Indian Hemp, Apocynum cannabinum, is a poisonous plant with a few medicinal properties but its other uses can be worth the plants weight in gold in a survival situation. Medicinally it has been used to cause vomiting, expel parasites, as birth control and to treat venereal disease. Because of the strength of its fibers this plant has been an essential tool for American Indians to make rope, cordage, clothing, baskets, containers, mats, rugs, bedding, bowstrings, nets, snares and horse bridles.

Keep your eyes and ears open and your powder dry!

Indian Hemp Sources:

Audubon Guides Box Set – Birds, Tree, Wildflowers & Mammals. Computer Software.Green Mountain Digital. Version: 2.3. Web. Jul 10, 2014.

Felter, Harvey Wickes, M.D., and John Uri Lloyd, Phr. M., Ph. D. King’s American Dispensatory, Vol. 1. Cincinnati: The Ohio Valley Company, 1905. pg. 225-228

Foster, Steven and James A. Duke. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs of Eastern and Central North America. 2nd. ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Print. pg. 60-61

Hamel, Paul B. and Mary U. Chiltoskey. Cherokee Plants and Their Uses- A 400 Year History. North Carolina: Herald Publishing. 1975. Print. pg. 38

Herrick, James William. Iroquois Medical Botany. Ph.D. Thesis, New York: State University of New York, Albany 1977. Print. pg. 198

Moerman Daniel E., Native American Ethnobotany, Portland: Timber Press. 1998. Print. pg. 78-79

Newcomb, Lawrence. Newcomb’s Wildflower Guide. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1977. Print. pg. 250-251

Peterson, Lee Allen. The Peterson Field Guide Series; A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants; Eastern and Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. Print. pg. 48-49

United States Department of Agriculture. Natural Resources Conservation Services. Web.