Native American Herbal Remedies

Insect Repellents and Insecticides

Goldenseal. The Cherokee pounded the large rootstock with bear fat and smeared it on their bodies as an insect repellent. It was also used as a tonic, stimulant, and astringent.

Rheumatism

Pokeweed. Indians of Virginia drank a tea of the boiled berries to cure rheumatism. The dried root was also used to allay inflammation.

Bloodroot. A favorite rheumatism remedy among the Indians of the Mississippi region - the Rappahannocks of Virginia drank a tea of the root.

Sedatives

Wild Black Cherry. The Meskwaki tribe made a sedative tea of the root bark. Hops. The Mohegans prepared a sedative medicine from the conelike strobiles and sometimes heated the blossoms and applied them for toothache. The Dakota tribe used a tea of the steeped strobiles to relieve pains of the digestive organs, and the Menominee tribe regarded a related species of hops as a panacea.

Wild Lettuce. Indigenous to North American, it was used for sedative purposes, especially in nervous complaints.

Thrush

Geranium. The Cherokee boiled geranium root together with wild grape, and with the liquid, rinsed the mouths of children affected with thrush.

Persimmon. The Catawba stripped the bark from the tree and boiled it in water, using the resulting dark liquid as a mouth rinse.

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