Echinacea

Of all the medicinal plants traditionally used in North America, perhaps none is so widely adopted today than Echinacea. Ethnobotanist Melvin Gilmore says that “Echinacea seems to have been used as a remedy for more ailments than any other plant.”^[1]Melvin R. Gilmore, “Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region,” reprinted from the 33rd Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington, D.C.: Government … Continue reading Today, echinacea is mainly used to boost immunity. In 1804, the medicine made from what is commonly called the prairie coneflower, Echinacea angustifolia, DC. had entirely different uses.

At Fort Mandan on 16 December 1804, Hugh Heney of the Northwest Company presented the plant to the captains, and William Clark recorded that it was used “for the Cure of a Mad Dog” known today as rabies.^[2]William Clark, The Definitive Journals of Lewis & Clark, Gary Moulton, ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002), 3:258. Later that winter, Heney sent another specimen and Clark added this to the ethnographic record:

two men of the N W Compy arrve with letters and Sacka comah also a Root and top of a plant presented by Mr. Haney, for the Cure of mad Dogs Snakes &c, and to be found & used as follows vz: “this root is found on high lands and asent of hills, the way of useing it is to Scarify the part when bitten to chu or pound an inch or more if the root is Small, and applying it to the bitten part renewing it twice a Day. the bitten person is not to chaw nor Swallow any of the Root for it might have contrary effect.”^[3]28 February 1805, Journals, 3:304.

Lewis’s Specimen

Sometime during the Fort Mandan winter, Meriwether Lewis added the plant to his collection. That specimen is lost, but from Lewis’s Fort Mandan collection inventory, we know that Arikara chief Too Né told Lewis about the plant’s uses:

No. (101.) the root wen pounded in either green or dryed state makes an excellent poltice for swellings or soar throat.— information of the same chief.^[4]Journals, Fort Mandan Miscellany, 3:460.

Lewis also took the time to write a letter to President Thomas Jefferson describing the echinacea specimen material and its uses. The letter appears to have never been received by Jefferson, but Lewis also copied it into the Donation Book sometime after the expedition:

Fort Mandan March 5. 1805

This specimen of a plant common to the praries in this quarter was presented to me by Mr. Hugh heney, a gentleman of respectability and information who has resided many years among the natives of this country, from whom he obtained the knowledge of it’s virtues. Mr. Heney informed me that he had used the root of this plant frequently with the most happy effect in cases of the bite of the mad wolf or dog and also for the bite of the rattle snake [rattlesnake] he assured me that he had made a great number of experiments on various subjects of men horses and dogs particularly in the case of madness, where the symptoms were in some instances far advanced and had never witnessed it’s failing to produce the desired effect. the method of using it is by external application, to half an ounce of the root finely pulverized, add as much water as is necessary to reduce it to the consistency of a common poltice and apply it to the bitten part, renewing the dressing once in twelve hours. in cases of the bite of the mad dog where the wound has healed before the symptoms of madness appear, the bitten part must be lacerated or scarefyed before the application is made—the application had always better be made as early as possible after the injury has been sustained.—

I have sent herewith a few pounds of this root, in order that experiments may be made by some skilfull person under the direction of the pilosophical society [American Philosophical Society] of Philadelphia.—

I have the honor to be with much rispect Your Obt. Servt.

Meriwether Lewis^[5]“Description of a Plant by Meriwether Lewis, 5 March 1805,” Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-45-02-0652. [Original source: The Papers of … Continue reading

Historic Uses

Justified by the ethnobotanical record, the captains went to unusual lengths to preserve and document echinacea. Most—if not all—the Tribal Nations encountered along the Missouri River by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, from the Pawnees to the Blackfeet used the plant to treat snakebites in the manner described by the two captains.^[6]Gilmore (1919), 131.

Called icahpe he by the Lakota Sioux, Mika-hi by the Omahas and Poncas, and ksapitahako by the Pawnees, the plant’s analgesic properties helped with toothaches. Blackfeet, Lakota, and others chewed the roots to cause numbness.^[7]Alex Johnston, “Plants and the Blackfoot” (Provincial Museum of Alberta: Natural History Occasional Paper No. 4, 1982), 86, University of Calgary Library, … Continue reading Others ingested root juice or rubbed an infusion of powdered leaves and roots to the affected tooth.^[8]Shelly Katherene Kraft, “Recent Changes in the Ethnobotany of Standing Rock Indian Reservation”, M.A. Thesis (University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, University of North Dakota … Continue reading

Echinacea was used in the treatment of sore eyes and septic diseases by the Omaha,^[9]Melvin R. Gilmore, “A Study in the Ethnobotany of the Omaha Indians,” Nebraska State Historical Society Collections, 17 (1909): 333, 335. sore necks and backs by the Cheyenne,^[10]Grinnell, 188. and for burns by the Yankton Sioux and Ponca.^[11]Gilmore (1919), 131. The Lakota Sioux were known to use echinacea to relieve bowel pain.^[12]Frances H. Densmore, “Teton Sioux Music,” Smithsonian Institution—Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 61 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1918), 270, … Continue reading

Oddly, the ethnobotanical record does not support echinacea to prevent colds or to boost the autoimmune system, the plant’s primary use in today’s global multi-million-dollar echinacea market. Most present-day echinacea-based herbal medicines come from commercially grown cultivars of E. purpea. Nevertheless, continued high demand has resulted in heavy loss of wild echinacea stands.^[13]Gregory L. Tilford, Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West (Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Company, 1997), 52; Donald A. Schiemann, Wildflowers of Montana (Missoula, Montana: Mountain … Continue reading