Comanches Rattlesnake Bite Cure

 Quotes from the following source:

Snakebite page 272

LEDGERS AT FORT SILL

COMANCHES CURE SNAKEBITES (ISEEO BROUGHT THE ROOT)

This is the root the Comanches used to cure rattlesnake bites. All Kiowas and Comanches know it. It is chewed up like mescal and put on the wound and it will not swell up after a bite. I know that has cured bites made by rattlesnakes. Most Comanches carry some of the dried roots about with them. See Whipple Report (1853, Ex. Doc. No. 90, 33rd Congress, 2nd Session—I).

Vincente says that when he was a captive among the Comanches he was bitten by a rattlesnake. The Indians scarified the wounded foot with a flint, rubbed it with a weed, bruised the snake and told him to take hold of it. He was afraid to do so but they told him he would die if he did not. He then grasped it anvalsiou [?] and then coiled it around the wound. Не was cured of course and his foot now bears the scar.

Capt. John Pope 1853, Botany, p. 163, a cerates paniculate anantherix paniculatus Natt. [Found in] sandy soil, [along] headwaters of the Colorado (Texas), April. This is the snake medicine of the Comanche Indian.

Pah-sila = Hairless, Comanche, Sept. 11, 1897. Yes, I know that root. See p. 217 [below]. [217] (from p. 184). It is called by Comanches Quassy no von nat see

= Medicine = Snake Medicine.

Four men knew about that. Black Horse,

the lame man below Quanah's, saw it first in a mescal dream and helped Quanah with it. Sarriet-tethka = Dog Eater, also means Arapaho, who died E. [early = young?] and is buried in the soldier graveyard, [hel knew

it. And I am the fourth.

I was going to Navajo one day with Quanah and he dismounted and dug up this root and when I asked him why he did it he said it cured snakebite 10 It grows on the side of a hill and has a white flower. You get it in July. You cannot find it now. The stem is gone. When you want to go out on the side hill and when you see it, dismount, go around to the east of it and keep on around until you face the sun. You say to it, "I am [havel come for you. I want you to take pity on me. I am going to carry you always. I want you to cure the snakebite for me." Talk to it that way and it will keep [helpl you. Then you take out your knife and dig a big hole around it and when large enough take out the bub leaving the long thin part in the ground. Then cut off the stem and plant it again, cover it carefully. It will grow next spring. It will be bad to throw it away. If you get bitten, chew up and swallow a piece of the root as big as this [1 centimeter diameter]. Then take a larger piece and chew it up and spit it in the two tooth marks and some on your hands and rub it all over the swelling. If it has only swollen a little, take two fingers, spit some of the chewed root on them, and draw two rings around [the] upper part of [the] swelling. If the bite is old and there has been a big swelling do the same with four fingers and the swelling will go down. It may go thus, three fingers [in] depth, but when it gets to the fourth finger it will go back and recede (see p. 211 [below]).

Page 292

[RATTLESNAKE BITE]

One time Poa-dee-a's brother was looking for his horses back of his lodge on the Blue Beaver [Creek]. There was a rattlesnake under a rock that bit him in the ankle as he stepped over the rock. He went to see what it was under there that bit him and saw that it was a rattlesnake. He called to his wife to bring a horse. He was very sick at his stomach and vomited. They got him home and sent for Quanah to come and told him they would give him a two-year-old horse and a beef. He came and reached there about 4:00 p.m. and spit some of that root on the leg, which was very much swollen as he had been bitten in the morning. His heart was slow. He couldn't sit still, he was very ill. He eat some of that root and swallowed it. Quanah rubbed some in the bite and all over the swelling.

Chew the root, spit it on his hands and rubbed it over the swelling. It did not swell any more and began to go down. He slept that night and next day said he was almost well. The swelling had gone down except a place as big as my fist about the bite. All Comanches know about that. Not long after it was put on he said he was water hungry. Then in a little while he said he was sleep hungry and went to sleep.

One time my horse was bitten on the foreleg while I was in camp coming down from Anadarko and I had a piece in my pocket. I made him swallow a small piece and rubbed and spit on the wound and swelling. He had been hobbled and was very lame from the bite. I chewed the root, spit it into the wound and spit and bubbled the swelling. In about two hours I went to look at him he was nearly well. I hitched him up and in a little while his lameness disappeared. I know that good. That root is chief, just as you are a chief (with shoulder sign _ it_chief).