Indigenous Peoples’ Prospective Project
A collaboration between Adkins Arboretum and the Washington College Food Initiative (WCFI), the Indigenous Peoples’ Perspective Project explores the importance of more than 20 native plants to the food, craftwork, and medicinal traditions of indigenous peoples of the Chesapeake region. The project seeks to encourage a paradigm shift from land as capital to land as sacred teacher, healer, and sustainer.
The Arboretum is located in the traditional homeland of the Choptank People, Algonquin-speaking Woodland Indians who lived along the Choptank River basin. Before European settlers arrived in the early 1600s, there were approximately 20,000 Choptank living on the Eastern Shore. Less than 150 years later, these native people were driven to near-extinction by illness, fighting, and forced migration.
Through the Indigenous Peoples’ Perspective Project, the Arboretum and the WCFI strive to honor the wisdom of native peoples and their unique relationship with nature by sharing their ecological perspectives, history, and traditions. Ultimately, the project seeks to inspire a collective responsibility to shape our future by caring for the land that supports us.
Explore the project through the resources below. We welcome your thoughts on the project. Please share them via the form found here.
Adkins Arboretum is located in the traditional homeland of the Choptank People.
Resources
Story Map: This virtual field trip is designed for students and adults alike. The Indigenous Perspectives Story Map explores connections between our native Chesapeake landscapes and the Paleo, Archaic, and Woodland Indian periods. Click here to access the Story Map.
Self-Guided Activities: Click to download a PDF for each habitat. Meadow, Forest, Wetland
Videos:
Important Native Plants
Scientific Name: Diospyros virginiana
Common Name: American persimmon, common persimmon, American date plum
Plant Family: Ebenaceae (Ebony family)
Etymology: Diospyros comes from the Greek words dios (divine) and pyros (wheat or grain), and together they translate to “divine fruit” or “fruit of the gods.” The word persimmon comes from putchamin, pasiminan, or pessamin, from Powhatan, an Algonquian language, meaning “a dry fruit.”
Indigenous Uses: The fruits of Diospyros virginiana were used by the Cherokee, Comanche, Rappahannock, and Seminole for food and beverages. The fruits were dried like prunes for storage.
Traditional medicinal uses ranged from treating sore throats and mouths, to indigestion, thrush, and bloody bowels. Persimmon served as an astringent for venereal disease and a wash for piles. The bark was chewed for heartburn. A bark infusion of persimmon, alder, white walnut, and wild cherry was used for toothache. Cold water poured over the bark supported bile production and served as a tea for liver health.
Dense wood good for making billet or batons for flaking coarser grains or flints such as greenstone and quartzite.
Edible Parts: The persimmon fruit, which usually ripens in fall, is often used in jams and baked goods. The fruit pulp can be turned into molasses, and the seeds can be turned into a peanut-like oil or roasted and used as a coffee substitute. Dried leaves make a great tea high in vitamin C.
Scientific Name: Asimina triloba
Common Name: paw paw, papaw, pawpaw, paw-paw
Plant Family: Annonaceae (custard apple family)
Etymology: The plant received this name from a Portuguese explorer who found Native Americans eating the fruit. Since the fruit resembled what he recognized as a papaya, they began to call it paw paw. “Min” in the genus derives from the Algonquin word for “fruit.”
Parts Used: bark, fruit, leaves, stem
Season: year-round
Indigenous Uses: The fruits of Asimina triloba were used for food. As a craft product, the inner bark was used for rope, string, and lacing. Splints were used for basketry and matting. The wood was used for firestarting for hand drills and fireboards as well as bow and drill. The leaves and stems were used for medicine.
Edible Parts: Wildlife and humans alike enjoy the sweet paw paw fruit. The fruit can be eaten raw, and it is also often used in puddings, custards, pies, and ice creams. The fruit ripens when it reaches a brown color, and the soft pulp inside can be scooped out and eaten, avoiding the large seeds inside.
Caution: Some people experience skin irritation handling paw paws, or digestive irritation and nausea, so be mindful of this the first time you encounter one. Long frozen storage and dehydration of paw paw fruit can concentrate the toxic effects. When freezing the pulp in freezer bags, be certain to remove all air pockets to prevent oxidation, which makes the fruit bitter.
Common Name: shagbark hickory, mockernut hickory, pale hickory, white hickory, white-heart hickory
Plant Family: Juglandaceae (Walnut family)
Etymology: The word hickory derives from the Virginia Algonquian word pawcohiccora, hickory-nut meat or a milky beverage or condiment made from it. Carya is from the Greek karya (nut tree) from karyon (nut).
Parts Used: leaves, nuts, bark, wood, sap
Season: spring, summer, fall
Indigenous Uses: The nuts of hickory trees were used by native peoples for food and beverages. Hickory trees have various medicinal uses as a diaphoretic; digestive; emetic in large doses; for cold; female obstructions; steeped bark drunk to make limbs supple; bark chewed for sore mouth; inner bark astringent and detergent; dressings for cuts, and ruptured or cut blood vessels. Hickory served many craft uses ranging from blowgun darts, arrow shafts, handles for tools, firewood, barrel hoops, corn beaters, and inner bark for chair bottoms and finishing baskets. Its tough inner bark and root bark was used for lacing and cordage. It makes an excellent wood for bowmaking.
Edible Parts: Collect fallen nuts and discard any with small round holes, a sign of weevil grubs. Pry off the husks within a few days of collecting. Enjoy raw hickory nuts, toast in a dry skillet, and use like walnuts or pecans in recipes. For long-term storage, freeze in their shells to prevent their delicate oils from turning rancid. The bark can be boiled with sugar to make a flavorful syrup.
Hickory wood chips and shavings can be used in grilling and smoking blends.
Scientific Name: Quercus spp.
Common Name: Oak
Plant Family: Fagaceae (Beech family)
Etymology: Quercus is Latin for “oak.”
Parts Used: bark, wood, nuts
Season: summer, fall
Indigenous Uses: Beyond the use of oak acorns for food, the tree offered many medicinal uses. It served as an astringent, tonic, antiseptic, emetic, and supported healing from long intermittent fevers, indigestion, milky urine, and chronic dysentery. Individuals bathed in bark tea for chills and fevers, drank it for relief of asthma, or applied the tea to sore, chapped skin. A decoction of the inner bark was used for lost voice. As a craft product, oak was used in splits for baskets, lumber, firewood, furniture, woven chair bottoms, and as a corn beater or mortar (kanona); oak leaves were used to wrap dough for breadmaking. White oak (Quercus alba) is uniquely good for among oaks for bowmaking.
Edible Parts: Gather acorns as soon as they begin falling, before insects and squirrels begin consuming and stashing them. Discard any acorns with pinholes, indicating weevil grubs, and those lightly colored or with strongly attached caps. Place acorns in a bowl of water and discard any that float. Remove the shells with a nutcracker or a hammer over a towel to prevent the nutmeat from flying away. Smash or grind into acorn meal. Soak shelled acorns for a few days in a large glass bowl or jar, changing the water each time it turns brown from leached tannins. When the water remains clear and the acorns do not have a bitter taste, they are ready to cook and eat. Dry the acorn meal for use in baking, or use in soups and porridges. Store leached acorns in the freezer. Oak bark can be used in beer, for flavoring, in preserves, spice blends, sauerkraut, and vinegar.
Common Name: river birch, black birch, water birch
Plant Family: Betulaceae (Birch family)
Etymology: Betula comes from the Gaulish “betu-” meaning bitumen, or asphalt. This refers to how the Gauls used extracted tar from birches.
Parts Used: bark, wood, gum, sap
Season: spring, summer
Indigenous Uses: Medicinal uses of birch included a bark decoction for milky urine and to help with stomach pain; the chewed leaves or tea served as an antidiarrheal, cold remedy, urinary aid, and gastrointestinal aid. As a craft product, the wood lends itself to being carved into bowls and other tools. The peeled bark has been used for constructing baskets, buckets, storage bins, and canoes. Antifungal properties of the bark help to prevent pests from infiltrating storage bins.
Edible Parts: Harvest Betula nigra sap in early spring before the leaves unfurl, about a month after maple trees. The boiled-down sap is thicker than maple syrup and tastes more like molasses, though it’s not as sweet as the sap of sweet birch (B. lenta). The sap can be used as a sweetener, can be fermented, can be used in drinks, or can be concentrated into a syrup. The inner bark, leaves, and twigs can be made into a warming tea. In addition, the bark is a source of wild yeast that can be used to make a yeast starter solution. Collect bark in the spring when the sap is still running to prevent the inner cambium from coming off with the bark, which damages the tree. Make a vertical cut, only as deep as the cambium, and make shallow horizontal cuts at the top and bottom to peel away from the trunk.
Scientific Name: Sassafras albidum
Common Name: sassafras, white sassafras, red sassafras, silky sassafras
Plant Family: Lauraceae (Laurel family)
Etymology: Sassafras is believed to be from the Spanish word for saxifrage, possibly an adaptation of a lost indigenous word that sounded similar. The specific epithet Albidum is from the Latin albus for “white.”
Parts Used: leaves, bark, roots
Season: year-round
Indigenous Uses: Sassafras had many medicinal uses as a tea to purify blood and heal ailments including skin diseases, rheumatism, venereal disease, and ague. The roots and berries made a tea to treat nausea, fevers, fatigue, gas pains, menstrual pains, and syphilis. It was used as a poultice for wounds and sores, a wash for sore eyes, and an antihelminthic. The steeped root bark treated diarrhea, flux, colds, and overfatness. The roots were used to make poultices for wounds and skin infections. Used externally, a decoction made from the root was an antiseptic. With the root bark scraped off for tea, the large flattened woody core of the root would be burned and scraped to make utensils. Other craft uses included scenting soap and making furniture. The flowers were mixed with beans for planting.
Edible Parts: Gather the leaves anytime they are green from the saplings of root suckers or by snapping off the ends of green twigs from smaller branches. Dry the leaves and use as a filé powder to thicken and flavor gumbo and soups, adding at the end of cooking. Store in airtight containers and use within six months. To harvest the roots and bark, look for 1- to 3-foot-tall saplings growing near mature sassafras trees. Dig them up. Simmer chopped roots and bark in water for tea, or sweeten and add seltzer or club soda for homemade root beer. Use bark and roots to make syrups, infused honey, and kombucha.
Common Name: evening primrose, evening star, sundrop, weedy evening primrose, German rampion, hog weed, King’s cure-all, fever-plant
Plant Family: Onagraceae (Willowherb family)
Etymology: Oenothera means a soporific plant. Biennis refers to its biennial life cycle.
Parts Used: flowers, leaves, roots, seeds
Season: year–round
Indigenous Uses: The Cherokee, Iroquois, Ojibwas, and Potawatomi were among several Native American tribes that used evening primrose for both food and for medicinal purposes. They ate the cooked greens when young, and made a tea for overfatness and hot root poultice for piles. The bark and leaves are astringent and sedative and are used for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, whooping cough, and asthma.
Edible Parts: Raw roots can be minced and marinated in salad vinaigrette for twenty minutes before use in salad. When eaten raw, the roots are similar to radish. When cooked, the taste is similar to a turnip. The cooked roots can provide a thickening element in soups and stews. The rosette leaves are mustardy and can be added to stir-fry recipes. The flowers are good raw and mixed with milder greens in salads, or lightly cooked. Seeds can be briefly toasted over low heat and used as a replacement for poppy seeds. Use seeds in energy bar recipes.
If harvested from fall through winter, the roots and rosette leaves should be collected. From midspring through the early summer, the leaves, stems, and flowers are ideal for harvesting.
Caution: Do not consume to excess. While smaller amounts of evening primrose are effective at alleviating digestive symptoms, large quantities eaten by itself can lead to gastric distress.
Contemporary Medicinal Uses: Evening primrose is best when consumed as food, whether the fresh root of young plants, leaves, flowers, or seeds. It treats migraine, tonifies the female reproductive system, and gently stimulates the liver. It is slightly laxative, with a large amount of mucilage that can support treatment of indigestion.
Scientific Name: Apios americana
Common Name: Groundnut, American groundnut, potato bean, hopniss, Indian potato, hodoimo, America-hodoimo, cinnamon vine, wild beans
Plant Family: Fabaceae (Legume family)
Etymology: Apios is Greek for pear, referring to their shape, and americana means American.
Parts Used: fruit, roots, seeds
Season: year-round
Indigenous Uses: Groundnut tubers and seeds were used widely as a food. Some tribes with access to birch or maple syrup baked groundnuts to produce a dish reminiscent of candied yams. Some tribes used the tuber medicinally for skin conditions.
Edible Parts: Strings of tubers chained together by rhizomes can be collected year-round. Remove the rhizomes, wash off the dirt, and peel the tubers. Cook by boiling, baking, roasting, or frying, and enjoy in a similar manner to potatoes. Groundnuts are a good source of amino acids that build collagen to promote skin and digestive health, support healthy joints and cardiovascular health, reduce inflammation, and lower blood pressure. Tubers can be dried and stored for later use or made into a flour for soups, stews, breads, and cakes. Fresh tubers store for at least a month in the crisper drawer of the refrigerator, and cooked and dried tubers or flour made from them lasts indefinitely. The fruit pods are full of pea-like seeds that can be collected and cooked like beans.
Caution: Always cook tubers, as they are toxic when eaten raw. A small percentage of people have adverse digestive reactions to groundnut. When first eating, try a small amount to gauge sensitivity.
Scientific Name: Asclepias syriaca L.
Common Name: Common milkweed, butterfly flower, silkweed, silky swallow-wort, and Virginia silkweed
Plant Family: Apocynaceae (Milkweed family)
Etymology: Asclepias refers to Asklepios, the Greek god of medicine, given the plant’s long history of medicinal use. The specific epithet, syriaca, means “of Syria” based on the mistaken belief this North American native was from Syria.
Parts Used: whole plant
Season: spring, summer, fall
Indigenous Uses: Asclepias syriaca was used widely for a variety of purposes. As a food, people ate the boiled young sprouts like asparagus, cooked the unopened floral bud clusters and firm green fruits, as well as the tender leaves and upper stalks. The flowers and buds often thickened soups. Dried buds were stored for winter use. The latex was boiled and mixed with animal fat for a chewing gum. As a craft product, the fibers were used as cordage for bowstrings and fine sewing threads. Fibers from inside the large pods were used as a stuffing for pillows and sleeping pads. The milky juice was used as a glue. As a medicine, the plant supported treatment of venereal diseases, kidney and urinary dysfunction, rheumatism, and backaches. It was also used as a laxative, galactagogue, and contraceptive. Topically it was used to remove warts and treat bee stings, cuts, and ringworm.
Edible Parts: Gather the tender young shoots by snapping off an inch above the ground. Boil for 20 minutes before serving with butter or adding to frittatas. Pinch off the whole green flower heads and boil, stir-fry, steam, or cook into soups. Remove the young firm pods when under 1½ inches long and cook like okra. Pull out the seed fibers when the pods are beginning to lose firmness but are still green. Boil, strain, and add to dishes for a cheese-like texture and mild flavor. Preserve the shoots, flowerheads, and young pods by blanching and freezing.
Caution: Some people have a food sensitivity to milkweed. Try a small amount to ensure it agrees with you.
Scientific Name: Viola spp.
Common Name: Common blue violet, wooly blue violet, common meadow violet, purple violet, woolly blue violet, hooded violet, birdfoot violet, downy yellow violet, marsh blue violet, pansy, yellow violet, johnny jump up, and wood violet
Plant Family: Violaceae (Violet family)
Etymology: “Viola” refers to the color violet.
Parts Used: flowers, leaves, roots
Season: spring, summer
Indigenous Uses: The leaves, stems, and flowers of violets were used widely as food, eaten raw or cooked. As a medicine, all parts of the plant were used internally and externally to treat heart problems, joint pain, diarrhea, fever, gas, indigestion, bronchitis, poor circulation, colds, coughs, dysentery, bladder pain, and sore throat. Range of applications included binding the leaves on head for headache; using a poultice of crushed root for boils; spraying tea up nose for catarrh; and soaking corn in root tea before planting to keep off insects.
Edible Parts: Enjoy raw flowers and tender leaves in wild salads. Used cooked leaves as a thickening agent in soups. Older leaves can be used for infusions or crumpled into stews. Preserve leaves by drying in bundles, hung upside down away from direct light or heat. Transfer to an airtight jar for storage.
Contemporary Medicinal Uses: All parts of the violet can be used fresh or dried. Make a tea by boiling in a teaspoonful of herb in a cup of water for fifteen minutes. Apply the tea directly to the skin as a compress or a wash to resolve skin disorders, including rashes, cradle cap, and hives. Make a healing poultice by bruising leaves and applying cold. Violet can also be used to infuse herbal oils for moisturizing, toning, and healing the skin. There are no contraindications known; it is safe for general use.
Caution: African violets are not related to the edible species — do not consume.
Scientific Name: Rubus allegheniensis
Common Name: Allegheny blackberry, common blackberry
Plant Family: Rosaceae (Rose family)
Etymology: The scientific name for this plant arises from the Latin word Rubus, meaning “blackberry,” and allegheniensis identifies the region of North America.
Parts Used: leaves, stems, fruit, roots
Season: summer, fall
Indigenous Uses: Blackberries provide food for people across North America. Indigenous peoples would eat the ripe berries fresh, ground with wild game meat to make pemmican cakes, or dried and stored for later consumption. As medicine, blackberries were used in the treatment of cancer, dysentery, diarrhea, whooping cough, colitis, toothache, anemia, psoriasis, sore throat, mouth ulcer, hemorrhoids, and minor bleeding. An infusion of the roots, sometimes mixed with blackberry leaves, is taken to treat diarrhea, rheumatism, colds, and cough. An infusion of the roots was used as a wash for sore eyes. A decoction of the stems was consumed for urinary tract infections. Its varied medicinal uses also included regulation of urination, use of root or leaf tea to check bowels, astringent and tonic, and treatment of venereal disease and phlegmatic conditions. Sweetened with honey the plant alleviated sore throat. Chewing the washed root cleansed the tongue, and the root tea with Virginia pine and alder was drunk and used as a wash for piles. Blackberry canes offered craft material for baskets woven with the stems once the thorns are removed.
Edible Parts: Collect the dark, ripe berries in solid containers to prevent crushing. Enjoy raw or cooked into jams, sauces, and savory dishes. Preserve by freezing, fermenting into wine or making into cordials. The berries can also be used as a source of yeast for fermenting and flavoring alcoholic beverages. Use the fresh or dried leaves for infusions.
Scientific Name: Rhus copallina, R. glabra, R. typhina
Common Name: Shining sumac, flameleaf sumac, winged sumac, dwarf sumac
Plant Family: Anacardiaceae (cashew family)
Etymology: Rhus is the Greek name for sumac; copallinum means gummy or resinous; glabra means “hairless”; typhina refers to the flower stalk’s resemblance to cattail genus Typha.
Parts Used: bark, fruit, leaves, root
Season: year-round
Indigenous Uses: As a food, the sumac drupes were eaten or consumed as tea. The bark was eaten as a delicacy and sprouts were consumed raw. Rhus spp. has varied medicinal uses, including treating sunburn and blisters, venereal disease, and acting as a galactagogue, antiemetic, and antidiarrheal. The red berries were used to make a mouthwash and chewed to stop bedwetting. A decoction of leaves used as a bath was given to babies to make them walk. Craft uses included making red or black dyes from the drupes, and the inner bark to make a yellow dye. The dried red leaves and root were used for smoking and in ceremonial tobacco mixtures. As a craft product, sumac offers premier wood for making pipe stems, both long and short. It is easily split and carved out or burned out with a steel rod. Sumac wood has different colored layers used in designing craftwork.
Edible Parts: In early spring the young, peeled shoots can be eaten raw or cooked, as long as they are solid green without a white pith. Harvest ripe berry-like drupes from June to September, but not after a rainstorm, which can wash off the malic acid flavor. Make a refreshing beverage by soaking overnight in a jar of cool water (or swish the drupes in water vigorously), then strain before serving. Add raw honey to sweeten, or use unsweetened in marinades and salad dressings. Grind the dried drupes to make a savory seasoning similar to za’atar for use in a variety of dishes. Preserve by freezing the whole fruit clusters in freezer bags with all the air pressed, or making ice cubes with the frozen liquid infusion.
Caution: Individuals with cashew allergies may want to avoid sumac species because they are in the same plant family. Avoid poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix), which has white drupes that hang down like grapes, rather than standing up above the leaves.
Scientific Name: Lindera benzoin
Common Name: Spicebush, common spicebush, northern spicebush, wild allspice, allspice tree, or Benjamin bush
Plant Family: Lauraceae (Laurel family)
Parts Used: berries, leaves, twigs
Season: year-round
Indigenous Uses: As a food, spicebush was used for beverages and the fruit was eaten. It was used to flavor foods such as possum or groundhog. Medicinally, any part is diaphoretic. It was used to treat colds, coughs, phthisis, croup, female obstructions, and white swellings. The bark steeped with dogwood, wild cherry, and corn whiskey would treat measles; the boiled bark with witch hazel and Virginia pine needles was used as for a diaphoretic. The tea was consumed as a spring tonic.
Edible Parts: Harvest spicebush twigs year-round for an aromatic tea; steep 2 tablespoons for 10-15 minutes. Store dried twigs in a dry place with good air circulation for up to two weeks. Avoid boiling the twigs to prevent a bitter taste. Use the fresh leaves in a cold water infusion or sun tea by crushing and soaking for 2–6 hours. Strain the leaves and sweeten with honey, if desired. Grind spicebush berries from female plants in autumn and use to flavor sweet and savory dishes. They work well in marinades, rubs, and dipping sauces. Freeze berries by storing them whole and grinding them as needed.
Scientific Name: Robinia pseudoacacia
Common Name: Black locust, false acacia
Plant Family: Fabaceae (Legume family)
Indigenous Uses: As a food, the bark was steeped as a tea. Medicinally, the root bark was chewed as an emetic, alleviated toothache, and was used to flavor other medicines. The wood was valued for craft purposes, including fence posts, bows, flintmaking batons, pegs for log cabins, sills for houses, blowgun darts, and as large wood mallets. Black locust trees supported livestock, offering a tonic tea for cows, the large seedpods serving as forage for chickens, and leaves as forage for horses.
Edible Parts: All parts of black locust are toxic except for the edible flowers, which can be enjoyed raw, cooked into fritters, added to batters, and used in infusions, wines, and syrups. Look for blossoms between the spring equinox and summer solstice.
Scientific Name: Juglans nigra
Common Name: Black walnut, eastern American black walnut
Plant Family: Juglandaceae (Walnut family)
Etymology: Juglans comes from the Latin name jovis, meaning “of Jupiter,” and glans meaning “an acorn.” Specific epithet means “black,” in reference to the dark bark and nut.
Parts Used: leaves, nuts, bark, wood, sap
Season: spring, summer, fall
Indigenous Uses: As a food, indigenous peoples mixed the crushed nuts in breads and puddings. The nut meats were also an important ingredient in corn soups and several other traditional native dishes. The fresh nuts would be crushed and boiled to make a beverage. The bark was used cautiously in medicine because it is poisonous. It was chewed for toothache and made into a decoction as an emetic, to get rid of bile, and as a laxative. The bark of charred twigs and old bark from the trunk was mixed with water and used as a remedy for snakebites. An inner bark infusion was used for smallpox. A tea from the leaves treated goiter and was used to wash sores. A poultice from the leaves and crushed hulls of the nuts for topical applications to remove ringworm, treat athlete’s foot, and hemorrhoids. The sap of black walnut was used externally as an anti-inflammatory. Black walnut supported a range of craftwork that used the wood for construction, furniture, and carving; the bark, roots, and husks for brown dye; the leaves for greenish dye; the nut to make brown and black dyes; the crushed nuts mixed with bear grease to make a mosquito repellent; and the leaves placed around a living space to deter fleas. In slow waters the green husks of black walnuts were used as a fish poison to stun fish for harvest.
Edible Parts: Harvest black walnuts as soon as they have fallen and remove the hulls within a couple days of gathering. Remove the hulls by stomping on them, or pound with a hammer, brick, or small log. Once hulled, dry the nuts in their shells for a month or longer in a space with good air circulation. Crack the shells with a strong nutcracker or hammer, and pick out the nutmeat. Use in baking, beverages, soups, and any dish lending itself to culinary creativity.
Unripe black walnuts can be pickled while the shell is still soft to produce an aged condiment, similar to Worcestershire sauce. They can be leached and fermented to produce a ketchup. Or they can be steeped in vodka to produce a nocello liqueur.
To preserve, dry fresh nutmeat for a day or two before refrigerating in a moisture-proof container. Or freeze in jars for two or more years.
Scientific Name: Juniperus virginiana
Common Name: Eastern red cedar, eastern redcedar, Virginian juniper, eastern juniper, red juniper, pencil cedar, and aromatic cedar
Plant Family: Cupressaceae (Cypress family)
Etymology: Juniperus translates directly to juniper in Latin, and in Dutch juniper (genever) refers to distilled gin.
Parts Used: leaves, fruit, roots, wood
Season: year-round
Indigenous Uses: Eastern red cedar is a sacred tree for indigenous peoples. It served many medicinal purposes. The wood and leaves contain antibacterial compounds, and the leaves, bark and twigs contain analgesic flavonoids. It was used as a tea to relieve coughs, colds, and canker sores. It also treated female obstructions, measles, and rheumatism. The leaves were used to treat chest pains made into ointments to relieve itching and cutaneous diseases. An infusion of leaves was used as a diuretic and to treat urinary tract infections. The berries were boiled in sweet milk to treat worms. As a craft product, Eastern red cedar was used for carving, furniture, fence posts, and moth proofing. Juniperus virginiana was used as a spiritual incense and as an aromatic wood to make instruments. Smudge sticks were made with the leaves for purification rituals. The roots and inner bark were woven into cordage. The last foot of branches would be snipped off, dried green like a smudge stick, and laid next to a bed of coals upwind of camp to serve as a diffused insect repellent. The berries were simmered with the oil skimmed off for a topical insect repellent.
Edible Parts: Collect only the ripe dark purple or blue fleshy cones—green and pale unripe ones will appear on the same plant. Pick juniper “berries” individually and place in a sturdy container to avoid crushing them. Fresh or dried, use as a flavoring in sauerkraut, meat dishes, or soups. Make a spicy tea rich in minerals and flavonoids. The dusty coating on ripe juniper cones is a yeast that can be used to start fermentation in beermaking and breadmaking.
Caution: Eat in moderation. While juniper berries have been safely eaten for thousands of years, they are slightly toxic in large amounts.
Scientific Name: Sambucus nigra
Common Name: Elderberry, American black elderberry
Plant Family: Adoxaceae (Moschatel family); previously Caprifoliaceae (honeysuckle family)
Etymology: “Sambucus” comes from the Latin word for a triangular harp that creates a shrill sound.
Parts Used: whole plant
Season: year-round
Indigenous Uses: As a food, elderberries were crushed, strained, and boiled into a syrup or made into a jam. They were used as a sweetener in various recipes.
Medicinally, the berries supported the treatment of many illnesses. An infusion of the berries was taken for rheumatism, as a diuretic, diaphoretic, for urinary tract infections, and as a general tonic. An infusion of the bark was taken for diarrhea and as an external analgesic. The berries and flowers were made into tonics for boils and salves for burns. The leaves have been used as a wash to suppress infection of sores, as a purgative, and to treat skin infections, swellings, burns, and other skin problems. They also have been made into a decoction and used in steam baths to sweat out colds and headaches. An infusion of the flowers was used to bring down fevers and treat colds. Parts of the plants have been used by different peoples as a cathartic and an emetic.
Elderberry also provided material for important craftwork. The wood, stems, branches, and twigs were used for musical instruments and ceremonial purposes. The stems were hollowed out to make smoking pipes, flutes, blowgun darts, and arrow shafts. They also were used to make bow drills for starting fires.
Edible Parts: Harvest flowers (aka “elderblow”) or ripe berries, by cutting off whole umbels. Important: when processing for food and medicine, carefully remove any stem parts, which are toxic. Additionally, the seeds in the berries are toxic raw, and cooking reduces toxicity. Remove the seeds before eating fresh berries.
Use the fresh or dried flowers for tea, or cook into fritters. Ferment the flowers into a wine ready in about two weeks, or make a syrup with them. Add the flowers to kombucha as a secondary ferment for a few days, and strain before drinking.
Cook the berries into an immune-boosting syrup. Or simmer the berries in balsamic vinegar for a dressings and marinades. Make jellies and wines with the berries. Or make vinegars, capers, and shrubs.
Preserve the flower clusters by drying in a warm bag and storing away from heat. Once they crumble off the stalks easily, store in tightly sealed jar for up to one year. Freeze the berries when still attached to the umbels, which will make removing them from their stalks easier.
Contemporary Medicinal Uses: Herbalists continue to use the fresh leaves to make cooling green oils, salves, and creams as a treatment for traumatic injuries old burns, ulcerations, or hemorrhoids. Packed with hot apple cider vinegar, the flowers can be used to create an acetum to treat sore throats. The flowers and berries are antiviral and immune stimulating. A cold floral tea is diuretic. A hot tea made from the flowers helps to sweat out a cold or fever, and once cooled can be used topically as a wash or compress for oily skin and to treat injured tissues. Alternatively, elderflowers added to a bath tonify the skin.
Scientific Name: Carpinus caroliniana
Common Name: Ironwood, American hornbeam, blue-beech, musclewood
Plant Family: Betulaceae (Birch family)
Etymology: Carpinus derives from “carpentum” a Roman horse-drawn vehicle with hard-wood wheels. Caroliniana refers to its native region in central North America.
Parts Used: leaves, nutlets, wood
Season: year-round
Indigenous Uses: The astringent leaves and inner bark had medicinal uses, including as an ingredient in tea for flux, a drink for navel yellowness, and a drink for cloudy urine. As a craft product, the wood was used for the main supporting posts for the ridgepole of the wigwam or tent.
Edible Parts: Survival instructors describe using the cooked nutlets for food, though it’s unclear to what extent it was traditionally used by humans since documentation is sparse.
Scientific Name: Ulmus rubra
Common Name: Slippery elm, red elm, gray elm, soft elm, moose elm, and Indian elm
Plant Family: Ulmaceae (Elm family)
Etymology: “Slippery” refers to its moist inner bark. The genus Ulmus is proto-European for “mountain elm,” and specific epithet rubra refers to the red color of the bark.
Parts Used: branches, bark, wood
Season: spring, summer, fall
Indigenous Uses: Native Americans quenched thirst by chewing the sweet, fibrous inner bark peeled from twigs and branches. As a potent yet gentle medicine, the inner bark of Ulmus rubra was used widely to poultice eyes, sores, burns, and wounds. Chewed or taken as a decoction, the bark soothed stomach and bowels, served as a mild laxative, supported women during pregnancy, and treated heartburn, dysentery, chronic bowel complaints, sore throats, and coughs. It also was used to treat quinsies (peritonsillar abscess), catarrhs, colds, and consumption. The inner bark decoction supported birthing mothers, and an inner bark infusion soothed diarrhea and was used as a laxative. Uses of the bark continue with craftwork: a floor matting when camping in snow; boiled to weave baskets, bedding, and mats; woven into frames for snowshoes and fishing nets. The bark was also used for canoes, and branches were used as the frame for horse saddles.
How to Harvest: During warm weather, prune large lower branches to remove sleeves of bark, which promotes speedy recovery of the tree as the wound heals over. Alternatively, the bark can be removed from mature tree trunks by pulling off 4-inch-wide strips. Limit harvests from a single tree to permit the bark to regrow. Harvest bark in the spring when the sap is running for the best quality, the inner bark becomes more astringent and less desirable in autumn. Chew the fresh or dried bast to release its healing mucilage.
To preserve, cut the bast into 6-inch strips and dry in the sun, flipping periodically over a few days, to prepare for long-term storage in sealed jars, away from light.
Contemporary Medicinal Uses: Modern herbalists use slippery elm to treat upset or inflamed stomach, colic, dysentery, stomach or duodenal ulcers, diverticulitis, inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, sore throat, coughs, and bronchitis. It replenishes mucous membranes, absorbs and purges toxins, and nourishes immune mast cells.
A cold overnight infusion in water can be sipped for a mucilaginous healing beverage. Alternatively, grind the bark into a powder and dissolve in hot water for a tea, or create a thick nourishing gruel to support healing of sensitive individuals. A poultice can also be made from the powder for swollen glands, infections, splinters, eruptions, and wounds.
Scientific Name: Hamamelis virginiana
Common Name: Witch hazel, common witch hazel, American witch hazel, witchhazel
Plant Family: Hamamelidaceae (Witch-hazel family)
Etymology: Hamamelis comes from the Greek words, meaning “fruit” and “at the same time,” referring to the shrub’s unique feature of producing flowers as the previous year’s capsules continue to ripen. The common name “witch” may allude to the use of the flexible branches as dowsing or “witching” rods for water.
Parts Used: bark, leaves, twigs
Season: spring, summer, fall
Indigenous Uses: Witch hazel was primarily used for medicinal purposes. The bark was combined with spicebush and Virginia pine needles as a tea for fevers. As a standalone tea it treated sore throat, colds, and tuberculosis and was used to bathe sores and skinned places. A decoction was used for muscular aches and bruises. The bruised leaves were rubbed on scratches. It made an excellent astringent. As a craft product, early colonial documents mention witch hazel as one of the better bow woods.
Contemporary Medicinal Uses: Topically the bruised or mashed leaves can be applied for the astringent and drawing effect on swellings, tumors, stings, and venomous bites. Witch hazel extract is commonly used to cool and shrink inflamed tissues. Modern herbalists use witch hazel as a decoction or tincture as an anti-inflammatory hemostatic for internal bleeding, and to support treatment of diarrhea and dysentery.
Caution: When consumed internally, the concentrated tannins in witch hazel bark can cause stomach upset and stress the liver.
Scientific Name: Achillea millefolium
Common Name: Yarrow, gordaldo, nosebleed plant, old man’s pepper, devil’s nettle, sanguinary, milfoil, soldier’s woundwort, thousand-leaf, and thousand-seal
Plant Family: Asteraceae (Daisy family)
Etymology: Yarrow is thought to be derived from the same root as “yellow,” tracing back to Old High German usage. The genus name Achillea comes from the mythical Greek character Achilles, who reportedly carried it with his army to treat battle wounds. The specific name millefolium, as well as some of its common names, refers to its featherlike leaves.
Parts Used: flowers, leaves
Season: spring, summer, fall
Indigenous Uses: One of the most widely used medicinal herbs, yarrow tea was taken for stomach problems, fever, and restful sleep. It was made into poultices for treating rashes, swelling, eczema, and spider bites. The astringent leaves treated hemorrhages; spitting blood, bloody piles, bloody urine, bowel complaints, and uterine bleeding. The dried leaves were smoked for catarrh.
Edible Parts: Gather the uppermost few inches of stem with leaves and flowers attached. Brew tea by steeping flowers and leaves in boiling water for fifteen minutes, or make a sun tea. Flavorful tea can be used as a base for wild beers. Use the fresh or dried leaves as a seasoning in savory dishes. Preserve the leaves by bundling several stalks together and hanging to dry away from direct light or heat. The stems can be used as skewers in marinating and grilling. As a bitter tonic, yarrow flowers and leaves improve digestion if taken before a meal. The flowers are used to flavor alcoholic ferments.
Caution: Avoid during pregnancy.
Contemporary Medicinal Uses: Fresh or dried yarrow leaves disinfect wounds and stop bleeding. The bruised leaves make an excellent field poultice for deep cuts. Boil the uppermost leaves for fifteen minutes and strain to drink to treat colds and sweat out a fever. Apply the tea topically to relieve burns, bruises, and irritations. Cultivars of yarrow are less potent than the wild white-flowered plant. Stressful growing conditions in poor soil increases the medicinal qualities of yarrow.
Caution: Discontinue use if yarrow causes skin inflammation.
Project Partners
Daniel “Firehawk” Abbott, a member of the Eastern Shore’s Nanticoke People, provided invaluable input as a consultant on this project. Special thanks goes to Jeff and Susan Coomer for their research assistance. Self-guided activities were written by Jenny Houghton. Shane Brill researched and wrote the plant profiles and produced the video content.
The Indigenous Peoples’ Perspective Project was made possible by a grant from Maryland Humanities, with funding received from the Maryland Historical Trust in the Maryland Department of Planning. Maryland Humanities’ Grant Programs is also supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and private funders. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Maryland Humanities, Maryland Historical Trust, Maryland Department of Planning or National Endowment for the Humanities.
