English

hemlock, water or poison

Arapaho

ceceecei’

Hemlock and the Arapaho

Drug: panacea. Oliver Toll reports that the root of this name was a general cure-all.

Drug: ceremonial medicine. Kroeber says that the root of this name was used both medicinally and ceremonially. It supposedly made Arapaho users very active, and also gave them the power to paralyze people and animals (Kroeber 1983:190). Kroeber also says that a similar Gros Ventre term referred to “poison parsley” (1983:191). Taylor’s Gros Ventre dictionary indeed lists the equivalent Gros Ventre word, identified with the above species. It was used in the Crazy Lodge age-grade ceremony and to treat illness in that ceremony, and also in personal medicine bags and possibly other ceremonies.

In Moss and Cowell, Moss’s father identifies the plant as poison ivy, but there is a separate, unrelated Arapaho name for poison ivy, so this identity is questionable. The plant was used for ceremonial smudging, and one common Arapaho word for “blessed” (through ceremonial smudging and ritual) is ceceeco’oh-, a word based on the name for this plant.

Poison Hemlock

Poison Hemlock: the red spotting on the stalk is diagnostic