Native American Herbal, Plant Knowledge

JUNIPER --TRIBAL USES

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The data tables below are "live" tables of a

different kind than PhytoChem which reports

quantities of various substances plants contain.

They report (from the AGIS Medical Native

America database, MPNADB) various tribes who

have used different species of juniper and what

they used it for. Clicking on a tree or a tribe

produces cites to reports -- often old and difficult

to locate -- not direct info about tribal uses of

juniper.

In these tables -- in the whole AGIS database -- there are no references to Curly

Mustasche, the Dinè (Navajo) healer mentioned by Katsi.To find Mathilda Coxe

Stevenson, the 19th century woman anthro who, Katsi says, attended Zuni births, at

least cites to some of her writings in the early 1900's that probably describe, perhaps in

more detail, the Zuni uses of juniper Katsi described, you have to look under a

different species of juniper, Juniperus monosperma. That's probably the Gad Katsi

discusses, but southwestern tribes made considerable usage of all the juniper species.

These tables give the documentary researcher something to get started on, cites to

literature you may or may not be able to find. But the tribal oral history researcher can

also find that a certain plant once was and maybe still is used in certain ways by her

tribe, so it gives you a bit of a start for research with elders, too.

Juniperus communis just means "the common kind of juniper-in-general" there may

be different species in different areas. Among Ojibwe, the name for cedars-in-general is

giizhik or giizhag the plural, very similar to the word for moon/sky: giishik. The

ordinary, common sort of juniper is called gagawan dagisid, "the deceptive one". This

Juniper -- Tribes who use

http://www.kstrom.net/isk/food/juniptri.html (1 of 6) [5/17/2004 11:48:05 AM]