Tobacco plants in the NW? What a surprise to David Douglas in 1824! He found Nicotiana quadrivalvis growing in hidden plots along the Willamette and Columbia Rivers and reported stealing plants (and being caught) in an Indigenous Forest Garden plot (commonly, not close to villages for fear of being harvested before maturity). Tobacco was
obviously cultivated by the Natives, using carefully selected land and cared for as if they also read Genisis 2:15. (Nicotiana is a perennial, but rarely survives over-winter in the NW and must be treated as an annual, i.e., started from seeds). WWU SAM students found not a single plant growing; iNaturalist report 4 observations in BC & WA among millions of observations, perhaps the only non-cultivar in Nanaimo. This was the only vegetable cultivated (in Native burn-grow areas) that David Douglas described. It was most likely brought to Cascadia Floristic Region via the Shoshone peoples, but some think California. To the north, the Salish (& Haida) were reported to have smoked tobacco and when not available, Sumac. Sumac, although an “east of the Cascade crest” native, can be found “to the west.” It grows vigorously in Bonhoeffer Gardens and when its leaves are dried, is said to be a poor substitute for the “real thing, Indian Tobacco,” that might have been once ubiquitous, but forgotten with their care tenders were killed or forced onto reservations,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_smoking
http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=tobacco&page=6
https://lewis-clark.org/people/david-douglas/douglas-in-pnw/#Indian_Tobacco
https://www.ijpr.org/show/as-it-was/2020-07-08/as-it-was-southern-oregon-indigenous-grow-one-crop-tobacco
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/pacific-northwest-tribes-smoked-smooth-sumac-1400-years-ago-180975233/
Native Americans gave the habit of smoking tobacco to:
Columbus
the Russians
Portugese
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