Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians

What it is

A record of how the Chippewa (Ojibwe) of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario gathered, prepared and used plants as food, drink, seasoning, medicine, dye and material, with tables of remedies by ailment. Published in the Bureau of American Ethnology's Forty-fourth Annual Report.

Whose knowledge it records

The knowledge of Chippewa (Ojibwe) families and healers, written down by an ethnographer in the 1910s and 1920s. Much of it came from members and former members of the Midewiwin who chose to share it so that it would be kept; among the people she names at White Earth are Mrs. Brunett, Mrs. Gagewin and Mrs. Louisa Martin.

Passages transcribed

• BEVERAGES (p. 317)
• PLANTS AS MEDICINE (on preparing remedies with water) (pp. 328–329)
• PLANTS USED IN DYES. Process of Dyeing (p. 369)
• SEASONINGS (p. 318)