Arisaema triphyllum (L.) Torr. Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

Mikasi-makaⁿ (Omaha-Ponca), "coyote medicine."

Nikso kororik kahtsu nitawau (Pawnee); medicine (or herb) kantsu; that bears, nitawau; what resembles, kororik; an ear of corn, nikso. The name is strikingly descriptive of the ripened fruit.

This plant is used medicinally by the Pawnee. When a Pawnee medicine-man saw my specimen he evinced lively interest and showed me a bag containing the pulverized corm, but was unwilling to tell me its use. Another Pawnee medicine-man, however, told me of its use in treating headache by dusting on the top of the head and on the temples.

The corm was pulverized and applied as a counterirritant for rheumatism and similar pains, as irritant plasters are used by white people.

The seeds of this plant were put into gourd shells by the Pawnee to make rattles.

"Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region"
by Melvin R. Gilmore, © 1977 by the University of Nebraska Press.

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