prairie Junegrass
Koeleria yukonensis Hultén
Medicinal Documentation
Plant used for cuts. Koeleria macrantha was used for healing cuts when mixed with red clay, Psoralea agrophylla, and an unknown yellow plant from Oklahoma.
Plant tied to Sun Dancers head to prevent him from getting tired
Ceremonial & Cultural Notes
Plant used in the Sun Dance ceremony. Junegrass is brought into the Medicine Lodge with the paint Additional commentary: Traditionally, when junegrass and milkweed first bloom indicates when the Sun Dan ceremony will start. Its most important use, according to Hart, is in the Sun Dance. Roughly half of Hart’s Northern Cheyenne consultants discussed this sacred plant’s ceremonial use as follows: “the flowering culms were gathered when relatively short, about six to eight inches in height. Sun Dance instructors wetted the flower heads with their mouths and then blew upon the shoulders and feet of the dancers to give them further supernatural strength.” Each dancer would also keep a flower at the back of his head to keep from getting tired while engaged in the ceremony. The plant would also be used as a brush to paint the dancers.399 Moerman identifies this plant as Koeleria macrantha and indicates the same uses.400
Plants used as paint brushes to paint ceremonial participants.
Botanical Reference
Parts Documented: fiber, plant
Distribution: Dry, well-drained soil, open sites; plains to sub-alpine; Alberta, Canada to New Mexico