Chippewa Medicinal Roots and Barks: Gathered by the Sap, Dried, Tied in Packets and Kept in Bags (Densmore, 1928)

"Bark was gathered when the sap was in the tree but roots intended for future medicinal use were gathered before the sap started in the spring or after it had gone down in the fall." This covers gathering and keeping only, not remedies or doses.

While the sap is in the tree, take off the outer skin and scrape the inner bark, or strip it off in long thin strips. (For alder root one informant gave a single rule: scrape it toward the plant.) Ours: take bark from a cut branch, never ring the trunk.

Dig the root before the sap starts in spring or after it has gone down in the fall. The Mide custom was to dig a little hole beside the plant, put tobacco in it and speak to the plant. Cass Lake: shake the dirt off, do not wash. White Earth: wash the roots. Ours: wear gloves, the orange sap stains and irritates skin.

Dry the strips and roots (ours: in shade on a rack until they snap). Tie each kind separately in packets; Plate 43 shows bark packets tied with strips. Leaves and stalks were hung top downward to dry, kept as clean as possible.

Keep the packets in bags: square bags woven of yarn or of cedar inner bark; one old medicine man used a leather bag narrower at the top than the bottom to keep out damp. A root wanted ready was pulverised and stored as powder, in birch bark or, better, leather.

Pound to shreds, or rub small roots to powder in the left palm with the heel of the right hand or the fingers. Some used a small round stone with a shallow hollow, rubbing with the thumb. Roots to be used together were pounded together before storing.

From Frances Densmore, *Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians*, **44th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology** (1928), pp. 324-328 and Plate 43 (checked on the archive.org scan usesofplantsbych00dens). Her informants included Mrs. Brunett, Mrs. Gagewin and Mrs. Louisa Martin; remedies belonged to the Midewiwin and were shared so a record might be kept. Drying method, gloves and labels are ours. Not medical advice.