Kinnikinnick is a Native American and First Nations smoking mixture made from a traditional combination of leaves or barks. Recipes for the mixture vary, as do the uses, including social, spiritual, and medicinal.
Etymology The term kinnikinnick derives from the Unami Delaware , (cf. Ojibwe 'to mix something animate with something inanimate'),"kiniginige" in Frederic Baraga A Dictionary of the Ojibway Language. Minnesota Historical Society Press (St. Paul, MN: 1992). . Part II, page 189. from Proto-Algonquian , .Flexner, Stuart Berg and Leonore Crary Hauck, eds.. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, 2nd ed. (unabridged). Random House (New York: 1987). Page 1058.
By extension, the name was also applied by the colonial European hunters, traders, and settlers to various shrubs of which the bark or leaves are traditionally smoked,"Kinnikinnick" in Frederick Webb Hodge (editor) Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington: 1911). Part 1, page 692. most often bearberry (Arctostaphylos spp.) and to lesser degree, the medicinal plants red osier dogwood (Cornus sericea), silky cornel (Cornus amomum), Canadian bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), evergreen sumac (Rhus virens), littleleaf sumac (Rhus microphylla), smooth sumac (Rhus glabra), and staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina).Smoking and Pipes , Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook-Abenaki People
Indigenous names Algonquin: , (, ; , ) Dakota and Lakota: Hul̓q̓umín̓um̓’: , Lushootseed: , Menominee: , Odaawaa: , (, ; , ) Ojibwe: , (, ; , ) Shoshoni: , Twana: , Winnebago: ,
Preparation and use The preparation varies by locality and nation. Bartlett quotes Trumbull as saying: "I have smoked half a dozen varieties of kinnikinnick in the North-west — all genuine; and have scraped and prepared the red willow-bark, which is not much worse than Suffield oak-leaf."""Kinnikinnick" in John Russell Bartlett. Dictionary of Americanisms, 4th Edition. Little, Brown, and Company (New York: 1877). Page 335.
Eastern tribes have traditionally used Nicotiana rustica for social smoking, while western tribes usually use a variety of kinnikinick for ceremonial use.Charles L. Cutler. Tracks that speak: the legacy of Native American words in North American culture. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Boston : 2002). Pages 174–176. Cutler cites Edward S. Rutsch's study of the Iroquois, listing ingredients used by other Native American tribes: leaves or bark of red osier dogwood, arrowroot, red sumac, laurel, ironwood, wahoo, huckleberry, Indian tobacco, cherry bark, and mullein, among other ingredients.
Some users of kinnikinnick, including the historical Ho-Chunk in the 1830s, smoked it alone casually, with no apparent social, spiritual, or medicinal purpose. It was considered "preferred by the Indians to tobacco."
Historical references Among the Ojibwe, Densmore records the following: The material smoked by the Chippewa in earliest times were said to be the dried leaves of the bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng.), and the dried, powdered root of a plant identified as Aster novae-angliae L. Two sorts of bark were smoked, one being known as "red willow" (Cornus stolonifera Michx.) and the other as "spotted willow" (Cornus rugosa Lam.). The inner bark is used, after being toasted over a fire and powdered. It is then stored in a cloth or leather bag, and may be used on its own or in combination with other herbs.Frances Densmore. Chippewa Customs. Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington: 1929) Reprint: Minnesota Historical Society Press (St. Paul: 1979). Pages 144-145.
See also Ceremonial pipe Tobacco Jamestown weed Puke weed
References
Bibliography Moerman, Daniel E. (1998) Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press. .
External links Traditional Tobacco pamphlet by the Urban American Indian Tobacco Prevention & Education Network