Appalachian History

My mother was a great sassafras drinker. And every spring we had to have sassafras along with our poke salad (that was a wild green). The mountain people particularly gathered a lot of wild greens to supplement their diet, because most people back in those days lived mostly on cornbread and peas. My mother used to enjoy going into the mountains and picking the wild greens. They have a thing called (and I like it today—they cultivate it, by the way, in Tennessee and Virginia) highland creeces. Oldtimers called them creecy-greens.

Eula McGill
born Resaca, GA 1911
February 3, 1976 interview
Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007)
Interview G-0040-1.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/G-0040-1/G-0040-1.html

To some Appalachian farmers, it was simply an aggressive weed tree cluttering old fields. Others believed its wood could prevent chicken lice, and so used it to build chicken houses and chicken roosts. But sassafras’ most famous attribute has always been the healing properties of the springtime tea –a spring tonic- made from its roots.

The Cherokee people utilized sassafras tea to purify blood and for a variety of ailments, including skin diseases, rheumatism, and ague (the tree is sometimes called an ‘Ague Tree’). "The country people of Carolina crop these vines (Bigonia Crucigera) to pieces," said William Bartram in Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians food traditions, "together with china brier and sassafras roots, and boil them in their beer in the spring, for diet drink, in order to attenuate and purify the blood and juices." The Cherokee would also make a poultice to cleanse wounds and sores, while they’d steep the root bark to treatment diarrhea or for 'over-fatness.'

They emphasized that the tea should never be taken for more than a week at a time. They didn’t know about safrole, though they knew its long term effects. The bark of sassafras roots contains volatile oils, 80% of which is safrole. Commercially produced sassafras was pulled from the American market in the early 1960s after experiments showed that safrole caused liver cancer in rats and mice.

Early white mountain settlers, perhaps influenced by the vine/brier/sassafras concoction described above, made a beer by boiling young sassafras shoots in water, adding molasses and allowing the mash to ferment.

The varied leaf shapes are the Mitten Tree’s trademark—in fact, its Latin name was once Sassafras Varifolium. Today Sassafras Albidum ranges widely over the eastern United States (only two other species of sassafras exist elsewhere in the world: one in central mainland China, one in Taiwan).

‘White sassafras' grows along roadways in thick clusters, usually from three to six feet tall. It has roughly the same characteristics as ‘red sassafras,’ however the bark does not turn pink to red when the root is damaged.

The red variety is the species that is most prized. Generally found on hills and ridges, it sometimes grows in mountainous areas to a height of thirty or more feet. The American Forestry Association's National Register of Big Trees lists a 77-foot champion in Owensboro, KY.

According to H.L. Mencken's The American Language (1936), the word sassafras traces back to 1577 and is of Spanish origin, probably deriving from the Spanish term for saxifrage.

Native Americans in Virginia pointed out 'wynauk' to British settlers, and in 1603, a company was formed in Bristol, England to send two vessels to the New World, principally with the intention of bringing back cargoes of sassafras bark. Thus, sassafras was one of the first, if not the first, forest products to be exported from what is now the mid-Atlantic states.


sources: Observations on the Creek and Cherokee Indians food traditions, by William Bartram, 1789, From "Transaction of the American Ethnological Society," Vol. 3 Pt. 1. Extracts
everettarea.org/tales/v01/v01c30.htm
foodreference.com/html/artsassafras.html
inpaws.org/Marion%20Jackson%20Trees/Sassafras_albidum.pdf
The singular sassafras, by Henry Clepper, from "American Forests," American Forestry Assn 1989
http://ohiodnr.gov/Portals/18/publications/pdf/wild%20edible%20plants.pdf


sassafras spring+tonics Cherokee+herbs safrole mitten+tree wynauk appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

If butterflies are about this week, you can be sure you will find them on the heads of sweet Joe-Pye-weed (Eupatorium purpureum). This perennial herb, found in moist woods and fields throughout Appalachia, is at its height of bloom right now through September. Atop each stem is a rose pink to whitish domed cluster of flowers, about 1 foot in diameter. Gardeners delight in this towering, showy plant, as another common name for it, ‘Queen of the Meadow’, clearly suggests.

However, the plant’s name is the first clue that we’re dealing with far more than just another pretty flower. It’s named after a New England American Indian named Joe Pye, who was said to have cured typhus with it. Tea made from the dried root and flowers can still be used to induce sweating and break a high fever.

The entire plant, in fact, is used in native medicine, with the roots being the strongest part. Crushed leaves have an apple scent and can be dried, then burned to repel flies. Joe Pye was used by the Iroquois and Cherokees as a diuretic, who infused dried root and flowers for a tea to relieve kidney and urinary problems. They also used this tea for rheumatism, gravel (gallstones), and dropsy (fluid retention).

The Cherokee used the stems of Joe-Pye Weeds to suck water from shallow springs, which was convenient since they are often found in wet areas. They also referred to it as Blow Gun Weed, and used it in the way suggested by the name to administer throat medicine.

The Ojibwa used Joe Pye to strengthen a child. They would wash the child with a strong solution for first 6 years of its life. The Chippewa used a decoction of the root as a warm wash for inflammation of the joints, or in a child's bath to induce sleep.

Huron H. Smith, an ethnobotanist who worked with several North American tribes during the nineteen-twenties and thirties, was told that the Meskwaki used the root as a sort of "love medicine," nibbling it when speaking to an intended.

“Fresh leaves of Joe-Pye weed are used by the Potawatomi to make poultices for healing burns. Mrs. Spoon used the root under the name “maskwano'kûk” [red top] as a medicine to clear up after-birth. Among the whites, the root and the herb have both been used for medicines. The root is said to have diuretic, stimulant, astringent and tonic properties, while the plant itself is diuretic and tonic.

“The Herbalist says that the root has diuretic, astringent and tonic properties and has been used by eclectic practitioners in the treatment of chronic urinary disorders, hematuria, gout and rheumatism. The Forest Potawatomi use the flowering tops of the Joe Pye Weed as a good luck talisman. When one is going to gamble he places the tops in his pocket and then is sure to win a lot of money.”

“Ethnobotany of the Forest Potawatomi” by HH Smith

Sources: www.swsbm.com/Ethnobotany/Ethnobotany_of_Potawatomi.pdf
www.enature.com/flashcard/show_flash_card.asp?recordNumber=WF0042
http://2bnthewild.com/plants/H370.htm
http://crypt.eldritchs.com/bos/herbs/joepyeweed.html


Joe+Pye+weed Queen+of+the+Meadow Cherokee+herbs native+american+medicine appalachia appalachian+culture appalachian+history appalachia+history history+of+appalachia