sumac

"m'kumishaxkwi "bears bush" - sumac, two kinds, with berries" 

"smaller species [of sumac], common in prairies, kitci'ngwamindji, i.e. looking down - the berries hang down when ripe".

"For women confined in childbed who are not entirely delivered, they use the leaf of the sumac, with the root of an herb very common in the woods, and which has on its leaves a kind of ball. They call this herb by the generic name of pallagangy, which is to say Ochre. They take an equal quantity of this sumac leaf, and the root of this herb, they crush the one and the other separately, and after each is in powder, they mix them together, then they put them in a small boiling-pot on a few wood embers, they add to it two times as much of sumac berries, and they make the confined woman drink the warm water in which the whole is dissolved until she is entirely cured. That is to say, in the space of two or three days, each day replacing in the boiling-pot a similar dose, and giving it to the sick one to drink a little before she eats at noon, at four o'clock, and in the evening before retiring. The blood comes after the second or third taking, sometimes clotted and large as a fist, sometimes putrid and other times drop by drop. Those who have been wounded in the chest, head, arms, and who lose much blood from the mouth take the same remedy with the same ingredients, and are cured in a short time. Those with dropsy find themselves to be very well, they make them swallow the said drug with a little warm water in a spoon. The others above do not eat the medicine, they drink the water in which is soaked, but they give all together to those with dropsy. Those who have decayed gums, be it from the falling sickness be it from scurvy or other, are cured by pressing for a long time this medicine on their gums, without adding the sumac berries. . . .Moreover, those who are burned are frozen or who are attacked by venereal disease use the same drug applying it to the diseased part, without adding the sumac berries" ("Pour femmes accouchees et qui ne sont pas Entierement deliveree, on se fait de la feuille de Vinaigrier, avec la racine d'une herbe fort commune dans les Bois, et qui a sur les feuilles une especes de Boure, on appelle cette herbe de nom generique de Pallagangy, qui veut dire Ocre, on met une egale quantite cela feuille de vinaigrier, et de la racine de cette herbe on pile l'une et l'autre separament, et apres qu'elle est en poussier on les mesle ensemble, ensuite on les met dans un petite chaudiere sur un peu de braize, on y adjoute deux fois autant de graine de vinaigrier, et on fait boire l'eau chaude dans la quelle ce tout a detrempe a la femme accouchee jusqu'a entiere guerison, c'est a dire l'espace de deux ou trois jours chaquerjour remettre dans la chaudiere une semblable dose, et en donnant a boire a la malade un peu avant qu'elle mange, sur le midy, sur le quatre heures et le soir avant se coucher, le sang soit apres la 2 ou 3 pise, quelquefois Caille et gros comme le poing, quelquefois pourry et l'autre fois goute a goute Ceux qui ont ete blessez a la poiture, teste, bras, et qui jettere beaucoup de sang par la bouche prendrons le mesme Remede avec le mesmes ingrediens, guerissont en peu de temps Les hydropiques s'en trouvent tres bien on leur fait avaler ca ditte drogue avec un peu d'eau chaud dans une Cuilliere. Les autres y dessus ne mangent pas la medicine, ils ne boivent que l'eau qui y a detrampe, mais on donne tout ensemble au hyropiques. Ceaux qui ont les Gencives gastees, soit du mal de Terre soit du scorbu ou autre, guerissent en serrant longtems cette medicine sur leurs Gencives la, sans y ajouter la graine de vinaigrier. . . . De plus ceux qui se sont bruslez or gelez ou qui sont attaques du mal venerien, se servent de la meme drogue l'apliquant sur la partie malade, sans y adjoutes la graine du Vinagrier").

Some sumacs used to treat stomach ailments. "For the stomach runs, some sumac" ("Pour le cours de ventre du Vinagrier").

"To dye red, there is on the prairie of the Tamarcoua [Tamarora] a plant that they name red Micousiouaki, they take the root, they dry it, then then pulverize it in the mortar and then boil it with three times as many sumac berries, the red is very beautiful" ("Pour teintre en Rouge, il y a a dans la prairie des Tamarcoua une herbe qu'on nomme Micousiouaki Rouge, on prend la racine on la fait secher, puis on la pulverise dans le mortier et ensuite en la fais bouiller avec 3 fois autant de graine de Vinaigrier, le Rouge est fort beau").   

Sumac berries are boiled to make tea.

A bow handle is made from a sumac stem 3" or more diameter.

The stem of this plant great than an inch in diameter is used to make a pipestem: cut thick stem and hollow out with coat hanger or fire, stem used for pipe and pipestone for head. Pipe is decorated with beads. Ken recently made a Myaamia War Pipe with an elbow-shaped head, using a picture from a book for the head design.

Berries are used to make tea. "Inflorescences removed before rain and steeped in boiling water until it turns red. Don't drink if the water turns green. Used for drinking when you have a cold".

Both Rhus glabra and R. copallinum are smaller shrubs, sometimes tree-like (R. typhina taller), and both are listed in addition to R. glabra in Small (1903), Coulter (1899), Steyermark (1963) and Gleason and Cronquist (1991). Bogue (1900) does not list R. typhina (R. hirta), but does list R. coppalina and R. glabra, suggesting that Dunn may have been describing R. glabra, and not R. typhina as the tree sumac and R. copallina as the short, shrub form. However, more information would be needed to substantiate this.

"of the sumac there are two principal species in the Indian Territory, northeastern section, 1) the sumac bush or tchitchingwamizhi, it grows thick near the ground and has more tops than the sumach shrub or tree".

Human charred remains of Rhus sp. were recovered from an early Myaamia Village site at the forks of the Wabash River (Ft. Wayne), 1795-1812 (Ehler site).

The two shorter species of Rhus in Myaamia lands are R. glabra, which occurs in uplands, oldfields and forest edges, and R. copallinum whuch occurs in open, dry places. Both are found throughout eastern and western Myaamia lands.

The dried ripe fruit acts as an astringent, a diuretic and refrigerant, used as a wash in various skin and mucous membrane disorders.

Sumac berries were used by Anishinaabe to make a lemonade flavored drink. Soak berries in cool water for 30 minutes to 2 days, strain, add maple syrup and drink. For a hot beverage, after soaking remove berries and heat the steeped water separately--heating sumac berries can release tannins and make the drink bitter. Sumac berries can also be ground and used as a spice in meats and vegetable dishes. For more sumac recipes, see: Mino Wiisinidaa! (Let' Eat Good!), Traditional Food for Healthy Living cookbook (2014).

"The Potawatomie Indians used sumac juice for this purpose [cure for mouth sores] . . . "

Archaeological studies in central and south-central Indians revealed that sumac was utilized by indigenous peoples sometime during the period of A.D. 1000 to A.D. 1450.