Entry Detail

pawpaw tree

Entry Type:

Species

Scientific Name:

Common Name:

pawpaw tree

Myaamia Name:

ahsiimišaahkwi

Harvest Seasons:

Fall

Habitats:

Dry Prairie grasslands, Wet Prairie grasslands with flooding, Deciduous Swamp no coniferous domts., Human-Disturbed Areas

Media ▼

Media(Image/Video)	Description

Myaamia Archival Sources ▼

Reference Source	Reference Type	Archival Data	Comments
Gatschet, A.S. ca. 1895	Use - Food	In the traditional story of Young Thunder, William Pekongah, he describes the crops he had growing on his land 160 acres of reserve in central Indiana. "There I planted corn, wheat, potatoes, peas, tobacco, beans, apple trees, pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers, onions, hay, straw, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, turnips, tomatoes, pawpaws, cherries, strawberries, plums, blackhaws, peaches, walnut trees, pecans, hickory nuts, barley and rye".
Dunn, J.P. ca. 1900	Use - Food	"missiminjakwi, pawpaw trees, eat pawpaws"
Pease, T. C. and R. C. Werner 1934	Use - Food	"There were other trees as thick as one's leg, which bend under a yellowish fruit of the shape and size of a medium-sized cucumber, which the savages call assemina. . . They have five or six nuclei inside which are as big as marsh beans, and of about the same shape. I ate, one day, sixty of them, big and little. This fruit does not ripen till October, like the medlars" ("il y en avoit encore d'autres gros comme la jambe qui ployoient d'un fruit jaunastre de la figure et grosseur d'un moyen concombre que les sauvages appellent assemina, . . . Ils ont 5 ou 6 noyaux dedans qui sont gros comme de fevves de marais, et a peu pres faits de meme, j'en ay mange unjour soixante tant gros que petits, il n'est mure qu'au mois d'ocotobre, aussi bien que les neifles").
Rafert, S. 1996	Use - Food	Pawpaws were used as a snack food when in the woods.
Gatschet, A.S. ca. 1895	Use - Food	"nasimini patek, the paw-paw fruit has fried, or dries up"
Gatschet, A.S. ca. 1895	Use - Food	"nuxsiminaxkwi, the pawpaw tree and its fruit . . . the fruit is pulpy and higly prized on account of its sweet nutritious quality, shape oblong and up to four inches in length or over".
Gatschet, A.S. ca. 1895	Use - Food	"noohsiimi$aahkwi", "noohsiiminaahkwi", and "nuximinaxkwaki" for the pawpaw fruit
Gatschet, A.S. ca. 1895	Use - Food	"missi=mishaxkwi, pawpaw tree"
Rafert, S. 1989	Use - Food	"Pawpaws they ate. That was considered a fruit and I still eat them. And by the way, there are going to be some this year. We're going to have a good pawpaw season. . . I eat them when they are dead ripe. And I can go through the woods, and smell it’s the time to hunt pawpaws. I just beat the 'coons and 'possums by a little bit. I introduced all my nephews and my grandsons to eating pawpaws. And the way to introduce 'em to it is to get them good and hungry out in the woods, and then as a last resort they'll eat one of 'em".
Gonella, M.P 2003-2006	Use - Food	The fruits of pawpaw are gathered and eaten.
Dunn, J.P. ca. 1900	Use - Food	[The Myaamia] eat paw paws.

Botanical Sources ▼

Reference Source	Reference Type	Data	Comments
Gleason, H.A. and Cronquist, A. 1991	Habitat	Occurs in rich, damp woods in eastern and western Myaamia lands.

Related Sources ▼

Reference Source	Reference Type	Data	Comments
Rafert, S. 1989		Dunn gives the Myaamia term "ha?siimi" for pawpaw.
Gonella, M.P 2003-2006		There is an area in the heart of eastern Myaamia lands called pawpaw alley, east of Peru along Highway 19.
Anonymous 1837		pawpaw mentioned
Dunn, J.P. ca. 1900		"mihsimini lakiihkwi", pawpaw bark
Dunn, J.P. ca. 1900		Paw paws were mentioned by Euclistia Mongosa
Whitford, A. C. 1941		Fibers from stems used in numerous historic objects, including coarse bags, fabrics and split bark bags of Ohio cave and rock-shelter dwellers, a bag from the Menomini where the pawpaw fiber is used only in the weft, a Potawatomi bag. Its use seems only limited by its distribution.
Clark, J.E 1993		The Shawnee collected this plant.