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ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS

BY WILLIAM ALBERT SETCHELL

Reprinted from THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 23, No. 4, October-December,

1921.

er-77

[Reurmted from the AMKRION ANTHROPOLOGIST, Vol. 23, No. 4, Oct.-Dec.. 1921.]

ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS
BY WILLIAM ALBERT SETCHELL

ACCORDING to De Candolle in his Origin of Cultivated Plants*
somewhat over forty of the plants now generally cultivated
came from the Americas, some of them having been intro
duced into Europe very soon after the discovery of the " new conti
nent " by Columbus. This has been regarded as being true particu
larly of maize, potatoes, and tobacco. There have nqt been wanting
claims as to other origins for many of these supposedly American
cultivated plants and the tobaccos have frequently been under sus
picion. The most careful investigations, however, have tended only
to confirm the idea of the non-existence of any species of tobacco
used for smoking, snuffing, or chewing outside the confines of the
American continents. The latest writer to claim a non-American
origin for tobacco, as well as certain other cultivated plants of sup
posedly American origin, is Leo Wiener.2 Professor Wiener de
votes ninety pages of his book to a consideration of tobacco, chiefly
from the point of view of its various names. His conclusions appear
to be that the cultivated tobacco originated in Africa and was intro
duced thence into the Americas by Negro slaves imported by the
Spaniards. The linguistic evidence brought forward by Professor
Wiener seems to one unacquainted with the value of such evidence as
to origins and migrations of peoples, plants, etc., to be far-fetched and

i Origin of Cultivated Plants, in Internal. Sci. Series, vol. 48, New York,
1885.

-Africa and the Discovery of America, vol. i, Philadelphia, 1920.
26 397

398 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 23, 1921

often trivial. The discussion of this portion of Wiener's claim has
been taken up by one well qualified to estimate its worth.1

The botanical evidence, however, has not been dealt with to any
extent by Wiener, and, in fact, he does not seem at all aware that
there is any complexity to this side of the question he attempts to
settle so readily and so smugly. While we are by no means certain as
to the exact sources of the two species of Nicotiana most commonly
used for smoking, viz., Nicotiana Tabacum and N. rustica, all evi
dence in our possession is strongly against the assumption of a non-
American origin. It seems to the botanist that Nicotiana Tabacum,
for example, is much more likely to have been carried from Brazil
or the West Indies, where its culture was early widespread, if not
aboriginal, to Africa, by the very agents who procured the Negro
slaves for American use. In doing so, it seems very likely that the
Brazilian or other American names may thus have been transferred
early to Africa along with the plants to which they belonged, and
have become firmly and extensively incorporated into African native
languages. However this may or may not be, the strongest botanical
evidence for the American origin of the tobaccos, as used by man,
is the existence of a large number of species of Nicotiana, undoubt
edly native to the Cordilleran ranges, extending from the State of
Washington in the United States of North America to the central
portions of Chile in South America. The only species of Nicotiana
which are undoubtedly extra-American are two, viz., N. suaveolens
and N. fragrans, natives of the Australian region, closely related to
certain Chilean species, and never used for smoking or similar pur
poses before the advent of the white man to the countries where they
are known to occur.

Of the somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy species of
Nicotiana generally recognized, there are to be found in North
America, either growing wild or in aboriginal cultivation, some four
teen species. Of these fourteen North American species, I have
evidence of the use of nine species or varieties by different tribes of
American Indians at the present time. At present they are used

i Cf. R. B. Dixon, American Anthropologist, vol. 22, no. 2, April-June,
1920, especially pp. 179-181, and "Words for Tobacco in American Indian
Languages," ibid., vol. 23, no. i, pp. i9~49-

SETCHELL] ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS 399

only, or at least chiefly, for ceremonial purposes, their use for smok
ing generally having been superseded by the trade-tobacco early intro
duced by the white traders. It is to the close association of tobacco
with the religious and social observances of the various tribes of
North American Indians that we owe the continuation of the use, and
particularly of the cultivation, of aboriginal tobaccos and the oppor
tunity of obtaining first-hand information as to the species employed
as well as to the ceremonies connected with their use. For some
what over fifteen years I have been collecting information on the
subject of the species employed and have importuned every anthro
pologist who was luckless enough to come into my circle of acquaint
ances to assist in obtaining seed of any possible species of Nicotiana
still found to be in aboriginal use. The result has exceeded my
original expectations by far, and a number of species which I had
imagined to be beyond further proof than mere mention of their
employment by one tribe or another have been found still in use and
either cultivated or collected wild. Of these, seed has been procured
in practically all cases, and I have been able to grow it in the
botanical garden at the University of California and assure myself
as to the identity.

The use of narcotics is found to be general wherever they are
readily available and it is remarkable how quickly and how widely
the use of a narcotic will spread when once introduced. This has
been particularly the case with tobacco after the discovery of
America, as Tiedemann1 has so convincingly shown. The extent of
the use of the narcotics, tobacco and coca, in the Americas previous
to 1492 is well delineated by Wissler.2 Wissler's chart distinguishes
between the areas where tobacco was chewed and those where it was
smoked, and it even distinguishes between the areas where the tubular
or elbow pipes were smoked and those where cigars or cigarettes
were employed. This chart indicates that tobacco was used over the
whole of both Americas with the exception of the extreme northern
portions of North America and the extreme southern portions of
South America. The tribes of North American Indians who were
fortunate enough to dwell in a region provided with a native species

i Geschichte des Tabaks, Frankfurt a M., 1854.
- The American Indian, fig. 8, New York, 1917.

4OO AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N.S., 23, 1921

of Nicotiana seem to have learned to use it and to have paid little
or no attention to its cultivation. Some such tribes, however, did
burn over small areas to make the wild tobacco grow more abun
dantly or more luxuriantly. The tribes of North American Indians,
living in areas destitute of a native species of Nicotiana, either culti
vated some species or obtained their supply from other tribes who
had a supply, cultivated or wild. The relation of the different species
of North American tobacco to the various trade routes of the Indians
has not as yet been investigated, but some suggestions as to these
relations may become apparent as I proceed with the present discus
sion. When tobacco was cultivated, its planting, at least, was usually
attended with more or less elaborate ceremonies.

The species of Nicotiana which is best and most widely known is
Nicotiana Tabacum L. It is pink-flowered and is the only species
belonging to its section of the genus. The variation within the
species, however, is so very considerable that at least five subspecies
may be segregated, and, superficially at least, these seem distinct
enough to be considered as species. The subspecies may each be
divided and subdivided again and again into a very large number of
varieties and subvarieties, so that, in general, Nicotiana Tabacum has
all the ear-marks of an old and widely cultivated plant. The culti
vation of this species, in its various forms, is almost exclusive at
present for the tobacco trade of all nations. It was the aboriginal
tobacco of the West Indies, of the greater part of Mexico, of the
states of Central America, of the United States of Colombia, of
Venezuela, of the Guianas, and of Brazil. The Brazilian name of
this species is said to have been "petun," and this name was very
generally used for tobacco in the accounts of it in the sixteenth cen
tury. Wiener1 thinks that this word is a corruption of the Portu
guese "betume," meaning a pasty substance. It seems strange that
this derivation of the name was not known, if true, to any of the
writers on tobacco of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The
Mexican name for Nicotiana Tabacum, "piecelt," was also early
widespread.

The origin, as well as the original sources, of Nicotiana Tabacum

1 Loc. cit., p. 135.

SETCHELL] ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS 40!

is uncertain, since it is not known in the wild condition in any of the
countries where it is under cultivation. It seems probable that it
may have originated in the interior of Brazil and possibly somewhere
on the lower eastern slopes of the Andes. It is very evidently a
tropical species and in the tropics often becomes spontaneous, escap
ing from cultivation and persisting in favorable localities. Some
varieties are semi-hardy in regions of little frost, but frostless and
humid areas are evidently similar to its ancestral home. Edward
Palmer found it in Indian cultivation in southern Arizona under the
name of " Yaqui Tobacco." x This " Yaqui Tobacco " is referred by
Gray to the var. undulata Sendtner. North of Mexico, however,
Nicotiana Tabacum was practically unknown in aboriginal use.

The yellow-flowered tobacco, Nicotiana rustica L., was the second
species of tobacco to attract the notice of Europeans and for some
time almost monopolized attention. This was the first species of
tobacco to be cultivated in the Colony of Virginia. It was fairly
soon supplanted there, however, by a variety of Nicotiana Tabacum
called " Orinoco," introduced, it is said, by Sir Walter Raleigh, or
through his recommendation. Nicotiana rustica is still the home
grown species of the peasants of Central Europe and still furnishes
the Syrian " Tombac " for the water-pipes of western Asia. It is a
much more hardy species than is Nicotiana Tabacum and has been
credited with being a native of the Old World. There seems to be
no exact evidence, however, that this is so, and, although it has not
been found in undoubted wild condition, the general supposition is
that it probably originated in Mexico. It seems fairly certain that it
is American and probably Cordilleran like all its near relatives of the
Rustica section of the genus Nicotiana. Like Nicotiana Tabacum,
N. rustica was described and figured in pre-Linnean herbals, espe
cially in certain of those of the sixteenth century, where it was desig
nated as the lesser or female tobacco, while N. Tabacum was called
the greater or male tobacco.

Nicotiana rustica seems to have been cultivated and smoked by
all of the Indian tribes of North America east of the Mississippi
River and by most of those immediately to the west of it. The west-

1 Gray, Synoptical Flora of North America, vol. 2, pt. i, New York, 1878,
p. 241.

402 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [x.s., 23, 1921

ern boundary of its aboriginal cultivation or use is, naturally, difficult
to determine with exactness, but is probably along the line of the
eastern boundary of the " Plains Area " as outlined by Wissler.1
The use of this species, then, may be supposed to have extended over
the " Eastern Woodland Area " and the " Southeastern Area " of the
social groups of North American Indians as classified according to
their cultures. The evidence on which this supposition is based is
scanty, but reasonably convincing. In the first place, we know that
smoking was general over these culture areas and was held of impor
tance as a ceremony. In the second place, Strachey, about i6io,2
speaks definitely of the flower of the tobacco of the Virginian Indians
as having a yellow color and otherwise as conforming to the descrip
tion of Nicotiana rustica. It is interesting to note here that the
Indian name for the Virginia tobacco was "Uppowoc," or, as
Strachey wrote it, " Apooke." In the third place, the Onondaga In
dians, center nation, fire-keepers, tobacco nation, and holders of the
responsibility of general referendum of the Five Nations or Iroquois,
still cultivate Nicotiana rustica as the " Sacred Tobacco " of their
confederacy. I have been able to grow plants from Onondaga seed
kindly furnished by Chief Cornplanter through Arthur C. Parker.
W. M. Beauchamp3 mentions Nicotiana rustica as the species called
" O-yen-kwa-hon-we," and I have seen specimens of the Onondaga
plant provided by him in the Herbarium at the New York Botanical
Garden. The Iroquois tradition of the origin of the tobacco plant
is related by Arthur C. Parker.4 As stated by Esquire Johnson, an
old Seneca chief, to Mrs. Asher Wright, the missionary, the squash
grew from the earth directly over Earth-Mother's navel, the beans
from that above her feet, and the tobacco-plant from that above her
head. " Thus," he added, " it soothes the mind and sobers thought."
In the fourth place, tobacco seed from the Winnebago Indians of
Minnesota, furnished by Dr. Melvin R. Gilmore, yielded Nicotiana

1 Loc. cit., p. 207.

2 Strachey, William, The Historic of Travaile into Virginia Brittania,
Hakluyt Society, London, pp. 121, 122, 1849.

3 Onondaga Indian Names for Plants, Bull. Torrey Botan. Club, vol. 16,

PP- 54, 55-

4 Indian Uses of Maize and other Food Plants, Bull. No. 114, New York
State Museum, 1910, p. 37.

SETCHELL] ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS 403

nistica, on being grown. In the fifth place, and finally in the evi
dence, there occur spontaneous plants of Nicotiana nistica in various
parts of these general areas, which seem to be remnants of earlier
Indian cultivation. Possibly some of these which have been collected
and recorded may have been ballast weeds or escapes from cultivation
more recent than that of the Indians, but some of them seem fairly
certainly to be relics of aboriginal culture. Such possible remnants of
Indian cultivation are credited to Connecticut, New York, Wisconsin,
Illinois, Minnesota, and Texas, in other words indicating an aboriginal
cultivation of Nicotiana nistica extending well over the general areas
to which I have assigned it. These facts, together with the general
plausibility of the supposition, have led me to map out the areas of
aboriginal culture for this species as I have indicated above.

The third section of the genus Nicotiana is called the Petunioides-
section whose corollas are typically salverform and whose color is
white, although often tinged with green, red, or purple. About
twelve species or well-marked varieties of this section occur within
the confines of North America or the adjacent islands, but only seven
of them are at all definitely known to me as having been used by the
Indians. There is a most interesting group of five species and
varieties centering about Nicotiana Bigelovii (Torr.) Watson and one
very widespread species Nicotiana attenuata Torr. The five species
of this section of the genus which are not as yet known to have been
in use by the Indians are the following: Nicotiana acuminata var.
parviflora Comes. ?, in central California; Ar. Clevelandii Gray, in
southwestern California, possibly used by the Santa Barbara and
other tribes of coast Indians; N. repanda Willd., in southwestern
Texas and adjacent portions of Mexico; N. plumb agini folia Viv., in
northeastern Mexico and crossing the Rio Grande into Texas; and
N. Stocktoni Brandegee, on Guadalupe Island off the coast of Lower
California.

The Nicotiana Bigelovii-group consists of three very well marked
varieties of N. Bigelovii (Torr.) Watson, N. quadrivalvis Pursh, and
N. multivalvis Landl. There is such a close resemblance in so many
details of habit and structure that it certainly seems probable that the
five distinct genetic entities of the Bigelovii-group must have.origi-

404 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [x. s., 23, 1921

nated from one and the same stock, possibly through mutation, but
probably also complicated by more or less hybridization. Their dis
tribution in nature and under aboriginal cultivation reenforces this
assumption with strong arguments. The three varieties of Nicotiana
Bigelovii are found native in three separate portions of California,
N. multivalvis was cultivated by the Indians in Oregon, Idaho, and
Montana, while N. quad rival-vis was similarly cultivated in North
Dakota. The distribution of this group runs from southern Cali
fornia north through the entire state of California and well into
Oregon, possibly also entering the southeastern corner of the state
of Washington. From Oregon, it bends eastward up along the tribu
taries of the Columbia River, across Idaho and the continental divide,
and descends the Missouri River into Montana and North Dakota.
With these ideas as to the group and its distribution, the way is made
ready for a consideration of its various members.

Torrey was the first to call attention to Nicotiana Bigelovii which
he named N. plumb aginifolia! var. Bigelovii. This was as early as
1857. In 1871, Watson raised the variety to a species and published
a more complete description, as well as a good figure of it. The
type specimens came from the Sierran foothills in central California
and are low spreading plants, with short internodes, ascending
branches, large and conspicuous white flowers, and prominent glandu
lar pubescence turning brownish, or rusty, with age. S. A. Barrett
lound it in the general type region in use among the Miwok Indians
and was kind enough to obtain seed for me. I have grown it in the
pure line for many years and find that it retains its distinctive varietal
characteristics from generation to generation. This plant, the taxo-
nomic type of Nicotiana Bigelovii, occupies an area in the very center
of California which is definitely limited and also separated from the
areas occupied by the other varieties of the species.

The plant which has usually passed under the name of Nicotiana
Bigelovii, however, is the tall erect variety found in abundance in the
dry washes of stream-beds to the north of San Francisco Bay, from
Sonoma, Mendocino, and Humboldt Counties eastward to Shasta and
possibly also other counties of California. This variety, which as
yet has no distinctive name, may reach a height of as much as six

SETCHELL] ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS 405

feet, has long erect branches with elongated internodes, and with
large flowers which are more separated than in the plants of the
taxonomic type. In common with the type of the species, this tall
and erect variety has a decided tendency toward a three-celled ovary
and such are to be found in most well-developed plants although in
a small percentage of the total number of capsules matured. Chest
nut1 states that this variety is used for smoking and also for chewing
by all the Indian tribes of Mendocino County, California. Thanks
to P. E. Goddard2 and S. A. Barrett, I have perfectly reliable evi
dence that it is still used by the Hupa and the Pomo. The Hupa, at
least, knew it both wild and cultivated,3 but the Pomo seem to have
used only the wild plant. As to how far the use of this variety
extended into Oregon I am uncertain, but I have the opinion that, to
wards its northern limits and beyond them, attempts were made to
cultivate it, as certainly was the case among the Hupa. Northern
California represents the limit of the spontaneous distribution of any
coastal species of Nicotiana and in Oregon we find that the cultivated
tobacco of certain Indian tribes was a nearly related species, or
possibly derived variety, of N. Bigelovii, viz., N. multivalvis Lindl.
There can be little doubt that it was some form of the Bigelovii-
group of the genus Nicotiana which was used by the Indians whom
Drake encountered in 1579, when he landed on the coast of California,
somewhere in the vicinity of Drake's Bay. Wiener* remarks on
Drake's account as follows : " That tabaco, first mentioned in His-
paniola, should have found its way so far to the northwest, in addi
tion to the rest of the continent, is a prima facie proof that the dis
tribution of tobacco follows from its first appearance under Arabic
influence, from Guinea to all countries where Spanish, Portuguese,
and French sailors navigated via Guinea or after having taken part
in Guinea expeditions." The extreme improbability of Nicotiana
Bigelovii having originated in Guinea and having been brought thence

1 Plants used by the Indians of Mendocino County, California, Contr. U. S.
National Herb., vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 386, 387, 1902.

2 Life and Culture of the Hupa, in Univ. Calif. Pubs., Amer. Arch, and
Eth., vol. i, no. i, p. 37, 1903.

3 Goddard, loc. cit.
* Loc. cit., p. 14;.

406 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [x. s., 23, 1921

to the State of California, the only place where it has ever been
known, and through any human agency, takes away the effectiveness
of this " prima facie proof" and yields another strong probability
that the tobacco of Hispaniola may have been carried from Hispan-
iola to Guinea rather than that any species of tobacco may have been
brought from Guinea to Hispaniola or any other portion of the Amer
ican Continent.

The third variety of Nicotiana Bigelovii, the var. Wallacei Gray,
is found in a limited area in southern California and distinctly sep
arated, in its distribution, from either, or both, of the other varieties
of the species. Var. Wallacei is a plant of medium height, erect, and
much more slender than either of the two varieties of central and of
northern California. It has a smaller flower with more slender tube
and I have never seen a three-celled ovary among several thousand
examined, all the ovaries, and ripe capsules, having been found to
be two-celled. While it is very probable that this variety may have
been used by the Indian tribes of the region where it occurs, I have
been unable to obtain any direct evidence that such was the case. Its
relations with Nicotiana Clevelandii Gray, both botanically and as to
aboriginal use, are still very uncertain.

When Lewis and Clark visited the Mandan villages in North
Dakota in 1804* they found the inhabitants smoking a kind of tobacco
never seen previously by white men. They obtained specimens and
seed for their collections as well as data for their report. The speci
mens brought back by them served as the type of the Nicotiana quad-
rivalws Pursh2 and are now preserved among the collections of the
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The seed, or some
of it at least, was distributed so that it was the source of the plants
grown in various botanical gardens in Europe and its descendants are
still to be found in some such institutions. A few years ago, through
the courtesy of the Anthropological Section of the American Museum
of Natural History of New York City, I was enabled to obtain from
George F. Will of Bismarck, North Dakota, and from Melvin Ran-

1 Cf. Thwaites, Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition,
1804-1806, vol. i, pp. 183, 186, 187, 1904; vol. 6, pp. 142, 149-151, 158, 1905,
New York.

2 Flora Americae Septentrionalis, vol. i, p. 141, 1814.

SETCHELL] ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS 407

dolph Gilmore of Lincoln, Nebraska, seed of this species which was
still being cultivated by a Hidatsa Indian. I have grown the descend
ants of the plants from this seed and in the pure line for several
generations and find that it still comes absolutely true to type as
described by Lewis and Clark and as represented by the Lewis and
Clark specimens. The plants very closely resemble those of the type
of Nicotiana Bigelovii, but the flowers are neither quite so large nor
so graceful. The chief difference from any of the varieties of N.
Bigclovii, however, is to be found in the ovary. This is constantly
four-celled in N. quadrivalvis, while in N. Bigclovii, it is preponderat-
ingly two-celled, although three celled examples are frequent in the
type and in the northern variety. Nicotiana quadrivalvis is not only
the tobacco of the Mandan, but of the Arikara and the Hidatsa In
dians as well. How they obtained it is not known, but it is not
known outside of cultivation. This latter fact, taken in connection
with the close resemblance to Nicotiana Bigelovii, the only essential
difference being the increase in the number of carpels as shown by
the four-celled ovary, makes it appear reasonably certain that N.
quadrivalvis is only a derivative from some form of Ar. Bigelovii. It
may possibly have arisen by a single mutation or it may be a hybrid
derivative from a cross between N. Bigelovii and N. multivalvis. I
have obtained forms very close to N. quadrivalvis as descendants of
such a cross and such forms have appeared in the botanical garden
of the University of California as the result of a probably spon
taneous cross between the two species mentioned. It is of decided
interest to find a Bigelovii-derivative so far from the Bigelovii home
and this interest is increased by the fact that N. quadrivalvis is con
nected in distribution with the Californian area by the area in which
Ar. inultivalvis, itself seemingly a Bigelovii-derivative, is found under
aboriginal cultivation.

The Hidatsa tobacco, which is fairly certainly Nicotiana quadri
valvis, has been the subject of study by Gilbert L. Wilson.1 He says
that the Hidatsa cultivate tobacco, but does not mention the species.
It is not used by the young men because it prevents running by

1 Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians, an Indian Interpretation, Univ. of
Minnesota Studies in the Social Sciences, no. 9, Minneapolis, 1917, pp. 121—127.

408 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 23, igji

causing shortness of breath. It is not planted near corn because
tobacco has a strong smell that affects corn. In harvesting, the
blossoms are picked first, the white parts (corollas) being thrown
away, and the stems and leaves are picked last. Both blossoms and
stems are treated with buffalo-fat before being stored. The Hidatsa
name for their tobacco, according to Lowie,1 is ope.

Melvin Randolph Gilmore,2 in treating of the uses of plants by
the Missouri River Indians, writes as if they all used Nicotiana
quadrivalvis? although he mentions specifically that his definite knowl
edge was of the Hidatsa tobacco only. He states that N. qnadrivalvis
was cultivated by all the tribes of Nebraska,4 but was lost as soon as
they came into contact with Europeans and so completely that not
even the oldest Omaha had ever seen it in cultivation. It seems fully
as probable that the Nebraska tribes, being nomads, may not have
cultivated tobacco, but probably obtained it by trade. In this case it
seems just as likely that they may have obtained Nicotiana nistica
from Indians of the Eastern Woodland Area or N. attcnuata from
those of the Plains Area, as to have received N. qnadrivalvis from
any one of the three tribes of village Indians of North Dakota.

Nicoti-ana multivalvis Lindl., the fifth and last member of the
Bigclovii-group to be considered, bears a striking resemblance to the
type of N. Bigelovii and also to N. quadrivdvis in habit, leaves, and
shape — as well as color — of the flowers. The corolla, however, is
usually more than five-lobed, varying to as many as twelve or more
lobes. The ovary is the characteristic feature of the species. It is
composed of two circles of cells, one within the other as in the case
of the ovary of the navel-orange. The capsule of N. multivalvis
bears fertile seeds in all, or at least in most, of its cells. Such a form
of ovary as this is evidently monstrous, at least from the point of
view of the normal ovary of Nicotiana, and may be supposed to have
been derived from a form such as the type of N. Bigelovii by a rela-

1 The Tobacco Society of the Crow Indians, Anthrop. Papers, Amer. Mus.
Nat. Hist., vol. 21, pt. 2, 1919.

2 Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region, 33rd Ann.
Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnology (for 1911-12), pp. 43-154, 1919.

3 Loc. cit., p. 59.
.* Loc. cit., p. 1 13.

SETCHELL] ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS 409

tively simple mutation. An additional argument 'as to the possible
derivation of this species from some simpler form is the fact that it
has not been found outside of cultivation.

Nicotiana multivalvis was discovered by David Douglas1 in Au
gust, 1825. The first specimen he saw of it was in the hands of an
Indian at the great falls of the Columbia River, but, although he
offered two ounces of manufactured tobacco, an enormous remunera
tion, the Indian would not part with it. The Indians planted it away
from the villages so that it could not be pulled before maturity. They
burned a dead tree or stump in the open wood and strewed the ashes
over the ground to be planted. Later on, Douglas found one of the
little plantations and helped himself to specimens. Soon after, how
ever, he met the owner who appeared much displeased on seeing the
plants under Douglas's arm. A present of an ounce of European
tobacco appeased him and the present of an additional ounce induced
him to talk of the Indian tobacco and to answer questions concerning
it. Douglas learned from the Indian that he put wood ashes over
the ground because it was supposed that the ashes make the tobacco
plants to grow very large. He also learned that this species of to
bacco grew plentifully in the country of the Snake Indians, who may
have brought it from the headwaters of the Missouri River which
they annually visited, and have distributed it from this region and in
both directions east and west of the Rocky Mountains. This sug
gestion of the Indian probably represents a portion of the truth as
regards the travels of this species, but the general trend must have
been rather from the coast to the eastward and into the interior, if
the botanical probabilities are duly considered.

Through the kindness of Dr. Robert H. Lowie, of the American
Museum of Natural History, I have been able to make certain that
the tobacco which is of so much ceremonial importance among the
Crow Indians is Nicotiana multivalvis. I have examined photo
graphs of the tobacco gardens of the Crows, in which the plants
showed their characters remarkably well, and also a pressed specimen
of an entire plant concerning whose identity there can be no doubt.

i Journal Kept by David Douglas, etc., London, 1914, pp. 59, 141 (sub. N.
pulverulenta Pursh).

410 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [x. s., 23, 1921

Dr. Lowie1 has since published his paper on the subject and brought
forward much detail concerning the planting and ceremonial use of
this species. In his preface, Dr. Lowie says that the Tobacco Society
loomed large in the tribal life of the Crow, its ceremonial activities
probably ranking next to the Sun Dance. The Crows insist that their
tobacco is different from that of the Hidatsa (Nicotiana quadrivalvis)
and botanically this idea is correct. In connection with the query as
to whence the Crow, and the Hidatsa as well, may have obtained their
particular types of tobacco, Dr. Lowie, in addition to the botanical
evidence, calls attention to the fact that in the languages of several of
the tribes using the Bigelovii-group of tobaccos, the root of the word
for tobacco is op or up and that the Dieguerios, the Shasta, the
Takelma, the Crow, and the Hidatsa agree in this, while the tribes
using . other species of tobacco apply terms from different roots.
This linguistic evidence is of decided interest and importance, espe
cially when taken in connection with the close botanical relationship
of the species and varieties concerned.

We have seen that the Indians of the Eastern Woodland Culture
Area and of the Southeastern Culture Area made use of cultivated
Nicotiana rustica which probably came to them through the south
western corner of Texas from Mexico. We may now see that the
Indians of the greater portions of the Plains Area, the Southwestern
Area, and even of the North Pacific Coast Area used an entirely
different species, viz., Nicotiana attenuata Torrey. The tremendous
extent of that portion of North America over which this species
furnished the tobacco of the aboriginal tribes is divided into a north
ern and a southern section, as a glance at the accompanying map will
show, by the intrusion of two members of the Bigelovii-group, viz.,
Ar. quadrivalvis and N. multivalvis. Nicotiana attenuata is found
growing wild over the Southwestern Area and over the southern and
middle portions of the Plains Area, at least to the westward, but was
cultivated over the northern portion of the Plains Area and in the
North Pacific Coast Area where it does not occur spontaneously.
The condition in the easternmost portion of the Plains Area is not
as yet clear to me.

i Loc. cit.

SETCHELL] ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS 411

The type specimen of Nicotiana attenuata came from the Washoe
country in Nevada and I have reliable testimony that it is still used
by the Washoe Indians, especially by the older men. To the south,
it is used by the Coahuilla Indians of southeastern California,1 and
Leslie Spier has also kindly communicated to me that the Southern
Dieguenos about Campo, California, use this species, which they call
" Coyote Tobacco," and infrequently cultivate it near house sites. It
grows rapidly and high wherever the ground has been newly burned
over. " Coyote Tobacco " is used by these Indians to cure colds. It
is also used in the south by the Zufii tribes,2 whence I have received
seed through Prof. A. L. Kroeber and have raised plants, and by the
Tewa Indians.3 It was used by the Utes, although not named by
Chamberlain,4 and by the Gosiutes.5 Dr. Lowie has submitted to me
some samples of the tobacco raised by the northern Blackfoot6 which
seems, although fragmentary and much broken, to show the char
acteristic hairs of this species. I have received from Mr. James Teit
of Spences Bridge, B. C. (through the kind offices of Dr. C. F. New-
combe of Victoria), seed of the tobacco formerly cultivated by the
Thompson River Indians of that vicinity and have demonstrated that
the plants grown from it are true Nicotiana attenuata. C. F. New-
combe has informed me that he has strong evidence that this species
was also cultivated by the Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands and
used for chewing. The evidence for the extent of the aboriginal use
of N. attenuata seems to be convincing for the area as mapped and
as outlined above.

Nicotiana attenuata has something of the appearance of a slender
N. Bigelovii, but its flowers are smaller and less distinctly salverform,

i Barrows, The Ethnobotany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern Cal
ifornia, Univ. of Chicago, p. 74, 1900.

2 Stevenson, Ethnobotany of the Zuni Indians, 30th Ann. Rep., Bur. Amer.
Ethnology, p. 86, 1915.

3 Robbins, Harrington, and Freire-Marreco, Botany of the Tewa Indians,
Bull. 55, Bur. Amer. Ethnology, pp. 103—107, 1916.

* Chamberlain, Some Plant Names of the Ute Indians, Amer. Anthrop.,
n. s., vol. ii, 1909.

5 Ibid., Ethnobotany of the Gosiute Indians, Mem. Amer. Anthrop. Assoc.,
vol. 2, pt. 5. p. 345, 1911.

6 Lowie, loc. cit., p. 112.

412 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N.S., 23, 1921

the lower leaves more distinctly petioled, while the glandular hairs
often have a swollen, bladdery base which, in collapse, gives a blistery
appearance. This appearance is of the greatest service in identifying
fragments, particularly of the calyx parts. The plant itself is tall,
erect, and often slender, although very robust plants are found in
favorable localities.

One of the least satisfactorily known species of Nicotiana in
North America is N. Clevelandii Gray. I know of this species only
through the dried specimens in the different herbaria in this country.
The specimens referred to this species even by Gray himself vary so
considerably that I feel much doubt as to the exact nature of the
specific characters. I have attempted to obtain plants and seeds from
students who might be in a position to collect them, but without suc
cess. N. Clevelandii seems to have some characters similar to those
considered peculiar to N. attenuata and other characters similar to
those of N. Bigelovii var. Wallacei. Some specimens referred to
N. Clevelandii have more the general appearance of one of the two
species just mentioned, while others are very much more like the
other of the two. One suggestion which seems probable is that these
puzzling plants are hybrid derivatives of the two species which they
resemble. So far as may be determined, N. Clevelandii is confined
to the coastward side of southern California, extending from Santa
Barbara to San Diego. The relation to aboriginal use or culture of
this species is as unsettled as its botanical status. Rothrock1 states
that he found N. Clevelandii only in association with shell heaps in
the neighborhood of Santa Barbara, California, and, on account of
the tobacco pipes found in the same heaps, suggests that this may be
the species used by the tribes of Indians who made the pipes. Pos
sibly, also, this may be the tobacco mentioned by Sparkman2 as hav
ing been formerly used by the Luiseno Indians of southern California
and called in their language " pavivut."

There is a very interesting species, of striking appearance, Nico
tiana trigonophylla, in the southwestern United States, ranging from

i Botany, in Report U. S. Geoff. Surveys West of the looth Meridian in charge
of First Lieut. George M. Wheeler, vol. vi, p. 48, 1878.

2 The Culture of the Luiseno Indians, Univ. Calif. Pub., Amer. Archaeol.
and Ethnol., vol. 8, p. 229, 1908.

SETCIIELL] ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS 413

southeastern California to the western borders of Texas. Its aspect
is very different from that of any other species of the genus in North
America. It occurs in the lower portion of the territory occupied by
Nicotiana attenuate, where the latter species is the one usually em
ployed for smoking. There is, however, a specimen in the U. S.
National Herbarium (No. 13478), collected in Arizona by Edward
Palmer in 1885, which has the note " used by the Yuma Indians." I
am very much indebted to Leslie Spier of the University of Wash
ington for the information that this species (identified by Paul
Standley of the U. S. National Herbarium) is used by the Havasupai
Indians of Cataract Canyon in Arizona, a branch of the Yuman stock.
The Havasupai distinguish two sorts of this tobacco which look alike,
but which they say smoke differently. The Havasupai cut down a
mesquite tree, burn it on the unbroken soil, and scatter the tobacco
seed over the dead ashes.

The remaining four species of Nicotiana found native in North
America, or in the islands immediately adjacent to it, viz., N. repanda
Willd., N. nudicaulis Watson, N. plumbaginifolia Viv., and N. Stock-
toni Brandegee, are not, so far as I have been able to ascertain, sus
pected of being associated with aboriginal use, although some of them
seem as well adapted to smoking, at least, as some of those which are
widely used.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,
BERKELEY, CALIF.

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST

[N. s., 23, 1921

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE

The map used to indicate the areas of use of the different species of
Nicotiana in North America, is obtained from the Department of Anthro
pology of the American Museum of Natural History of New York City and
is the same as that given by Dr. Clark Wissler in The American Indian
(New York, 1917, fig. 103). The lines delimiting the different Nicotiana
areas follow more or less closely those used to mark off the various " Cul
ture Areas" from one another (cf. Wissler, loc. cit., fig. 67), but with some
differences. Within the different Nicotiana areas, the larger number within
a single circle indicates the general species used, presumably throughout the
area, while the smaller number within a circle indicates a tribe definitely
known to have used it. The numbers in double circles placed without the
borders of the land, but with arrows drawn to indicate the regions to which
they belong, indicate, with the exception of No. 10, species not as yet known
to have been in aboriginal use. The following is a list of the species, each
with its appropriate number :

I. Nicotiana Tabacum L.

2.
3-

4-
5-
6.

7-
8.

9-
10.
ii.

rustica L.

Bigclovii (Torrey) Watson (typical form).

(tall form).

(var. WaUacci Gray).
quadrii'ak'is Pursh.
multirah-is Lindley.
attenuata Torrey.
Clei'elandii Gray.
trigonophylla Dunal.
repanda Willdenow.

I am indebted to Mr. Charles E. Davis of Edgewood, R. I., for the
preparation of this plate.

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST

N. S. VOL. 23, PL. 3

DISTRIBUTION OF NORTH AMERICAN ABORIGINAL TOBACCOS