American Indian Names             I couldn'nt find an Omaha name or translations but I did find other Indian names. The Kiowas name for thistle was sengta no meaning given. The Mesquawki name was kaaÿwas witch meant to stick one, and the Comanches called it tsen No meaning given

Description

            Thistle is really sharp and poky it will give you slivers if you touch it. It has like really sharp edges and is kind of skinny like, it also kind of looks like edges. The blades rosette leaf blades elliptic to ovate tip pointed margin tooth. It is an biennial, a forb, and it is introduced. It flowers from July - September and grows through seeds

Location and Habitat             Throughout Nebraska on rangeland pastures, meadows, old fields, gardens, and disturbed sites. It is less common in the sand hills and South Western Nebraska, then on the other parts of the state On the Reservation it grows around the small baseball field, head start, and north of the school. Its habitat was prairie and waste grand it can mainly grow anywhere mostly the grasslands.

Uses

            Apache used the seeds of thistle to boil and eat them as sunflower seeds, or they were ground into flower and the dough was baked. The Blackfoot would dissect the head of thistle and eat the flower stalk fresh. Cheyenne used it and which they spoke of as a fruit and considered it to be a great luxury. Comanches boiled its roots and prepared a tea that was drunk in a case of gonorrhea. Kiowas made tea of the blossoms which they applied to heal burns and sores. Mesquawki took stuff from the plant to help relive stomachache.

The Zunis also used a tea that was drank 3 times a day as a remedy for diabetes. Cherokee, Ojibwa, Mesquawki, used it for people who over eat, women with stomach cramps, and bowel tonic. The Mohegan and Imroquios used it for mouth sickness and mouth wash for infants.

                                                          By Brianna Wolfe

This Page was last update: Monday, December 17, 2007 at 10:59:54 AM
This page was originally posted: 11/28/07; 11:08:23 AM.
Copyright 2008 Plants of the Omaha Indian Reservation

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