Brian Altonen, MPH, MS

[]

NOTE:  The following items reviewed are published together as Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord- Ouest, by L.R. Masson, first published from 1889-1890, and republished by Antique Press, Ltd., New York, 1960  [The Reed College library is in possession of these.]  This work is a two volume set.  The pages of Masson’s text from which these notes were taken are noted in brackets as author (trapper or trader), year, volume number, and page number (the volume and page numbers as they appeared in Masson’s two volume set).

Mackenzie’s work is important for several reasons.  First, Mackenzie is representing the English furriers’ trade, and is an excellent example of the pro-Anglican writing I am fairly critical about.  Even if we accept the fact that this is as quid pro quo for the time, the ethnocentricity of the writings are at times troublesome when a non-critical point of view is being sought out.  Mackenzie’s work and attitudes are very much akin to the writer who about this same time described his journey into Cree territory as “a Jolly old Jaunt by Canoe”.

Other culture’s do depict these attitudes,  In the mid-1700s, a French traveler John Bernard Bossu, describing Indian medicine along the lower Mississippi described their shamans practice as a lesser practice which he used his “magic” to mimic.  In the late 1600s, Early English writer and traveller Josselyn gave us descriptions of English herbs common the Gerard’s and Parkinson’s English Herbals as if they were also in the New England Colonies with similar abundance, which was not always true and a case of mistaken identity in some cases.  Father Louis Hennepin’s review of travels in the Interior it ended up was essentially a plagiarism of earlier works done by other French travellers.   A few years later, the Hudson’s Bay Fur Traders had a storekeeper who provided us with some medical history, who also was very pro-Anglican, anti-Native American.  J. K. Townsend’s travels (whom I call a “non-trapper” in my review) to the Pacific Northwest were very anti-Native American, when he compared his means for healing someone taken ill as much better than  their shaman’s method, as if the Anglican blistering and bloodletting was going to produce a better outcome.  The traditional trapper Osborne Russell (who did this as a publicity stunt in 1845 to be voted in as an Oregon Senator later on) is perhaps the most obvious example of this anglican cultural, self-absorbed ethnocentricity; he used just opium as a medicine and couldn’t even provide a name for a native American herbal medicine root he had heard about.

Books reviewed:

Recits de Voyages Lettres et Rapports Ineditis relatifs au Nord-Ouest Canadien. Volume II.

Mr. Duncan Cameron.  The Nipigon County, 1804. with extracts from his Journal.  [II, 229-265].

Mr. Duncan Cameron.  Extracts from the Journal of D. Cameron, Esq. North-West Company while in the Nipigon Department, 1804-1805. [II, 267-300]

Mr. Simon Fraser. Journal of a Voyage from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast. 1808. [I, 155-221]

Fraser provides insight into the Canadees, Metis, Voyageur, Courier and Montagnard lifestyle.  He notes much about their choice and selection of foods, both plant and animal, and of their way of choosing remedies to heal whatever illness so afflicted them.  Relatively to Indian Doctor Medicine history, these notes represent the thinking taking place by Canadees when this new thinking was still unknown by Anglicans and those loyal to the French philosophy and the attached healing faiths.

Mr. Peter Grant.  The Sauteux Indians about 1804. [II, 303-366]

Grant’s writing consists of a fair amount of information on medicine and spiritualism.  He briefly noted child-birthing (p. 322), dreams and divination (“Asiniboiness,” p. 334) and Kijai Manitou and Matchi Manitou [p. 353].

Mr. George Keith.  Letters to Mr. Roderic McKenzie. 1807-1817. [II, 61-132]

Mr. Charles Mackenzie.  The Mississouri (sic) Indians. A Narrative of Four Trading Expeditions to the Mississouri, 1804-1805-1806, for the North-West Company. [I, 315-393]

MacKenzie was an apprenticed clerk. Four Voyageurs travelled with him.

Mr. James McKenzie.  Extracts from his Journal. 1799-1800. [II, 369-399]

Most of James McKenzie’s notes are under a separate listing.  [Given as separate notes entered at end of this writing.]  His strong prejudice against the Native American healing traditions makes his writings of limited use, and leads one to to suspect he made use of pronounced exaggerations in some cases when describing these events.  McKenzie adds some interesting intercultural comparisons and slang to his strongly worded opinions.  The title to his one writings defines this aspect of McKenzie’s attitudes:  The King’s Posts and Journal of a Canoe Jaunt through the King’s Domains 1808.  The Saguenay and the Labrador Coast.

M. Francois-Victor Malhiot.  Journal du Fort Kamanaitiquoya a la Riviere Montreal. 1804-1805. [I, 222-263]

Mr. John McDowell.  Some Account of the Red River About 1797.  With extracts from his Journal. 1793-1795. [I, 265-295]

Mr. W.F. Wentzel.  Letters to the Honorable Roderic McKenzie, 1807-1824. [I, 67-153]

Of Norwegian background, Willard-Ferdinald Wentzel joined the North-West Company as an apprentice to the clerk.  He worked in the Athabasca and MacKenzie regions, accompanied by four voyageurs.  He soon after married a Montagnais woman from the Great Bear Lake region, and settled down at the Lake Manitoba Mission.  His “Letter No. 1.” gives the information referred to in this section (see page 80), it was addressed to Rod McKenzie, Esq., and was written at Forts MacKenzie River on March 27th, 1807.  See “Trees and Plants [Wentzel, 1807]” entry for overview on this.

Listing of Foods, Medicines, and Healing Rituals Covered:

• Alcoholic Beverages
• Bearberry
• Berries–see Foods, Trees and Plants
• Beverages–see Alcoholic Beverages
• Bleeding/Blood-Letting–see “Object or Spirit Intrusion/ Extrusion”
• Borax–see Water–Mineral Springs
• Botanicals–see Trees and Plants
• Child-Bed/Child-birth–see Midwifery
• Conjuring–see Jongleur, Medicine Bag, and “Object or Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion”
• Doctors–see Jongleurs
• Dogs
• Fish
• Foods
• Fruit–see Foods
• Fungus
• Great Spirit
• Jongleurs
• Jugglers–see Jongleurs
• L’herbe-a-la-puce [Apocynum sp.?]
• Liquor–see Alcoholic Beverages
• Lozenges
• Laudanum
• Medicine Bag
• Medicine Man/Medicine Men
• Medicine Piece
• Midwifery
• Moss
• Object or Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion
• Oils/Seed Oils
• Opium
• Pine Roots
• Plants–see Trees and Plants
• Rhum
• Roots
• Rhubarb–see Fungus
• Scurvy–see Turlington Balsam and Laudanum entries.
• Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion–see Object or Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion
• Survival Food–see Moss.
• Sunflower
• Tobacco
• Toothache Remedy–see Opium and Rhum
• Trees and Plants [P. Grant, 1804]   (entry made as a list)
• Trees and Plants [G. Keith, 1807-17]  (a list)
• Trees and Plants [Wentzel, 1807] (a list)
• Turlington’s Balsam
• Watap–see Pine Roots
• Water–Mineral Springs
• Wild Onion

Analysis

Solely or Almost Solely of Native Influence and Practice

• Bleeding/Blood-Letting–see “Object or Spirit Intrusion/ Extrusion”
• Borax–see Water–Mineral Springs
• Conjuring–see Jongleur, Medicine Bag, and “Object or Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion”
• Fungus
• Great Spirit
• Jongleurs
• Jugglers–see Jongleurs
• Medicine Bag
• Medicine Man/Medicine Men
• Medicine Piece
• Oils/Seed Oils
• Object or Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion
• Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion–see Object or Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion
• Sunflower
• Survival Food–see Moss.
• Watap–see Pine Roots
• Water–Mineral Springs

Of Canadee/Metis/Native Use and Influence

• Bearberry
• Berries–see Foods, Trees and Plants
• Child-Bed/Child-birth–see Midwifery
• Dogs
• L’herbe-a-la-puce [Apocynum sp.?]
• Midwifery (Accouchers)
• Moss
• Pine Roots
• Rhum
• Roots
• Wild Onion

Of English/European Influence

• Bleeding/Blood-Letting–see “Object or Spirit Intrusion/ Extrusion”
• Borax–see Water–Mineral Springs
• Liquor–see Alcoholic Beverages
• Laudanum
• Opium
• Scurvy–see Turlington Balsam and Laudanum entries.
• Turlington’s Balsam

Notes from Mr. James McKenzie’s writings, 1799-1808.

Mr. James McKenzie’s writings, 1799-1808, provide us with an excellent example of English ethnocentricity.  His work is therefore given the priviledge of being covered separately.

These notes were taken from the following two items which appeared in in Recits de Voyages Lettres et Rapports Ineditis relatifs au Nord-Ouest Canadien. Volume II:

1. Mr. James McKenzie.  Extracts from his Journal. 1799-1800. [II, 369-399]

2. Mr. James McKenzie. The King’s Posts and Journal of a Canoe Jaunt through the King’s Domains, 1808, The Saguenay and the Labrador Coast.  [II, 401-454]

In his 1799-1800 writings in the Athabasca District [Fort Chippewean]:

• McKenzie notes “the effect of the juice of the grape on their brains” p. 378.
• the baptism of a dying lady, p. 385, Jan 11th, a common practice of religious faith conversion, is noted.
• McKenzie provides his readers with his insights into explaining the French character:
•       “need for a full belly for them to perform,” the effects of fish on the stomach and kidneys of a Mr. Piche, with “Mollygripes” and the use of eighteen pounds of grease and meat to treat this malady; pp. 395-6.
• In his 1808 writings, McKenzie makes comments on spiritual healing traditions:
• Naskapi Religion and Great Spirit notes, p. 414
• Conjurors, singing. blowing and sucking behaviors of the Montagners, or Shore Indains: p. 414-5
• “Their organs are so construed as to absorb every pestilential disease floating in the air.”  McKenzie uses this logic to explain the spread of small pox in 1802 and measles in 1810.  V.D. and Fever are common.  p. 426
• “The Diseases occasioned by their own filthy and exposed modes of living are colds, jaundice, rheumatisms, consumption, ulcers, and a loathsome disorder which swells them up like bladders and causes nauseous eruptions to grow on the skin, which makes them look scaly…”  See p. 426
• “When they have a sore throat they fancy a fish in the course of it, and, to get rid of it, they fasten a strip of net round their necks…”  Invasion of Animal Spirit healing concept, p. 427.

.

Alcoholic Beverages

Liquor…which they reckon the most efficacious medicine of all to cure every disease, and in facts sends a great many to their grave.”  [August 28, 1804] The Frenchmen’s drinking problem is also noted.  [Sep. 3, 1804]

[D. Cameron, 1804-5, II, 275, 282]

Bearberry

Graine d’ours (Bearberry), also known as sac a commis.  Keith described this as a creeping plant which is smoked, and which is put into sacs by the clerks “who alone had those bags.”

[G. Keith, 1807-17, II, 101-102]

Berries–see Foods, Trees and Plants

Beverages–see Alcoholic Beverages

Bleeding/Blood-Letting–see “Object or Spirit Intrusion/ Extrusion”

Borax–see Water–Mineral Springs

Botanicals–see Trees and Plants

Child-Bed/Child-birth–see Midwifery

Conjuring–see Jongleur, Medicine Bag, and “Object or Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion”

Doctors–see Jongleurs

Dogs

Of the French-Canadians residing with “Hakamaugh Indians”: “several dogs…always a favorite dish among Canadian voyageurs” [16th, Friday, June 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 179]

“Salmon, berries, oil and roots in abundance, and our men had six dogs.” [19th, Monday, June 1808]

Accompanying footnote: “Dogs were the most useful animals of these regions; the voyageurs considered them a great relish; the small kinds only were eaten, the large dogs were of another race, and had a rank taste.”

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 182]

Starving “Hackamaughts…regaled us with dog flesh”  [July 14, 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 213-214]

Fish

Small fish about the size of a herring are noted, “it is an oily substance and becomes rather disgusting.”

[G. Keith, 1807-17, II, 105-6]

Foods

“different kind of roots” were eaten by the “Askettihs.”  For other food sources: Wild Onion was formed into an edible syrup, salmon was dried, and berries.  See page 176, 14 June 1808 for similar food note.

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 173, 176]

“Salmon, berries, oil and roots in abundance, and our men had six dogs.” [Monday, June 19, 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 182]

On the 20th, a Tuesday, the “Swhanemugh” presented the traders with berries, roots and oil in abundance.

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 182-3]

Along the Chilkoetin River, with the “Chilkotins”, they had “a feast made up of venison, onions, roots, &c.”  [Tuesday, 25th, June 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 221]

Fish and berries noted on Quesel’s River. [Aug 1, 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 221]

Four children were taken ill after berries, roots, and salmon were exchanged.  (“Swhanemugh”)  [14th, July 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 213]

At the preparation for departure which took place from Lac au Flambeau, Wisconsin, Malhiot notes they were to bring along “farines,” sugar, lard, lamb, butter, tea, bread, etc.  [Monday, July 16, 1804]

[F.-V. Malhiot, 1804-5, I, 227-8]

Sunflower and roots noted.

[C. Mackenzie, 1804-6, I, 338-9]

Foods included pine bark inner fibers, “a kind of weed which grows on rocks” (either moss or lichen), and “dung of reindeer.”  Of the latter, Peter Grant wrote “I have tasted it, out of curiosity, but thought it not deserving the encomium which they bestow upon it.”  Grant even went to great lengths to describe this dung as being dull-green, and “a peculiar sweatish taste but of nutrition quality when mixed with other food.”  NOTE: The use us bear’s feet, beef, buffalo or beer gall, and deer parts for medicine may have links to the use of animal parts for survival, and for carrying about as ceremonial healing agents. [see related notes on Medicine Bag, Medicine Man and Jongleur.]

[P. Grant, 1804, II, 330]

See Dogs, Moss, Roots, Seed Oils, Wild Onion.

See separate entries for Turlington Balsam and Laudanum, used by Fraser and the traders to treat the ailing children they met on July 14, 1808.

Fruit–see Foods

Fungus

“The men found a large fungus which had grown upon a hemlock tree; it has the same virtue as rhubarb, and the Natives use it to dress and whiten their leather.”  [August 5th, 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 221]

identification note–probably a fomes, shelf fungus of the woody type, such as an artist’s fungus.  

Great Spirit

For pertinent notes, see Jongleurs, Medicine Bag, Medicine Man, Object or Spirit Intrusion, and the notes on James McKenzie at the end.

Jongleurs

definition of “Jonglerie”

[J. McDowell, 1797, I, 276-7]

“a juggler or doctor of physic,–their medicines being simples they collect themselves–and when one teaches to another the vitue (sic) of an herb he knew not, there is scarce any bound to his liberality in repaying his instructor; but since trades frequent these posts several Indians make use of European medecines. (sic)”

[J. McDowell, 1797, I, 276]

Mention is made of Jongleurs and confessors, both used for treating those with a fear of dying.  Practices include singing and sucking rituals, mystical gestures, and incantations.  In Keith’s letter to Mackenzie, Esq., written at Forks MacKenzie’s River Department, on 15th Jan’y, 1814 (pp. 125-7).]

[G. Keith, 1807-17, II, 127]

Gives description of Conjurers and Jongleurs; also notes the Canadians as being “almost as superstitious as the Indians themselves.”

[D. Cameron, 1804, II, 264]

See Object Intrusion/Extrusion.

Jugglers–see Jongleurs

Laudanum

Allopathic healing.  Laudanum is an indicator for this philosophy.

Four children were afflicted with a disorder of living condition that left them “reduced to their skeletons.” (lack of food? scurvy?):

“Three or four children who were unwell were brought to me by their parents for medical assistance, and as I did not think fit to disappoint them, I sent one of the gentlemen for a vial of Turlington, but he brought Laudanum; considering however one of equal virtue with the other towards a cure, I mixed a few drops of what he brought with water, in this mixture I dipped my finger which I gently applied to the forehead of the sick.” (“Swhanemugh”)  [14th, July 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 213]

See Opium.

L’herbe-a-la-puce

I originally thought Apocynum sp.?  In retrospect, now 15 years later, Lobelia, Carolina pink, and American Ipecac are other more likely possibilities.

       translation: the ‘Puking herb”

      Colic remedy. [26-27 July 1804]

[F.-V. Malhiot, 1804-5, I, 231]

Liquor–see Alcoholic Beverages

Lozenges

“Lozenges, &c, turlington, to stop the spitting of blood…” [August 28, 1804]

[D. Cameron, 1804-5, II, 275]

.

Medicine Bag

A description of a Conjuring or Medicine Bag is given, which included roots, barks, weeds, grasses, dyed quills, Swan’s down, and small bits of wood made into knick knacks of different shapes made according to what the Medicine Man dreamt.   Roots and other medicines may have been bought from other Medicine Men.

[D. Cameron, 1804, II, 261]

Medicine Man/Medicine Men

The ritual for becoming a Medicine Man is briefly mentioned by Cameron.  A period of abstinence from food and putting on “make-up” is required.  “The young fellow is now admitted to all their conjuring feasts and ceremonies, and he, by degrees, acquires impudence enough to pretend that he knows more than those who instructed him; he is now a complete quack and an accomplished conjuror, who, by his knowledge, can cure all imaginable wounds or diseases, and become as secrete and mysterious in his performance as ever a free mason was with his sublime mysteries.” The onset of an illness or disease was often blamed on the conjurer.

[D. Cameron, 1804, II, 261]

See Jongleurs

Medicine Piece

“Every Indian has what they call his “medicine piece” of all the game he kills, such as the snout of the moose, the tongue and heart of the deer, the paws of the bear, and so on; this piece is always cooked by itself and ne female, young or old, ever dare taste it…They sometimes pay us with the great complement of bringing us such a piece, but they will then inform us of its sacred quality…”

[D. Cameron, 1804, II, 263]

Midwifery

Description of Women in Child-bed, makes note of “no professional midwives,” but rather previous matrons who assist in the birthing process.  Every matron who had a child is provided “proper medecines for the circumstances.”

[P. Grant, 1804, II, 309]

Moss

“Indians gather a kind of moss which they work into paste, bake in ovens, and which, though black, we found palatable.” [Sunday, June 18, 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 181]

Object or Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion

“They have considerable confidence in their abilities in curing by performing the absurd gestures common, in a less or greater degree, to all tribes of Indians, by means of which they pretend to extract hairs, toads and small pike fish from the parts of the body affected.”  [MacKenzie’s River Department, 28th Feby 1810]

Keith attributed these healing traditions to the Natives having no idea of the existence of a God (as Keith defined it) or a Supernatural being.  This he based on their definition for the causes for death–their enemies.  This description includes accounts of healing by song and by sucking.

[G. Keith, 1807-17, II, 89]

“Letting blood, even in the proper vein, with an awl, a painful knife, pointed white iron, &c, is common to many of them.  They are entirely ignorant of any kind of medical herbs or roots, and I believe the country produces very few of either.”

[G. Keith, 1807-17, II, 89]

Keith writes “Dyewood or roots are of no variety…I have discovered no medical plants, and the natives make use of none being the growth of the country.”

[G. Keith, 1807-17, II, 102]

“The Natives are remarkably filthy in dressing the food and indeed in every other respect, hence it is no wonder they are subject to colics, and pains in the stomach and diarrhea.  They know nothing of medical roots and herbs, so that, except singing or rather humming their sick, biting and pulling their teeth, and sucking the parts affected, they allow nature to take her course undisturbed by an initial prescription.  When nigh the white people’s establishments, they always apply for some medicine, which is always given gratis.”

[G. Keith, 1807-17, II, 105-6]

“Their knowledge in medecine does not extend beyond that of the other Indians around this post, and their mode of treating the sick much the same: pulling, sucking, biting the parts of the body affected, pretending to do miracles, such as extracting small fish, frogs, hair, &c…”  (A note by Hon. R. Mackenzie describes similar practices utilized by the Abenakis, of St. Francis, Canada.)

[G. Keith, 1807-17, II, 118]

“When they have a sore throat they fancy a fish in the course of it, and, to get rid of it, they fasten a strip of net round their necks…”  Invasion of Animal Spirit healing concept, from Mr. James McKenzie’s The King’s Posts and Journal of a Canoe Jaunt through the King’s Domains, 1808, The Saguenay and the Labrador Coast.  [II, 401-454], p. 427.

[J. McKenzie, 1808, II, 427]

See Jongleur.

Oils/Seed Oils

“Salmon, berries, oil and roots in abundance, and our men had six dogs.” [19th, Monday, June 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 182]

On the 20th, a Tuesday, the “Swhanemugh” presented the traders with berries, roots and oil in abundance.

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 182-3]

Opium

At Roche debout encampment, 5 drops of opium were taken to resolve a malingering toothache; this treatment was ineffective, leading the person to try “rhum.”

[F.-V. Malhiot, 1804-5, I, 229]

See Laudanum.

Pine Roots

Mentions little.  See Thursday, 15th June, 1808 entry.

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 176]

Plants–see Trees and Plants

Rhum

Toothache, headache and Colic remedy. [July, 16, 25 and 26, 1804]  Can find numerous other entries of “Rhum” as well.

[F.-V. Malhiot, 1804-5, I, 229,231]

Roots

“different kind of roots” were eaten by the “Askettihs.”   [Monday, 12th June, 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 173]

See Foods, Pine Roots.

Rhubarb–see Fungus

Scurvy–see Turlington Balsam and Laudanum entries.

Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion–see Object or Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion

Survival Food–see Moss.

Sunflower

Sunflower and roots noted.

[C. Mackenzie, 1804-6, I, 338-9]

Tobacco

Tobacco growths are described.

[C. Mackenzie, 1804-6, I, 338-9]

Toothache Remedy–see Opium and Rhum

Trees and Plants [P. Grant, 1804]

The following were noted to be near the Sauteux Indian sites by Peter Grant:

• Cranberries
• Hazlenuts
• Gooseberry
• Wild Grapes
• Bramble
• Blackberry
• Raspberry
• Chokeberry
• Strawberry
• Sand Cherries
• Wild Rice, “of infinite use to the natives,”

[P. Grant, 1804, p. 309]

Trees and Plants [G. Keith, 1807-17]

The following were noted by G. Keith at McKenzie’s River:

• Birch
• Shrub-Wood (Willow)
• “another shrub distinguished by the seven barks it possesses.”
• Crowberries
• Whortleberries
• Pashaco
• Atoca
• Juniper Berry
• Graine d’ours (Bearberry), also known as sac a commis

He writes “Dyewood or roots are of no variety…I have discovered no medical plants, and the natives make use of none being the growth of the country.”  (See related writings by Keith in the descriptions for “Object or Spirit Intrusion/Extrusion.”

[G. Keith, 1807-17, II, 101-102]

Trees and Plants [Wentzel, 1807]

Wentzel gives no ethnohistory for most of these plants; he notes some as edible fruit, and dye sources.  Other uses may be inferred by the common plant name such as with “mountain tea.”

[Wentzel, 1807, I, 80]

Large Woods

• red and white pine
• cypress
• birch

poplar

• liard
• underwood
• elder
• willow
• redwood (bearsfoot)–related to 19th C. Bear’s Foot?
• swamp tea

plants

• plantin (sic)
• liquorice roots
• wild mint
• sarsaparilla
• mountain tea (fruit)
• wild sives
• queue de rats

fruit

• poire
• gooseberry
• raspberry
• strawberry
• mooseberry
• deerberry
• rose buttons
• currants
• thimbleberry
• hutleberry
• pithagomine or queue depouillee
• choakberry
• cramberry
• crowberry
• juniper berry
• bear berry
• Dye plants
• Savoyan  (red)
• “Cramberry” (light red)
• small root in marshy plains (yellow)

Turlington’s Balsam

Allopathic healing.

Four children were afflicted with a disorder of living condition that left them “reduced to their skeletons.” (lack of food? scurvy?); Fraser requested Turlington’s Balsam of one of his partners, instead he was brought Laudanum.

See Laudanum entry.

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 213]

“Lozenges, &c, turlington, to stop the spitting of blood…” [August 28, 1804]

[D. Cameron, 1804-5, II, 275]

Watap–see Pine Roots

Water–Mineral Springs

“a substance something like borax, which had a saline and sulphurous taste; a hole being dug it was slowly filled up with a nauseous liquid of which, however, we drank.”

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 173]

On the other side of the river, on Jackass Mountain, the team observed a mineral spring, “the water of which was clear and of a strong taste, and the scum of a greenish colour.”  (“Hackamaughs”)  [20th, Tuesday, June 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 182-3]

“there is a kind of sulphurous springs which emit a continual smoke both in summer and in winter.”  Keith noted the presence of Coal beds below ground with their sulphur smell.  He also briefly commented on “a few salt springs which produce very fine salt, but, by no comparisons, in such immense quantities as in other parts of the interior.” [p. 101]

NOTE:  This letter was addressed to “Rod. McKenzie, Esq.,” and written at “McKenzies’s River Department, Bear Lake,” on 19th November, 1812, on pages 100-110.

[G. Keith, 1807-17, II, 101, 103]

Wild Onion

Wild Onion was formed into an edible syrup, to be eaten with dried salmon and berries.   [Monday, 12th June, 1808]

[S. Fraser, 1808, I, 173]