Occasionally we need to be reminded that before pharmacies, cultures had to rely on native plants and animals as sources of medicine. I was reminded recently when I was going through some papers and came across a copy of a manuscript titled “Lakota Medicinal and Culturally Important Plants,” authored by Wilbur Flying By, Sr. and Linda Different Cloud Jones, copyrighted by Sitting Bull College in 2003. The manuscript contains the scientific name, common name, Lakota name, and use of the plants.
Some of the plants were eaten such as prairie turnip, or used in ceremonial purposes (e.g., Sweetgrass). But over 100 species listed were used medicinally. As you might expect they were administered in a variety of ways including poultices, teas, salves, etc. or simply chewed.
The Lakota had a broad working knowledge of medicinally important plants. For example, a tea was made from the bark of peachleaf willow (Salix amygdaloides) to treat headache. We now know that acetylsalicylic acid, the active ingredient in aspirin, naturally occurs in the bark of willows.
I suspect that most North Dakotans are familiar with purple coneflower or black samson (Echinacea angustifolia). It is a common wildflower on the prairies of the Great Plains, and is increasingly being used as an ornamental. The Lakota had several uses of this plant, including chewing the root to treat toothache. I have chewed the root, and although it isn’t like a shot of Novocain, it definitely has a numbing effect.
Around a fourth of all drug prescriptions in the United States contain plant materials as the principle active ingredient. Plants used medicinally by the Lakota and other Native American tribes may represent an untapped or underutilized resource for the development of new medicines. Perhaps it is in our best interest to more closely and scientifically investigate how these plant medicines were prepared and administered, their efficacy, and the chemistry involved.
For further reading, you might want to check out the book Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region by Melvin Gilmore (1914) which is available in paperback.
