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  • A Native American medicine man. Oil painting.
  • A native American woman with plaited hair and a Native American logo as a hair decoration within a banner held up by wooden posts; an advertisement for the Native American Women's Health Education Reource Center in South Dakota. Lithograph.
  • Silphium perfoliatum L. Asteraceae Indian Cup. Distribution: North America. Austin (2004) records that another species, S. compositum, was used by Native Americans to produce a chewing gum from the dried sap of the roots, and Native American medicinal uses for 'Indian Cup' are probably referrable to S. compositum and not S. perfoliatum. Silphium perfoliatum contains enzymes that inhibit trypsin and chymotrypsin which gives it resistance to fungal, bacterial and insect attacks. Male gall wasps (Antisotrophus rufus) alter the chemistry of the plant to enable them to locate females, making it a 'signpost' plant. The gall wasp lays its eggs in the stem of Silphium laciniatum, to provide food for the larva on emergence, and the galls containing a male or a female wasp will cause the plant to give off a different chemical odour. Emerging male wasps can search for female wasps, which emerge later, by locating this chemical fragrance which acts as a sex pheromone proxy (Tooker et al Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2002 Nov 26
  • A native American grinding root vegetables to make the remedy marketed as Dr Morse's Indian Root Pills, and other native American activities. Colour lithographs, ca. 1900.
  • A native American grinding root vegetables to make the remedy marketed as Dr Morse's Indian Root Pills, and other native American activities. Colour lithographs, ca. 1900.
  • A native American grinding root vegetables to make the remedy marketed as Dr Morse's Indian Root Pills, and other native American activities. Colour lithographs, ca. 1900.
  • A native American grinding root vegetables to make the remedy marketed as Dr Morse's Indian Root Pills, and other native American activities. Colour lithographs, ca. 1900.
  • Native North American costume: leggings. Watercolour attributed to Thomas Bateman.
  • A native American woman holding a baby over her shoulder against a graphic backdrop representing an advertisement for the Native American Women's Health Education Reource Center in South Dakota. Colour lithograph.
  • Native North American costume: a man's jacket. Watercolour attributed to Thomas Bateman.
  • Native North American costume: a woman's dress. Watercolour attributed to Thomas Bateman.
  • Native North American costume: a woman's dress. Watercolour attributed to Thomas Bateman.
  • A native American woman holding a baby over her shoulder against a graphic backdrop representing an advertisement for the Native American Women's Health Education Reource Center in South Dakota. Colour lithograph.
  • Native North American costume: a decorated robe (detail). Watercolour attributed to Thomas Bateman.
  • A native American man and woman. Platinum print by F.A. Rinehart, 1898.
  • Native North American costume: a moccasin, two figures. Watercolour attributed to Thomas Bateman.
  • Three native North American medicine men dressed in elaborate ritual masks and costumes. Wood engraving.
  • A Scotsman and a Native American man smoking pipes by barrels of tobacco. Coloured engraving.
  • A native American medicine man with elaborate body painting performing a dance. Wood engraving, 1873.
  • Yellowhead, a native North American man aged 40. Colour pastel drawing by W. Langdon Kihn, 1920.
  • Frontispiece to 'Catlin's notes of eight years' travels...', showing Native American and European men shaking hands
  • An English woman lost in the American jungle is captured by a native American with a tomahawk. Engraving by C. Warren, 1797, after J. Burney.
  • Camassia leichtlinii (Baker)S.Watson Hyacinthaceae. Great Camas, Quamash. The species was named for Maximillian Leichtlin (1831-1910 of Baden , Germany, bulb enthusiast who corresponded with J.G. Baker at Kew. Bulbous herb. Distribution: North America. The bulbs of Camassia species were eaten by the Native Americans, the Nez Perce, after cooking by steaming for a day - which suggests they may be poisonous raw. They gave them to the American explorers, Meriwether Lewis and William Clerk, on their expedition (1804-1806) when they ran out of food. The bulbs of the similar looking 'Death camus', Toxicoscordion venenosum have been fatal when ingested by mistake (RBG Kew on-line). Steroidal saponins, which are precursors in the manufacture of steroids and cytotoxic activity has been detected in the sap of the bulbs. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench Asteraceae. Coneflower. Distribution: North America. Austin (2004) records that the roots were chewed, or used as a tincture for coughs by the Choctaw. It was combined with Rhus typhina to treat venereal disease by the Delaware. Very little record of this being used by Native Americans, who used E. angustifolia very widely - Regarded as a panacea and magical herb. This and E. pallida were used to treat snakebite, spider bite, cancer, toothache, burns, sores, wounds, flu and colds. E. purpurea in modern times has been used as an ‘immunostimulant’, but is known to cause a fall in white cell count, and to be purely a placebo. Licensed for use as a Traditional Herbal Medicine, which does not require proof of efficacy, in the UK. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench Asteraceae. Coneflower. Distribution: North America. Austin (2004) records that the roots were chewed, or used as a tincture for coughs by the Choctaw. Combined with Rhus typhina to treat venereal disease by the Delaware. Very little record of this being used by Native Americans, who used E. angustifolia very widely - Regarded as a panacea and magical herb. This and E. pallida were used to treat snakebite, spider bite, cancer, toothache, burns, sores, wounds, flu and colds. E. purpurea in modern times has been used as an ‘immunostimulant’, but is known to cause a fall in white cell count, and to be purely a placebo. Licensed for use as a Traditional Herbal Medicine, which does not require proof of efficacy, in the UK. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench Asteraceae. Coneflower. Distribution: North America. Austin (2004) records that the roots were chewed, or used as a tincture for coughs by the Choctaw. It was combined with Rhus typhina to treat venereal disease by the Delaware. Very little record of this being used by Native Americans, who used E. angustifolia very widely - Regarded as a panacea and magical herb. This and E. pallida were used to treat snakebite, spider bite, cancer, toothache, burns, sores, wounds, flu and colds. E. purpurea in modern times has been used as an ‘immunostimulant’, but is known to cause a fall in white cell count, and to be purely a placebo. Licensed for use as a Traditional Herbal Medicine, which does not require proof of efficacy, in the UK. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Lake Windemere, British Colombia: a Native American baby-carrier attached to the back of a pony. Photograph, 1922.
  • Lake Windemere, British Colombia: a Native American baby-carrier attached to the back of a pony. Photograph, 1922.
  • A native North American shaman or medicine man healing a patient. Chromolithograph by C. Schuessele after Captain Eastman.
  • Skeleton of the Missouri Leviathan: the skeleton is shown standing in a pastoral setting, with a Native American shown seated on an elephant to indicate scale, while another Native American and a man in Western dress look on. Coloured lithograph by G. Tytler, ca. 1845.