-
10. Plants Used for Toys
- University of Nebraska Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
nine Plants Used for Dye and Coloring [34.206.3.58] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 06:59 GMT) plants used for dye and coloring 197 Yellow owl’s-clover (dye) hidatsa name: i’xoka io’te (kit fox dye) local english name: kit fox dye (yellow owl’s-clover) botanical name: Orthocarpus luteus Nutt. Buffalobird-woman (vol. 20, 1916: 205) This plant grows abundantly on the prairie on this reservation. It was used in old times for dying red, though I never used it myself. In my time we had come to use whitemen’s dyes a good deal. We used to take whitemen’s cloth and cut it up into pieces to make dye for porcupine quills. Thus we made green dye for quills from green blanket cloth. My father, I remember, colored the horse hair tassels on his coat with kit fox dye. The plant itself was used, not the root. A piece of tent-skin about a foot or a foot and a half square was laid down. The plants were scattered over the skin rather thinly. Then they were lightly crushed with a stone. Over these lay porcupine quills, wetted. Over the quills again, macerated kit fox dye plants. The quills, as I have said, were wetted by dipping in cold water. The skin was now folded over flat and laid under the skin of one’s bed for a night or two when red spots appeared on the quills. Sprinkle a little more water over them, put back under bed-skin, and in a few days more the quills would have turned a bright red. family Scrophulariaceae–figworts, scrofulaires genus Orthocarpus Nutt.–orthocarpus, owl’s-clover, owlclover species Orthocarpus luteus Nutt.–yellow owl’s-clover, yellow owlclover 198 plants used for dye and coloring Water smartweed (dye) hidatsa name: Kadakadaduti local english name: pink top (water smartweed or water knotweed) botanical name: Polygonum amphibium L. This is a very common plant around sloughs and along sandy river banks. Buffalobird-woman (vol. 20, 1916: 272) This plant grows three or more feet high with joints like a reed, broad leaves, and pink blossoms. It grows in wet places. We dug out a few roots and boiled them. In the dye so made I colored porcupine quills a light yellow. My father also colored white horse hair in this dye. The white horse hair was boiled in the dye. I never tried to dye gull quills in this dye. Perhaps others did. I do not know, but I never did. However, the color was not too good, being too light. The foregoing dye, and others which I give you this summer, are all the native dyes that I know. As I have already said, when I was young, we were already coming to depend chiefly upon whitemen’s dyes for coloring quills. family Polygonaceae–knotweed family genus Polygonum L.–knotweed, smartweed species species Polygonum amphibium L.–water knotweed, water smartweed [34.206.3.58] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 06:59 GMT) plants used for dye and coloring 199 Dye plants—unidentified local english names: (none given) Buffalobird-woman (vol. 20, 1916: 346) I know of but three native yellow dyes, for in my day we had come to use whiteman’s dyes a good deal. [She provides information on only two.] Hidatsa name: Maicite A yellow dye that comes from the Rocky Mountains in Montana . It grows on dead, rotten pines. Not on this reservation. (Probably—indeed certainly—a moss. glw) [Most probably the lichen Letharia vulpina or wolf lichen, which was used by many groups of people as a source of yellow dye (Grinnel 1905, 43; Johnson 1970, 304; Moerman 2009).] Hidatsa name: Mika maiote (grass coloring) I think this grass probably grows around Independence, though I know of none myself. It was used to color gull quills. The plant grows mixed in with buckbrush in buckbrush patches. Grows about 2 feet high with a white flower. The roots of the plant were boiled, and while the liquor was still hot, the gull quills—all prepared for use—were put in for a short time. Meanwhile, the woman had taken ashes of dead elm bark—no other would do—and put the ashes in warm water. She stirred the ashes about, then let them settle, and poured the lye off into a pan or bowl or other vessel. The gull quills were dipped into the dye and held till of the color...