CAPRIFOLIACEAE (HONEYSUCKLE FAMILY)
Bush Honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera Mill.), “osawaˈ skanet” [yellow fluid]. The Flambeau Ojibwe use the root together with other plants such as the Ground Pine, for their most valued urinary remedy. It is also known among white men as a diuretic and a remedy to relieve itching.
Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa L.), “papaskatcîksiˈganaˈtîg” [popgun wood]. According to the Pillager Ojibwe, this bark is an emetic or a purgative, depending upon how it is prepared for use. It is a last resort purgative to be used when other remedies for the same complaint are of no avail. It may be said that the Ojibwe have more plants for physic than for any other purpose, thus the Red Elder will be seen to be their most important one.
Four internodes of the stalk are taken, because four is their magic number. These sections are measured carefully from the point of the ulna to the point of the humerus. The inner bark is secured by peeling downward. This is steeped and boiled, and the resulting liquid is drunk for constipation. It is supposed to thus save the life of one threatened with serious constipation. It is reserved for extreme cases, because of the many other physics they employ, and they consider it drastic and dangerous otherwise. If these same four sticks had been peeled upwards and the resulting tea drunk, then it would have acted as a powerful emetic. The writer can testify to its strength, but notes that it works both ways at once, no matter how prepared, so that the method of preparation is doubtless superstitious.
Among the whites only the elder flowers are recognized in the New Formulary, but the inner bark has been known to produce death in children, a short time after being eaten, with symptoms similar to Poison Hemlock (Cicuta). In moderate doses, it is also known to produce vomiting and purging. The active alkaloid evidently works only in the fresh state, as it loses its potency in a dried state.
Snowberry (Symphoricarpos racemosus Michx.) “anîgomijiˈ mînagaˈwûnj” [little crow bush]. Among the Pillager Ojibwe, the root of the Snowberry is used to make a tea to clear up the afterbirth, and enable quicker convalescence. Among the Meskwaki Indians the same use is ascribed to the Wolfberry (Symphoricarpos occidentalis). There is no record of its use by white men.
Nannyberry (Viburnum lentago L.), “atîteˈ tamînûn” or “atîteˈ tamînagaˈwûnj.”[100] The Pillager Ojibwe collect the inner bark of the trunk, down low next to the ground, to yield a tea which is used as a diuretic.
Among the white men, Nannyberry is often sold as Viburnum prunifolium which is official in our pharmacopoeia. The virtues assigned to this class of medicine are as feeble as they are numerous. It has been used as a nervine, astringent, tonic, diuretic and has been said to have value as an uterine sedative and preventive of abortion.
Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum opulus L. var. americanum [Mill.] Ait.) “aˈnibîmîˈnûgaˈwûck” [anib means elm, berries, bush].[101] The Pillager Ojibwe used the inner bark as a physic, and also drank the tea to cure cramps in the stomach.