Chippewa Poultices for Cuts and Bruises: White Pine with Cherry and Plum Bark, and Fireweed Leaves (Densmore, 1928)

"Care should be taken that the barks after boiling do not come in contact with rust or dirt." Recorded use, not medical advice: deep or dirty wounds need a doctor (ours).

Cut the trunk of a young white pine into sections and boil them with wild cherry inner bark and the inner bark of a young wild plum until soft. Ours: a clay pot, since nothing boiled may touch rust; amounts are not given.

Strain and keep the decoction. Pound the woody material into a mash and dry it. Ours: keep both clean and covered.

When needed, soak the mash thoroughly in the decoction and apply. The informant said he used it on a gunshot wound after gangrene had set in, and that it could go on any "rotten flesh", after which a knife was used to clean the wound.

Moisten fresh or dried fireweed leaves and make them into a poultice. The same poultice might be used to draw out a sliver.

From Frances Densmore, *Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians*, **44th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology** (1928), pp. 352-353 (checked on the archive.org scan usesofplantsbych00dens). Chippewa remedies were mostly knowledge of the Midewiwin, shared with her so a record would survive. Amounts, the clay pot and safety advice are ours. Recorded use, not medical advice.