Valentine's Day...Native American Love Spells and More!

The concept of love spells is lost in the mists of time, no one really knows when they started.  We do know, that love spells were around in ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt well as in many Native American cultures. Below are a few ways that Native American communities used a variety of plants for love spells or to attract the attention of their beloved.

The Quileute believed that fool's huckleberry had special magical powers of attraction. To attract the attention of a man, a woman would break off a forked twig from Fool's Huckleberry and wave it in the air to make a man fall in love with her.  With its pretty urn-shaped pink-orange blossoms, it is easy to see why this plant might catch the attention of the heart's desire.

The delicate white woodland flower known as Crinkleroot could also cast a spell. Early in the spring when the plant bloomed, the  Iroquois made an infusion of the roots of this plant and drank the mixture to lessen the strength of love medicine. 

The Iroquois, also known as the Five Nations, and by the endonym Haudenosaunee, meaning people who are building the longhouse, have a special use for the Nothern Maiden Fern. They make an infusion of this plant to induce vomiting as a remedy for love medicine that is too strong!

The Iroquois also had a special use for Cutleaf toothwort, a plant in the Brassicaceae family that is related to broccoli, mustard greens, and horseradish. They would place a piece of the root of the cutleaf toothwort in their mouth to attract the woman that they desired.

The Ponca community, once part of the Omaha tribe, located in Nebraska had a special use for Purple Meadow Rue. Bachelors in the Ponca community rubbed their hands on the tops of this plant as a love charm to attract the attention of their beloved.

Early Meadow Rue has lacey foliage and beautiful white and gold flower-like tassels.  Blackfoot Indian girls and women used to tie bouquets of these flowers in their hair because they believed it was a very strong love medicine that would attract the first man who saw them wearing these beautiful flowers. The Ojibwa and Potawatomi also believed in the love power of this plant and would secretly place seeds from this plant in the food of a quarreling couple to stop the arguing and to encourage love and harmony.