Cedar Tips Western Red Wild (Thuja plicata) 1 lb

This is Starwest's nitrogen-flushed double wall silverfoil pack. Western or Giant Red Cedar is an evergreen ornamental and timber tree of the cypress family native to western North America. The fragrant tips are popular for adding a smoked flavor to fish and meats when cooked with them. Cedar is also used to make sweet-smelling cabinets garden and pet bedding potpourris sachets and a purifying incense for meditation and magic. http://www.botanik.uni-bonn.de/conifers/cu/th/plicata.htm: ''Redcedar has been called 'the cornerstone of northwest coast Indian culture' and the large-scale use of its wood and bark delineates the cultural boundary of the northwest coast peoples within its range. ... Few cedar trees were actually felled before European contact. Instead fallen logs or boards split from standing trees were used. To split off cedar boards for house planks or half-logs for canoes a series of graduated yew-wood [Taxus brevifolia] or antler wedges were pounded into living trees along the grain. The power of the redcedar tree was said to be so strong a person could receive strength by standing with his or her back to the tree. Redcedar was used for a variety of ailments. It is called the 'tree of life' by the Kakawaka'wakw and is still held with highest respect by all northwest coast peoples for its healing and spiritual powers. A Coast Salish myth says the Great Spirit created redcedar in honour of a man who was always helping others: 'When he dies and where he is buried a cedar tree will grow and be useful to the people -- the roots for baskets the bark for clothing the wood for shelter' '' (Pojar and Mackinnon 1994). To appreciate the material medical and spiritual value of cedar to Northwest Coast peoples consider the diversity of uses cited by Gunther in her 1945 review of ethnobotany among surviving western Washington native peoples: ''Throughout the whole Northwest the wood most extensively used by the Indians is cedar. House planks house posts roof boards and canoes are made exclusively of this wood. Boxes including those with bent sides [see photo] and dugouts [canoes] are of cedar. ... The Quileute make the hearth of the fire drill of cedar as well as the spindle for spinning mountain-goat wool. The Squaxin make the herring rake of cedar. The charcoal of cedar wood mixed with salmon eggs is used by the Quinault to rub on canoe paddles which are held in pitch wood smoke and then rubbed with green grass to produce a lasting shiny black. ''Equally as useful as the wood is the bark of the cedar tree in fact there is no single item so ubiquitous in the Indian household. The shredding of bark is a constant bit of busy work for women done by the Chehalis with a deer-bone chopper. It is shredded fine enough to be used as padding for infants' cradles as sanitary pads as towels. A coarser grade is plaited into skirts and capes later into complete dresses for women. The Lower Chehalis use cedar bark for clothing while the Upper Chehalis depend more on skins a situation duplicated whenever a tribe is divided into a salt-water and an up-river group. Shredded bark is used for ceremonial head bands ... In its unshredded state cedar bark is cut in strips of varying widths the broader ones plaited to serve as dishes or as individual plates as used by the Cowlitz who also interweave cedar and maple to make larger platters. They also use cedar bark to line cooking pits. A small coarse twilled mat is used by several Puget Sound tribes for laying out boiled salmon. Canoe bailers are folded of large pieces of cedar bark and lashed with wild cherry bark. Wads of shredded cedar bark are used as tinder for fires and also carried in a slow torch on journeys. The narrower strips are woven into mats by the Makah. ... The lining and head band of the rain hat were made of split cedar by the Quinault Quileute and Makah. The Quileute string dried clams and smelts for storage on strips of cedar bark. For many purposes cedar bark is dyed with alder juice to give it a rich red-brown color. ''The limbs of the cedar tree are stripped of their leaves soaked in water and twisted into rope. The heavier grades are used by the whale-hunting tribes like the Quinault Quileute and Makah for towing home dead whales. It has remarkable strength. Single limbs which have been worked to pliability are used to tie or sew the corners of wooden boxes and tie cross pieces in canoes. The Quileute string pecten shells on a small cedar limb as a dance rattle. Cedar limbs are used for openwork baskets by the Quinault and Squaxin and also for weaving with vine maple sticks for fish weirs and by the Snuqualmi for tying the poles of the summer house. ''The roots of the cedar tree are used widely in both western and eastern Washington for the coiled and imbricated basket. They are split fine and used for the foundation then trimmed more carefully for the sewing element. The only part of this area where cedar is not used for basketry is on the Pacific coast from the Quinault northward where spruce [Picea sitchensis] is substituted. In searching for roots for basketry the Squaxin were anxious to get those lying under rotten logs. Roots are also used by the Quinault for sewing the corners of wooden boxes. ''Medicine: The Lummi chew the buds of cedar and swallow them for sore lungs while the Cowlitz chew them for toothache and the Skokomish boil them for a gargle. The Skagit boil the ends of the leaves for coughs. The Cowlitz boil the tips and mix them with some roots... for a cold medicine. The Klallam boil cedar limbs for tuberculosis medicine. The Chehalis peel the bark of a small tree and the inner part is chewed or boiled and the liquid drunk to help bring about menstruation [unless] pregnancy was suspected ... The Quinault make an infusion of the bark and twigs for kidney trouble. The seeds of cedar are steeped with the ends of the limbs and the infusion drunk to break a fever. The Quinault boil an infusion of cedar limbs to wash sores due to venereal diseases. ''In addition to these medicinal uses the leaves and limbs of cedar are used for scouring the body in bathing both for ordinary purposes and in preparation for ceremonial occasions. This was mentioned by Swan and also by present-day informants. Among the Lummi a boy takes the boughs he has used to rub himself before a guardian spirit quest and fastens them to the top of a cedar tree. Whalers put piles of cedar branches under their beds to make themselves ready for the hunt and to ward off bad luck. ''There is a strong association between cedar and death. Lummi men burying a corpse chew cedar tips to avoid nausea. Cedar limbs singed were used by the Lummi as a broom to sweep off the walls of a house after the removal of the corpse. The Skagit burned cedar limbs at night and waved them through the house to scare the ghost after death'' (Gunther 1945).