Native American Plant Myths - Animal food - The rabbits eat the wild rose seeds

 

1590 North American Atlantic Coast Natives by John White (c1540 – c1593). The village of Pomeiooc (Pomeiock) was a Native America settlement, designated on de Bry’s map of Virginia, Americae Pars Nunc Virginia Dicta, between today’s Wyesocking Bay & Lake Landing, North Carolina. John White designates the settlement as Pomeyoo.

Extracted from:  Myths of the Cherokee.  Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau  of American Ethnology. Washington Government Printing Office 1902  Recorded by James Mooney (1861-1921) was an American ethnographer who lived for several years among the Cherokee.

Plant Lore

The Indians are close observers, and some of their plant names are peculiarly apt. 

Some plants are named from their real or supposed place in the animal economy, as the wild rose, tsist-uni'gisti, "the rabbits eat it"--referring to the seed berries.