, Navajo, Kiowa, Yuki, Okanagan-Colville, Lakota,  Acoma, Menominee, Blackfoot, Meskwaki, Paiute, Cheyenne, Cochiti, and Cherokee, would eat the chokeberries raw right off the branches. The Algonquin, Montana, Thompson, Kawailisu, Shuswap, and the Potawatomi used the fruit to make wine and preserves, and the Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Cochiti, Cahuilla, Ojibwa, Omaha, Pawnee, Ponca, Iroquois, Chippewa, Omaha, Kiowa, Laguna, Klamath, Thompson, Coeur d' Alene, Gosiute, Shuswap, Acoma, Dakota, Keres, Navajo, and Okanagan-Colville, dried the berries and stored them for future use. Many communities crushed the berries and mixed them with fat that was used in soup. The branches of this shrub were peeled and inserted into the meat as a spice. The Cheyenne boiled the berries and added sugar and flour to make a pudding out of them. The Cree would mix the fruit with fish eggs and grease and eat the mixture as a snack, they also used the fruit as a syrup for pancakes. The Iroquois and Ojibwa mixed pulverized fruit with dried meat flour and used this mixture in soup. The Lakota used the leaves to make tea during the Sun Dance and the Meskwaki used the bark to make a beverage. The Montana Indian and Sioux would use the fruit as an important ingredient in the preparation of pemmican. The Paiute used the stems to make a fragrant tea, they would also mash the berries and make them into little cakes and chew them like chewing tobacco.

Medicinal Uses

Many Native American communities used various parts of this shrub to treat a number of ailments. The Algonquin, Chippewa, Okanagan-Colville, Iroquois, and Cherokee made an infusion of bark for coughs and to loosen phlegm. The Blackfoot, Iroquois, and Gros Ventre use berry juice for diarrhea and to treat sore throats. The Cherokee and Crow make a wash for sores and ulcers from the root bark and used an infusion to treat chills and fevers. They also used gave a warm infusion to women experiencing labor pains. The Cheyenne pulverized unripened berries to treat diarrhea. The Chippewa made a decoction of the inner bark and used it to treat cramps and hemorrhages from the lungs. They also made a decoction from the bark and used it as a blood-cleansing scrub. The Thompson used a decoction of twigs to treat diarrhea and also used the broken sticks to treat colds. The Paiute, Cree, Okanagan-Colville, Kutenai,  Sanpoli, Ponca, Penobscot, Menominee, Mendocino, Sioux, and Crow made a decoction of the bark to treat diarrhea. The Flathead would make an infusion to treat intestinal worms. The Flathead used warm bark resin to treat sore eyes. The Iroquois used the inner bark to treat wounds and used the stalk of this plant in prenatal care. The Menominee made a sweet infusion of the inner bark and gave it to children to treat diarrhea. The Meskwaki made an infusion of the root bark and used it for stomach troubles and as a sedative. The Navajo used a cold infusion of the dried fruit to treat stomachaches. The Penobscot and Potawatomi used an infusion of the bark as an eye wash. The Gosiute used a decoction of the bark as a blood medicine for nose hemorrhages. The Haisla and Hanaksiala made a poultice of the leaves and applied the mixture to oral abscesses. The Oregon Indian pounded dried chokeberries and mixed them with dry salmon and sugar and used this mixture to treat dysentery. The Paiute and Shoshoni used the steam from boiling bark to treat snowblindness. The Thompson made a decoction of the bark and gave it to women after childbirth as a strengthening tonic.

Practical Uses

The Blackfoot used the wood of this shrub to make roasting skewers and incense tongs. The Cherokee used the wood from this shrub to make furniture. The Cheyenne, Kawailisu, and Lakota used limbs from the shrub to make arrow shafts and bows. The Crow use the wood of this shrub to make tipi stakes and pins. A decoction of branches, leaves, and berries was given to horses for diarrhea. The Montana mixed the sap with different colored clays and use it as a paint for Indian designs. The Navajo use wood from this shrub to make dance implements, prayer sticks, and square hoops for ceremonies. The Shuswap mixed berries with bear grease and made paint for painting pictographs. The Thompson use the shredded bark as an ornament on the rims of baskets. The Great Basin Indians make a dye from the inner bark. The Ponca boiled bark water and use it as a wash on traps to remove the scent of former captures.

Did You Know...

The chokeberry is related to the black cherry.

The chokeberry is often considered a pest because it is the host for the tent caterpillar, which is a threat to many fruit plants.

Moose, elk, mountain sheep, deer, and rabbits eat the foliage, twigs, leaves, and buds of this shrub.

The stone of the fruit is poisonous.

Chokeberry is toxic to horses, moose, cattle, goats, deer, and other animals with segmented stomachs, especially after the leaves wilt. Wilting releases cyanide and makes the plant sweet but deadly.

Symptoms of a horse that has been poisoned are heavy breathing, agitation, and weakness.