Rosa pratincola Greene. Wild Rose.
Oⁿzhiⁿzhiⁿtka (Dakota). Oⁿzhiⁿzhiⁿtka-hu, rosebush.
Wazhide (Omaha-Ponca).
Pahatu (Pawnee), red.
There are several species of Rosa in Nebraska, the most common being Rosa pratincola, the prairie rose. The fruits are sometimes eaten to tide over a period of food scarcity. An amusing instance is told in the Omaha tribe of a time when the people were without food and no game could be found. A man had been laboriously gathering for his family a supply of wild rose fruits. After he had a considerable quantity a man was seen returning with the carcass of a deer he had been able to kill. At once the rose fruits were cast away in prospect of the much more excellent food which had come to hand.
It is said that the inner bark of the rosebush was sometimes used for smoking, either alone or mixed with tobacco.
The Pawnee say there are sometimes large, brown hypertrophied growths on the lower part of the stems, which, when charred by fire and crushed to powder, were applied as a dressing to burns.
A wash for inflammation of the eyes was made by steeping the fruits, according to information from the Omaha.
The Dakota song of the wild rose that follows the article is not transcribed.