University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 1990 Oglala Sioux use of Medical Herbs George Robert Morgan Chadron State College Ronald R. Weedon Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Morgan, George Robert and Weedon, Ronald R., "Oglala Sioux use of Medical Herbs" (1990). Great Plains Quarterly. 506. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/506 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. 18 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1990 FIG. 1. Po ipiye, Wild Four O'Clock, Mirabilis nyctaginea (Michx.) MacM. OGLALA SIOUX USE OF MEDICINAL HERBS GEORGE ROBERT MORGAN, COMPLETED BY RONALD R. WEEDON Despite the turmoil of Sioux cultural losses Since 1889 the home of the Oglala Sioux has since contact with Anglo-European culture, the been the Pine Ridge country of southwestern Oglala Sioux have maintained an interest in South Dakota, east of the Black Hills. The Pine herbal medicines, although with each passing Ridge Reservation, one of the largest in the generation the number of plants actively used United States, is remote from any major pop­ for curing has diminished. Fewer people have ulation centers or highways. Its mostly scenic been learning the identification of plant medi­ but semiarid grasslands are largely given over cines and their uses, the procedures for prepar­ to cattle ranching. A 1984 census showed 16,500 ing plants, and the techniques of herbal cures. Oglalas at Pine Ridge, of whom about 45 per­ Many of the older Sioux blame reservation cent are under 18 years of age and another 35 boarding schools for the disruption of cultural percent between the ages of 21 and 55. This age transmission, but other factors have been at work composition, a growing youthful population with as well. few elders, is characteristic of developing coun­ tries, as is the abounding poverty and an un­ employment rate of more than 70 percent. Alcoholism has been prevalent since 1953, along George R. Morgan was professor of geography at Chad­ with "white man's diseases" such as cirrhosis ron State College at the time of his death in 1985. His of the liver and diabetes. For some people, the primary research interests included peyote as an Indian move away from the land began in the 1960s, ceremonial plant and the ethnobotany of sweet flag. An excellent scholar, Dr. Morgan was also a beloved and when the government began building housing respected teacher, advisor, and friend, who is sorely missed communities and many Sioux sold their land to by the Chadron State College community. This paper non-Indians. The gap between the people and was completed after Dr. Morgan's death by Ronald R. the land has been widened by ration issues, com­ Weedon, director of the Chadron State College Herbar­ modity distributions, and foodstamps, all of ium, which now houses the Dr. George R. Morgan Me­ morial Archive. which removed the necessity for Indians to gather their native food plants. Some food and medic­ inal plants have become scarce or disappeared [GPQ 10 (Winter 1990): 18-35] as overgrazing on the reservation has reduced 19 20 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1990 FIG. 2. Wagmu l'eju ta, Wild Gourd, Cucurbita foetidissima H. B. K. OGLALA HERB USE 21 the floristic composition and biomass of upland healing powers that may include the revelation prairie and bottomland. The refuge of some me­ of new medicinal plants or new uses for well dicinals is along the roadsides. known medicinals. This study attempts to list With all these changes, the use of medicinal ordinary uses of common medicinal herbs rather plants among the Oglala has noticeably de­ than those specific to individual medicine men. creased, as it has in most twentieth-century so­ cieties, but it has not entirely disappeared. In PO fPIYE(REMEDY FOR SWELLING) some cases it has even increased, for although Indians usually seek "white man's medicine" Po tpiye means literally "a remedy for swell­ for "white man's disease," some Oglalas claim ing," but informants identify it as wild four plants such as sweet flag and sage cure diabetes. o'clock [Mirabilis nyctaginea (Michx.) MacM.], The purpose of the following paper is to evaluate an herbaceous plant more frequently associated the pharmacopoeia of today's Oglala Sioux and with medicine men than with the populace. Many to note the uses of medicinal plants within con­ people fear the plant and indicate that it should temporary Pine Ridge culture. Melvin Gil­ be harvested only by medicine men, who must more's 1914 thesis, "Uses of Plants by the gather it carefully in the spring months before Indians of the Missouri River Region," pro­ the arrival of the' 'Thunder Beings." Otherwise vides a baseline against which to measure how misfortune will befall the harvesters and their such uses have changed during this century. Al­ kin. The appropriate procedure for anyone har­ though his work also reviews uses of plants by vesting plant medicines is to place a pinch of the Omahas, Poncas, Winnebagoes, and Paw­ tobacco offering at the place where the plant is nees, it is the only comprehensive study of cures removed. According to Melvin Gilmore, the among the Oglala. Gilmore's baseline is aug­ popular use of po tpiye was to boil the roots and mented and clarified by reference to Father Eu­ drink the tea to alleviate fever (Gilmore, 1914). gene Buechel's studies of plants on Pine Ridge While some contemporary Sioux' tell only of and the neighboring Rosebud Reservation, con­ external use of the plant, others use the tea to ducted in the 1920s and recently made available cure stomach discomfort and to alleviate swell­ by Dilwyn J. Rogers (l980a, 1980b). ing (Afraid-of-Bear, 1989). William Conquer­ Sioux use of medicinal herbs cannot simply ing Bear, an elderly Oglala informant, stated be generalized, however, because much depends that the roots were boiled and the tea was used on the practice of the individual medicine man on the skin as a lotion for sores. According to (wakaiJ wicasa). Many Sioux traditionally ex­ Paul Vestal, the Ramah Navajo also used a tea pect in a medicine man a certain eccentricity from the root as a lotion for swellings (Vestal, that is reflected in the unique assortment of me­ 1952). The Sioux consider the plant holy and dicinal plants stored within his medicine bag. powerful; mystery prevails about the po tpiye Some of the plants a healer uses are common and its various uses among Oglala medicine men. medicinals used by the populace, but others are surrounded by professional secrecy. The Oglalas WAGMU PEJUTA (PUMPKIN OR GOURD generally acknowledge that only the "right man" MEDICINE) can successfully use certain plants; unqualified persons, including other medicine men, will not The wild gourd (Cucurbita foetidissima be able to cure with the same plants because H.B.K.) is another plant with mystic, powerful healing powers are said to come from the spirit properties, more within the ken of the medicine world. A medicine man obtains his knowledge man than the ordinary Oglala. One Oglala con­ about plants and their uses from elder medicine sidered the plant to be dangerous and said that men and through his own visions while fasting it should be used by a medicine man (Red Cloud, in the wilderness. Oglala religious belief holds 1984). The root of the plant resembles the hu­ that visions endow the beholder with special man form; there are recognized female and male 22 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, WINTER 1990 FIG. 3. Ca17si17sila, Compass Plant, Silphium laciniatum L. TABLE 1 CONTEMPORARY OGALALA MEDICINAL HERBS Lakota Name Literal Translation Common English Names Scientific Names po ffiiye remedy for swelling wild four o'clock Mirabilis nyctaginea (Michx.) MacM. wagmu pejuia pumpkin or gourd medicine wild gourd Cucurbita foetidissima H.B.K. ca1]si1]sila plant form which gum oozes compass plant Silphium laciniatum L. ptefciyu/ia u1]ma translation undetermined stickyhead, curly cup gumweed Grindelia squarrosa (Pursh) Dun. icdlipe hu translation undetermined coneflower, purple coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia DC. black sampson windwizi cik' ala translation undetermined wild licorice Glycyrhiza lepidota Pursh lia1]ie cedar cedar Juniperus virginiana L. waca-rJka sweet grass sweet grass Hierochloe odorata (L.) Beauv. waca'ljga iyececa like sweet grass sweet clover Melilotus officinalis (L.) Lam. and Melilotus albus Dest. jJejfli6ta ape blaskaska flat leafed sage wild sage Artemisia ludoviciana N utt. fiejfli6ta waStemna women's sage little wild sage Artemisia f'rigida Willd. ceydRa mint wild mint Mentha arvensis L. hokSfcekpa baby's navel puffball Lycoperdon gemmatum Batsch. ca1]lil6ga1] hollow stem sunflower Helianthus annuus L. walicdzizi yellow flower llTlihiii1]tKa rose, rose hip wildrose, rose hip Rosa arkansana Porter pejuia naifyazilya incense medicine for the head purple mallow Callirrhoe involucrata (T.&G.) A. Gray hey6ka tapejuta heyoka's medicine red false mallow Sphaeralcea coccinea (Pursh) Rydb. si1]kjje tawoie muskrat's food sweet flag Acarus calamus L. peyote peyote peyote Lophophora wiUiamsii Lem. OGLALA HERB USE 23 fonns. Because cures are based on the "Doc­ gumweed [Grindelia squarrosa (Pursh) Dun.] trine of Signatures," the shape of the root in­ were used as a remedy for children with colic dicating the cure, wagmu pejuia is a general (Gilmore, 1914). A tea from the whole plant medicine. A Sioux related that Joe Bear Nose was consumed for kidney problems, especially had warned him that the plant should be care­ to arrest frequent urination; the plant was also fully harvested: because it is very holy, it must used for many other ailments, such as bronchial be pulled slowly from the ground, and it cannot problems (Walks, 1985).