Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians / by Huron H. Smith.

1928]

SMITH, ETHNOBOTANY OF THE MESKWAKI.

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kiwigi" and is used to relieve one with bloody piles. It is prepared for
use by pounding the root in a bladder. Specimen 5057 is the base of
the plant of Geranium miaculatum called "paiskipagi." It is boiled and
made into a drink, or used as a poultice on a burn. While this species
is not official, it has been much used by eclectic practitioners where an
astringent is needed. It is especially useful for infants and people with
a delicate stomach for it is not irritating. It is valuable in serous
diarrhoeas. It has also been used by the white man for both rectal and
vaginal injections to strengthen weak muscles.
HYPERICACEAE (ST. JOHN'S WORT FAMILY)
Great St. John's Wort (Hypericum ascyron L.), "wisaki'pfiki"
[tastes like tobacco] (M), "iisositfik kfipwa'wfisk" (P P). Shown in
plate XLII, fig. 1. The Meskwaki use this root in connection with
others to cure tuberculosis. Mslntosh said that if it was used in
the first stages of consumption it was a cure.
Specimen 5109 of the Dr. Jones collction is listed in his notes as
acorns of Quercus but is clearly the root of Hypericum ascyron
called "me'tegumini" [wooden berry]. The name would indicate
that it was an acorn. However, since the odor of the root is like
that of an acorn, and since the writer found the Menomini applying to it a similar name suggesting the odor of the acorn, it is
taken that the Indian name is not complete. The Meskwaki boil
the root and use it for a dusting powder to place upon the bite of
a water moccasin, to draw the poison and heal it. The white man
formerly used the leaves of this species as a laxative, alterative
and vulnerary. The fresh drug is given internally in the treatment
of chronic catarrhal conditions of the respiratory, intestinal and
urinary apparatuses, thus paralleling the Meskwaki and Potawatomi uses.
Dotted St. John's Wort (Hypericum punctatum Lam.). Specimen
3649 was doubtfully identified as the root of Hypericum punctatum.
It was found in a mixture called simply medicine with no use ascribed
to it. The mixture contained the heads of Agastache scrophulariaefolia,
the leaves of Hypericum punctatum, the leaves of Salix candida, and the
tendrils of the Frost Grape (Vitis vulpina).