Meacham's CJ in Oregon 1870

[Aron Faegre]

Mike Cleven wrote:

> Aron Faegre wrote:
> >
> > OK Mike,
> >
> > Quit making fun of me.  But I'll give it a try.  Please forward BC recipe for
>  kinnikinick and directions for use! Wasn't making fun of you; it's just
> kinnikinick's a fairly common thing upcountry, and more people used to smoke it
> in the old days.  I'm trying to find my "Food Plants" book which might have some
> recipes or mixes. MC

Don't worry Mike, I'm just messing with you.  I did get some more detailed info
from Piegeena (thanks to your web site I could also translate his name) who is on
the List.  He said:

"Klahowya  -- here uva ursi is dried and mixed with red willow inner bark,small
amount of dried mullien and nicotania.  The red willow (red osier dogwood)
will cause a mild euphoria.  The term "kinnikinick" is generally used to
describe similar smoking mixtures."

I didn't know what mullien was, so Piege explained:

"Mullien is a plant that grows on the valley floor up to about 5,000' elev.it has a
long center stalk, up to about 4' closely covered with small yellow flowers when in
bloom. The leaves are rather large and fuzzy with a pale green color. I believe its
use in kinnikinick is to mellow out the harshness of the other ingrediants,
although some use it alone for asthma and other lung ailments. The leaves can also
be used like a poultice/bandaid combo for bleeding and I have heard that they make
good wicks when dipped in tallow."

And while at it I'll add my notes from last weekend's perusal on the subject of
kinnikinnik:

The Natick Dictionary (BAE Bulletin 25) p36:  "kinukkinum ... he mixes ...
kinnikinnic and killikinnic of western tribes, - tobacco mixed with the bark of the
red osier (Cornum sericea) or leaves of bear-berry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) ..."

Baraga, Ojibway Dictionary p189:  "kiniginan ... I mix some obj. with another
object, (dry objects;) ..."

Beardy, Ojibwe Severn Dialect: p230:  "kinika ... mix"

Gunther's Ethnobotany of Western Washington discusses mixing arctostaphylos leaves,
yew needles, salal leaves, and red-osier dogwood bark as common smoking materials
(pp16, 42, 43, 44).

Thompson Ethnobotany p212 discusses drying and roasting arctostaphylos leaves and
using alone, or mixed with tobacco (originally Nicotiana attenuata, later N.
tabacum "Whiteman's tobacco" ... for smoking in a pipe ... too much kinnikinnick
smoking was said to make one dizzy.

Now, with all this knowledge it's too bad I don't enjoy smoking.  But it is very
interesting that kinnikinnik refers really to the *mixing* of things, rather than
to a specific *thing*.

Aron