Although a juggler or witch doctor had the power to cast these spells
or charms, he was also supposed to have the power to dispel them and
cure them. John Whitefeather called attention to the frequent wry mouth
or twisted side of an Indian’s face, and said that it had been caused
by some witch doctor, but that it could be corrected by the victim, if
he would pay the medicine man more to heal it than the one had paid for
bringing on the affliction in the first instance. Many of their people
think this unjust and the medicine man who does it may have to leave
the village and flee for his life. This actually happened in the case
of Anawabi and the boy who died of pneumonia, the parents claiming that
Anawabi took his breath away. Of course, Anawabi was not within miles
of the boy and assured the writer that he had nothing at all to do with
that case, nor had even thought about it, but he made a hurried trip to
Oklahoma and remained a couple of years until the anger of the parents
had lessened.
Some plants had been used in various tanning processes a very long time
ago by the Ojibwe, but none know anything about it now, so far as the
writer could discover.
APOCYNACEAE (DOGBANE FAMILY)
=Spreading Dogbane= (_Apocynum androsaemifolium_ L.),
“magoˈsiñeˈcnakwûk” [needle like].[147] The Pillager Ojibwe say that
this is one of the roots the use of which is taught in the fourth
degree of the medicine lodge, and that it is not only eaten during the
medicine lodge ceremony, but is also chewed to keep the other witch
doctors from affecting one with an evil charm.
ARACEAE (ARUM FAMILY)
=Sweet Flag= (_Acorus calamus_ L.), “naˈbûgûck” [something flat]. The
root tea of this is used by Big George, Flambeau Ojibwe, on his gill
net to bring him a fine catch of white fish. The net still smelled of
the Calamus root after being in the water more than twelve hours, and
he caught 121 white fish in one pull of the net in Flambeau Lake. It is
combined with the root of Sarsaparilla.
ARALIACEAE (GINSENG FAMILY)
=Wild Sarsaparilla= (_Aralia nudicaulis_ L.), “bebamabiˈk” [root runs
far through the ground]. This root is mixed with Sweet Flag root to
make a tea to soak a gill net before setting it to catch fish during
the night. Big George Skye, at Lac du Flambeau, was quite successful in
catching them.
ASCLEPIADACEAE (MILKWEED FAMILY)
=Common Milkweed= (_Asclepias syriaca_ L.), “înîniˈwûnj” [Indian
plant].[148] The Pillager Ojibwe use the milk of the Common Milkweed
along with the milk of Canada Hawkweed to put on a deer call, thinking
that it will better imitate the call of a fawn that is hungry or in
distress.
COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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