Echinacea angustifolia DC. Narrow-leaved Purple Cone Flower, Comb Plant. (Pl. 30, a.)
Ichaȟpe-hu (Dakota), “whip plant” (ichaȟpe, whip).
Mika-hi (Omaha-Ponca), “comb plant” (mika, comb); also called ikigahai, to comb; also called iⁿshtogaȟte-hi, referring to its use for an eye-wash (iⁿshta, eye).
Ksapitahako (Pawnee), from iksa, hand; pitahako, to whirl. The name refers to its use by children in play when they take two stalks of it and whirl one round the other, the two stalks touching by the two heads. Also called Saparidu kahts, mushroom medicine, so called from the form of the head, compared to a mushroom (saparidu).
This plant was universally used as an antidote for snake bite and other venomous bites and stings and poisonous conditions. Echinacea seems to have been used as a remedy for more ailments than any other plant. It was employed in the smoke treatment for headache in persons and distemper in horses. It was used also as a remedy for toothache, a piece being kept on the painful tooth until there was relief, and for enlarged glands, as in mumps. It was said that jugglers bathed their hands and arms in the juice of this plant so that they could take out a piece of meat from a boiling kettle with the bare hand without suffering pain, to the wonderment of onlookers. A Winnebago said he had often used the plant to make his mouth insensible to heat, so that for show he could take a live coal into his mouth. Burns were bathed with the juice to give relief from the pain, and the plant was used in the steam bath to render the great heat endurable.