Sweetgrass

Sweetgrass, Sweet grass, Manna grass, Mary’s grass, Holy grass.

Anthoxanthum odoratum, Hierochloe odorata, Toressia odorata

Wiingasshk, wicko'bimucko'si, wiingwashkosigan(oon)

Sweetgrass is a very hardy perennial. Its leaves do not have rigid stems, so it only grows to about 20 cm in height, and then the leaves grow outward horizontally to 100 cm long.The plant has a distinctive sweet scent. The scent of sweetgrass, variously described as vanilla or haylike, can last as long as a hundred years. Native to northern Eurasia, Canada and North America.

Well known as a material for baskets, as well as a scent, medicine and smudge. Sweetgrass is often included in the tobacco smoking mixture. Some medicine people follow a subtle scent of sweetgrass to discover healing stones or other natural healing objects. Sweetgrass tea is drunk by the Cree and Blackfeet to treat sore throats, coughs, and sexually transmitted diseases. Women drink it to help stop vaginal bleeding after childbirth. Sweetgrass tea is used by men and women as a hair wash to make the hair healthier, stronger, and of course, sweet-smelling. Sweetgrass is widely used by North American indigenous peoples from many different Nations. Among many, it is considered one of the “four sacred medicines.”