KINNIKINNICK

An Algonquin word, apparently meaning “that which is mixed”, usually referring to tobacco. BEARBERRY, for example, actually has this as a name, for American Indians smoked the dried leaves, either with ordinary tobacco, making the mix that warrants the name, or without any tobacco (Sanford). The Chippewa smoked the mixture, in the ordinary way, and also, they claimed, “to attract game” (Densmore). Bearberry was not the only plant to be called kinnikinnick – SILKY CORNEL (Cornus amomum) was another, and so was REDOSIER DOGWOOD (Cornus stolonifera). The inner bark of the former was used, by the Menomini Indians, for example, as a tobacco substitute (H H Smith. 1923), and so was the bark of the latter (see Bergen. 1899, Chamberlin. 1911, etc.,).