| Western red cedar has been revered for thousands | | | | American Indian tribes. Principally, they utilized two |
| of years. Its versatility made the tree essential to | | | | fundamental techniques for extracting the |
| Native people, prompting them to place it as a central | | | | cedar’s elixirs. The some extracts were gotten |
| part of their lives. The cedar tree represented the | | | | by boiling the parts in water and straining the liquor, |
| visible and invisible forces of life. They recognized the | | | | or parts were steeped as tea for infusion. It was |
| tree fed with the help of fungi from the nutrients in | | | | these elixirs from powdered leaves that were used |
| the soil. The trees drank water from underground | | | | externally to treat various internal pains, including |
| streams that once were oceans – which were | | | | rheumatism. The leaf buds have been chewed in the |
| clouds. They understood the leaves feed on sunlight. | | | | treatment of toothaches, while an elixir of the buds |
| They recognized the freshness of the forest air | | | | has been used as a gargle. |
| breathed out as oxygen and water-vapor. They | | | | A weak infusion has been drunk in the treatment of |
| watched quietly as birds, wind and rain spread the | | | | painful joints caused by rheumatism or arthritis and a |
| tree’s seeds; as insects and the wind pollinated | | | | poultice of the crushed bough tips and oil has been |
| the tree’s flowers; and, creatures broke down | | | | applied to the back and chest in the treatment of |
| the fallen leaves into topsoil. The great cedar tree | | | | bronchitis, rheumatism and stomach pains. The boiled |
| became the metaphor for great wisdom. The | | | | concoction of the boughs has been used as an |
| cedar’s giving spirit provided people with food, | | | | antidandruff shampoo. A poultice of the inner bark |
| shelter and medicine literally from the wooden cradle | | | | has been used as a counter-irritant for the skin and |
| to the wooden coffin. Working with tools made of | | | | poultice of the inner bark has been applied to |
| stone, bone or shell, craftsman carved canoes, totem | | | | carbuncles. Even the bark when pounded until it is as |
| poles, storage boxes and ceremonial masks from the | | | | soft as cotton can be used to rub the face and has |
| generous wood. Mats, baskets and water-repellent | | | | been used to bind wounds and as cover for wound |
| clothing were shaped and woven from the inner bark. | | | | dressings. Shredded bark can be used to cauterize |
| Perhaps most importantly, western red cedar was | | | | sores. |
| employed medicinally by a number of native North | | | | |