Re: Look What I Found (GYPSY KNOWS)
The leaves and the red fruit are eaten by ring-necked pheasants and wild turkey. The Pawnee and Hopi used dried, powdered roots, taken in water, as a contraceptive, inducing permanent sterility by increasing the dose and water temperature. A Mohawk antifertility concoction was prepared by boiling a fistful of dried, pulverized milkweed and three jack-in-the-pulpit rhizomes in a pint of water for 20 minutes. The infusion was drunk, a cupful an hour, to induce temporary sterility. Algonquin mixed the root with wild cherry and snake root for cough and fever. Delaware used the root as a purgative for bowel complaints. Cherokee applied the raw root to the head or temples for headache. They also used the plant for boils, colds, consumption, cough, ringworm, scald, scrofula, sore throat and tetterworm. Malecite used the plant for abscesses and boils. Micmac used the root bulb for stomach ails and tuberculosis. Pawnee sprinkled powdered root onto the affected area. Mohegan and Penobscot boiled the root as a liniment for sore joints and muscles. Chippewa, Menominee, Ojibwa and Iroquois used the plant for sore eyes. Mohegan gargled a dilute root tea for sore throat. Choctaw drank such tea for blood tonic. Fox used the root for snakebite swelling, Mohegan for pain, Rappahannonck for boils and swellings, Osage and Shawnee for cough and malarial.
For a number of native American groups, Jack-in-the-pulpit was considered to be a particularly powerful and magical plant. The Fox used it in a divination rite to predict the course of illness. One of the berries was stripped o its pulp, exposing the seed which was dropped in a cup of swirling water. If the seed floated around the surface four times, the patient would recover. If it sank, the patient would die.
Among the Menominee, one indication that someone had been subjected to witchcraft was that his mouth would appear crooked, pulled to one side. When this occurred, the dried root of Jack-in-te-pulpit was finely pulverized with the root of the closely related sweetflag; the powder was inserted into a tiny incision made in the lip to counteract the witchery and straighten the mouth.
The Iroquois considered the plant to be so powerful that it could not be kept in the house near other medicines; to do so would contaminate and spoil them.If one were to collect some too early in the spring, before it was ready to be picked, it could cause you to go blind. .................Herb Net Magazine
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