The "doctors" of the Native American Chippewas used material remedies and were usually members of the organization known as the Midewiwin, the remedies were the secrets of the organization. It is a teaching of the Midewiwin that every tree, bush, and plant has a use. It is freqently found that different individuals have different names and uses for the same plant. Members of the Midewiwin (sometimes shortened to Mide) were not taught many remedies at once, except at the time of their initiation. At that time, the instruction comprised "ground work in the practice of medicine," consisting of the identification and use of a number of plants. This type of instruction accompanied each advancement from one degree to another, being more extensive as they approached the higher degrees. Otherwise, one or two remedies were learned at a time, going to an old man and buying the knowledge. A medicine man usually treated one special disease and treated it successfully, in accordance with his dream. He would not try to dream of all the herbs and treat all the diseases.

A story of an aged medicine man, a member of the Mide. He came to a lodge on a winter night, cold and tired. Stating that he had a medicine that would warm him, he took an herb from his Mide bag, where he stored his year's supply of medicines. He put a little of the herbs in water and drank it. A few minutes later he announced, "I have taken the wrong medicine; I shall die." A few hours later he was dead.

The quantity of a decoction or the size of the dose varied, without any degree of accuracy usually. Liquid medicine is not measured when taken; a large swallow is considered an average dose. Or occasionally, a cupful is given.

#1

The Chippewa Native Americans usually did not drink water encountered in traveling, but boiled it, using some of the following herbs as a beverage. If fresh leaves were used, they were tied in a packet using a strip of basswood bark before placing in the water. Dried leaves carried with them could be used if fresh leaves were not available. Twigs were tied into a bundle by a strip of bark long enough to permit the lifting of the bundle and dropping into hot water without burning the hand.

The quantity used was usually a handful of leaves, or small bundle of twigs, to a quart of water, often sweetened with maple sugar and taken hot. The herbs usually used for a beverage were:

• Labrador tea leaves (Ledum groenlandicum oeder)
• Creeping snowberry leaves (Chiogenes hispidula L.)
• Wintergreen leaves (Gaultheria procumbens L.)
• Hemlock leaves (Tsuga canadensis L.)
• Spruce leaves (Picea rubra)
• Red raspberry twigs (Rubus strigosus)
• Chokecherry twigs (Prunus virginiana L.)
• Wild cherry twigs (Prunus serotina)

#2

CONVULSIONS: A decoction was made from the Wild Pea (Lathyrus venosus) and taken internally, a large swallow was a dose.

#3

CONVULSIONS: One of the following herbs was used to relieve the convulsions.

• Hepatica root (Hepatica americana)
• Goldenrod (Solidago juncea)
• Prairie sage (Artemisia frigida)
• Ground plum (Astragalus crassicarpus)
• Wild rose (Rosa arkansana)

#4

HEADACHE: Dogbane (Apocynum androsaemifolium L.) root was dried and pulverized. This herb was used for a headache and for a serious affection of the nerves, the headache being a symptom. May also be accompanied by outh twitches, dizziness, and in the case of insanity another herb was added. There were 5 ways of administering this herb.

1. 4 pieces of the dried root about the size of a pea were pulverized and the dry powder was snuffed up the nose.
2. The powdered root was put on hot stones. The patient's head was covered and the fumes inhaled.
3. The powdered root was moistened with lukewarm water and applied to incisions on the temples by eans of soft duck down.
4. Dried, chewed.
5. A decoction make and taken internally

#5

HEADACHE: Yarrow leaves (Achillea millefolium L.) was made into a decoction, sprinkled on hot stones and the fumes inhaled.

Bearberry leaves (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi L.) were dried and pulverized, combined with tobacco or red willow, smoked in a pipe, and the smoke inhaled.

Solomon's seal (Polygonatum commutatum) root was made into a decoction, sprinkled on hot stones and the fumes inhaled.

Pasque flower leaves (Pulsatilla hirsutissima) was dried and pulverized and "smelled."

#6

CONVULSIONS: Hickory (Hicoria alba) small shoots were harvested fresh and placed on hot stones and the fumes inhaled. The shoots were the very small shoots that grow beside the leaves.

Northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.) wood was burned and the charcoal used. Combined with bear's gall, pricked into the temples with needles.

Hazelnut stalks (Corylus americana) was burned and the charcoal used. Combined with bear's gall, pricked into the temples with needles.

Balsam fir gum (Abies balsamea L.) was placed on warm stone until it melted, the fumes inhaled.

Blueberry flowers (Vaccinium angustifolium) were dried and placed on hot stones and the fumes inhaled.

#7

HEART, CIRCULATORY SYSTEM: Prairie clover leaves and flowers (Petalostemon purpureus) were made into a decoction; a handful of leaves and flowers in 1-1/2 pints of water. The dose was 1/2 cup, repeated in 1/2 hour if necessary.

Bur oak inner bark (Quercus macracarpa) was scraped and dried; equal parts

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