English

blue

spruce

Scientific Name

Picea pungens

Arapaho

1. nii’ibootou’ ; 2. 3oxu’useeto’

Translation of the Arapaho

1. ‘it smells good’ ; 2. ‘hammer/club pine?’

Blue Spruce and the Arapaho

Drug: unspecified. The tree (likely the needles or bark) was used medicinally.

Other: ceremonial incense. Arapahos state that the “silver spruce” was used for both smudging and medicine. The first name is given by contemporary Arapahos for “silver spruce.” The identity of silver spruce as blue spruce has been confirmed in the field.

Toll identifies the plant of the second name as blue spruce. Hayden identifies the same tree (<tha-ki-sath>) as Abies douglassi, “spruce pine.”