red baneberry

Infusion of root pieces used by women after childbirth for increased milk flow Additional commentary: The Cheyenne considered baneberry sacred. The prophet, Sweet Medicine, transferred his powers to the plant before he died. This is Sweet Medicine, named after the Cheyenne prophet who lived among them for four hundred and forty-five years. When he died, he put his power into this plant, and told the Cheyenne that it would help them raise their children. Sweet Medicine is always kept with the Sacred Arrows and the Sacred Hat and in Sun Dance bundles to access his power. Elders informed Hart that after childbirth, a mother would drink a tea made of sweet medicine, often mixed with Mertensia ciliata or bitter medicine (Oxytropis) to increase milk flow. Sweet medicine root is best harvested in late summer and would be scalded in water in which fat had been boiled thus coating the root in grease, to prevent it from losing its strength in drying. When used, the root was not powdered, but cut into small pieces and steeped in water. The tea is good for the blood and improves appetite. Furthermore Cheyenne who took Sweet Medicine are thought to grow up to be virtuous—strong, patient, thoughtful, and now, children growing up on cow’s milk are thought to be losing these qualities and be ever more like cows. Sweet Medicine can also be used for sores when mixed with the roots of Psoralea esculenta, Psoralea agrophylla, Koeleria cristata and yellow medicine. It was sometimes used in ceremonies to blind the enemy. Sweet medicine was chewed and blown in the four directions, and then toward the enemy.46 George Bird Grinnell refers to Sweet Medicine as A. arguta.47 Actaea rubra grows in moist wooded areas anywhere in the Rocky Mountains almost as high in elevation as the timberline. Also it grows in the plains of South Dakota and Alberta, and as far south and west as New Mexico and California.

Roots used in ceremonies.