OCR Text |
Show Goshute W E S H A L L R E M A I N : U TA H I N D I A N C U R R I C U L U M G U I D E of this plant in season furnished a standard and favorite dish. The leaves of the closely related Cy-mopterus montanus were not eaten, but the caudex and basal portions of petioles occasionally were. . . . Of the plants that furnished food to the Gosiute in the form of roots, root-stocks, tubers, and bulbs, none is popularly so well known as the beautiful Calochortus nuttallii - si'go to the Indians and hence "sego" the common name among the white residents of Utah. It is the State flower. The bulbs of this lily were formerly gathered and used for food. Not only were they eaten in season, but they were preserved in quantity for winter use by being dried and placed in pits, like those hereafter to be described, from which they were taken as needed, and were then most commonly cooked with meat in the form of stews. When the Mormons first arrived in Utah and the struggle for food was so severe with them, they leaned from the Indians the value of this article; and the digging of sego bulbs in the spring did much in many families to ward off starvation. . . . MEDICINAL PLANTS . . . . The great majority of the many medicines used by the Gosiute were products of the plant kingdom, though to a limited number of animal substances and preparations curative qualities were attributed. As above stated, some were of unquestioned service, containing active principles identi-cal and related closely in not a few cases to those of plants used or formerly used by our own practi-tioners. Often several different medicines might be used for the same ailment, or what was regarded as the same, the one selected depending on season, availability, or personal preference. In some cases medicines were combined and given as a mixture, in which case each constituent is supposed to exercise its own peculiar virtue. Medicines were classified according to use, the classification being in correspondence with the categories of disease. Thus medicines for wounds and cuts were classed as i'-a-na-tsu; for bruises and swellings, bai'-gwi-na-tsu; for burns, wai'-a-na-tsu; for coughs and colds, o'-ni-na-tsu; for bowel troubles, koi'-na-tsu; for "worms," wu'-i-na-tsu; venereal diseases, tĭm'-bai-na-tsu; for rheumatism, tso'-ni-na-tsu; for the blood, bu'i-na-tsu; for bladder and kidney troubles, si'-na-tsu; etc. . . . T H E G O S H U T E S 1 24 Ralph V. Chamberlin, The Ethno-Botany of the Gosiute Indians of Utah (Lancaster, Pa.: New Era Printing, 1911), 331-51. |