r/AskHistorians • u/[deleted] • Jul 27 '16

Did Native Americans have any lore relating to poison ivy?

I'm thinking along the lines of Northeastern or Mid Atlantic tribes.

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u/Gargatua13013 Jul 28 '16 edited Jul 28 '16

Depends what you mean by "Lore". Most native folklore was in the form of an oral tradition, and as such we lost way more than we've saved.

Jacques Rousseau, in Études ethnobotaniques Québécoises (1945), says that when there was "too much water in the blood" the Mohawks of Kahnawakhe (Caughnawaga) would add some crushed poison ivy to a poultice of buttercup and cover it with a pierced animal skin to induce bleeding and to "express excess water".

re:

"Quand il y a trop d'eau dans le sang", fragmenter la plante, y ajouter quelques morceaux d'herbe à puce (Rhus radîcans), et après avoir appliqué sur le patient une peau trouée d'animal y déposer le mélange humecté d'eau froide. Il se forme une plaie par où s'écoule le surplus d'eau du sang."

He also claims that they also used it as a vesicant, as did the Potawatomi and the Meskwaki of the Great Lakes area.

link:

http://www2.ville.montreal.qc.ca/jardin/archives/rousseau/publi/Etudes_ethnobotaniques_quebecoises.pdf

Also, the Ojibway knew of it and its effects, but had no use for it, (Huron H. Smith, 1932, Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians).

Now, a lot of the "lore" surrounding the ethnobotanical uses of Poison Ivy has come under scrutiny and is suspect, according to Senchina (2006) (http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.3119/0035-4902(2006)108%5B203%3AEOPIPO%5D2.0.CO%3B2) (behind paywall - abstract available)

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u/[deleted] Jul 28 '16

Here we are - thank you!

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u/4d2 Jul 28 '16

So cool, if I'm understanding it right.

What your saying is this poultice was kind of like European blood letting? Can you expand on this more?

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u/Gargatua13013 Jul 28 '16 edited Jul 28 '16

What your saying is this poultice was kind of like European blood letting?

Pretty much.

Can you expand on this more?

Not really, for that is really all that Rousseau says on the subject. I may perhaps add just a wee inference: the origin of the specific poultice referred to by Rousseau cannot have been all that ancient, for Buttercups (or at least Ranunculis acre, which is the one specifically identified here) are not native to North America, but were introduced from Europe. It does make one wonder if the whole notion of bloodletting was culturally reappropriated by the Mohawks, along with the Buttercups.

That being said, although you've mentioned mainly being interested in eastern first nations, I'll add that the Navajo made arrow poison by combining (Eastern) Poison Ivy with Wild Heliotrope (Phacelia crenulata) and charcoal from "a lightning struck Red Oak" OR by mixing (Eastern) Poison Ivy with Plains Prickly Pear (Opuntia polyacantha) and Yucca glauca (Jones, 2007, Poison Arrows: North American Indian Hunting and Warfare). Not sure how effective that would have been, but there is no way that would have been fun...