John Bruno Romero

“ We Indians have not yet learned some of the ways and customs of our white brothers, and, therefore, I could not say that what cannot be done today can be done ten years from now. Our religion and philosophy teach us that the heart is the pendulum of life, each stroke representing timely death which may befall us with one of these strokes any moment, and so don’t forget Datura meteloides. ”

“ The right way is the way of the Indians of wisdom, nature’s way. If you are getting sluggish, low in vitality and vigor, it simply means that the battery-cells of your body are low and need recharging. Civilization has to some extent deprived us of this great body builder and has isolated us until the flesh of our feet does not make contact with the vast electrical currents of Mother Nature. ”

“ The fatal year when thousands of Indians of the Pacific Southwest were destroyed by that merciless, frightful scourge, smallpox. And the tradition of its ravages is kept alive even today among the descendants of the few who escaped death. ”

“ This graceful and stately fern of great beauty of leaf design inhabits the high mountain ranges where there are well-shaded forest lands rich in mulch. This fern is well-known to every Indian for the sad historical part it played in the life of our fair and beloved sister Ramona, the daughter of Ca-we and wife of Alessandro, the immortal Indian who suffered death without a moment’s warning at the hands of a brute and coward. ”

“ This shrub, a common inhabitant of California’s coastal regions, has been placed by the white writer in the division of poisonous plants, and we agree with him. So the only credit given the plant is chiefly for the remarkable beauty it displays with its starlike flowers and racemes of dark-blue berries. Yet it has been condemned under the label of poison, and much is being done toward its destruction wherever found. However, it is a fruitless task, and may only become a near-success when the Indians and the birds shall be known as two signs of life vanished from the face of the earth. ”

“ A plant held in great esteem by the Indians, protecting them, when hunting or exploring, from poisonous snakes, lizards, scorpions, tarantulas and insects during the summer season.
It was the custom of the Indians then to discard their buckskin clothes and roam around with as little covering as possible until the fall of the year, when they donned their heavier clothing again for the approaching cold weather. Now, it is well-known how disagreeable the odor of garlic is to most human beings, but they don’t know that it is likewise so to reptiles and insects. ”

“ Kind readers and hard-shelled scientists, I pray you, let us be rational and let us go deeper into the field of investigation. And I advise you for your own good to do so even if Datura meteloides has failed to make its appearance in the pharmacopoeia with its commercial mark [*Rx] prefixed with the “M.D.” As I have said once before, there is very little in the drugstores today for which the Indian cannot find a substitute in the great field of nature. The plants I am writing about in this book represent just one-fourth of the medicinal botany of our Indians of the Pacific Southwest. ”

“ So the mission went away and settled elsewhere, and the priest also went away.
Then our white neighbors came, as I said, and drove the Indians from our sacred springs. That is why the Indians are dying out in Southern California, because we must live on worthless lands far away from those springs.
Our white neighbors may think we Indians have no religion, but that is not so. We do believe in God who is the Creator of the world, and of the firmament, of Indians as well as white people.... Therefore we are brothers in God, as we are created by God. ”

“ Enough plundering had been done already, and the Indians had no desire to divulge their secret. They would only show them what they could do. One of the friars, full of doubt and curiosity, asked one of the Indians who, the day before, had assisted a patient bitten by a rattlesnake to go with him into one of the fields north of 47 the Mission, pretending he wanted information as to certain plants growing there. When there, the friar drew near to a Datura meteloides, and at once began questioning the Indian about the plant, whereupon the Indian refused to give information. ”

“ Habitat, the California desert. For a good many years this plant has been used to restore the color of hair, but the method used and practiced is far from that of our people, the Indians. And this can be traced back to the misunderstanding of the people who first introduced this use of sage for that purpose. Of course, washing the hair with it as a scalp treatment will do no harm, because the plant itself has soothing and healing qualities; but to maintain the natural color of the hair, or to restore gray hair to its former color, one must drink the infusion when compounded in the way we know. ”

“ The rattlesnake and tarantula formula I will donate to the good of mankind, free under patent rights under my control to avoid medical exploitation, speculation, and selfish rights of monopoly. I am not in search of mere money. Honor and character are of far more value to me. My happiness comes to me from the good I can do to others, and this to me is almost an obligation to clear and right every wrong done to my people ”

“ In the ’90s the white people discovered that they could be worked into portieres, hanging ornaments, etc., as they looked so beautiful and the fad became so strong that young and old would search for these seeds all over the country with the result that the plant became almost extinct, the usual net result when the white man took a fancy to certain plants or animals. However, in this instance, kind Mother Nature hid a few seeds away among and under the carpet of autumn leaves which in time replaced the destruction wrought by the white man. ”

“ As far back as I can remember, in the late ’90s, the Trichostema lanatum grew in abundance along the near coastal ranges, but gradually this very valuable plant became a victim of extermination through brush fires at the hands of careless hunters and the clearing of land by farmers. The Indians, perceiving how rapidly these plants were vanishing, gathered the seeds and carried them further inland, into rough mountain country where they were resown, and there they remained in their last botanical refuge with hundreds of others which are of great medicinal value also. ”

“ In 1847 if the United States Government had sent us a man like Mr. C. T. Coggeshall, who is the superintendent of the nine Indian reservations, the Indians would never have lost the Two Sisters and Brother Life Springs. Mr. Coggeshall is a man with large experience and he has done a lot of good for the Indians under his jurisdiction.
However, I am glad that Mr. John Console owns the springs, because he is a friend of the Indians. He helps the Indians with those springs. The springs cure light sickness, but for serious sickness we have to use herbs. ”

“ I am an Indian, proud of it and of my forefathers, whose bitterness toward the white man was only too well justified. But time changes all things and bitterness and hatred never made for understanding nor happiness. ”

“ The collection presented here was hand-picked from 500 specimens gathered by the author on a plant-hunting expedition on the Pacific Coast and in Arizona. Only twenty-eight, it is said, are known to modern medical science.
For more than one hundred years, the Indians have kept to themselves their profound knowledge of medicinal herbs and their application. Meanwhile, if the Indian, with his intelligent and extraordinary attachment to nature, had not preserved and replanted a large number of these herbs, many of them would now be extinct. ”

“ A great deal of misinterpretation of Indian life has been written by white authors who gathered their information from Indians who knew a great deal but were unable to give comprehensive data to the white writer. Others were there who could have done so, but their lips were sealed where the white man was concerned. This accounts for the mistakes which have been made and whereby Datura meteloides has failed to gain recognition for its meritorious medicinal value. It is worth knowing that the plant is antivenin and will effect cures of rattlesnake and tarantula bites. ”

“ At one time or another, he has worked as a surveyor, explorer, geologist, and antho-botanist, and his home is a veritable treasure trove of interesting archaeological, geological, and botanical specimens which he has collected in the mountains and deserts of Southern California and Arizona—in sections where the white man has seldom traveled. ”

“ I often hear white people say they are Americans in America, and we are Indians. I say we are the native sons of America. We are good to our country and to our white neighbors, and do not trouble them. When the missions first came to this country the Indians were numerous and the country well inhabited by the Indians. Then the Indians did not know that the country was going to be filled with intoxicating liquor. ”

“ The Indians ground the wild garlic into a pulp and then rubbed it well over their legs up to the thighs, making extra sure that the skin was thoroughly saturated with the garlic juice and thus protected. The Indian would enter any locality to do his hunting, even if it was infested with thousands of rattlesnakes, without the slightest fear or worry. The reason is very simple. Whenever the snake or insect 64 comes within smelling distance of the garlic, it is so much affected by it as to become well-nigh asphyxiated and is rendered helpless. ”

“ Considering, however, the value and uses of Datura meteloides, I assert that this decision was very irregular and out of all proportion as to what it was intended. We know that everything can be abused, yet some of our Indian brothers who wished to live in ignorance and superstition had a perfect right to do so. In truth, it wasn’t so with all Indians and there were really some great minds amongst them.
When, for instance, the Chinaman wishes to see the beautiful lotus and cherry blossoms of his native land, he does so through the smoke of the opium-pipe. ”

“ American Tobacco Tree. This tree, very common along 61 the Pacific coast, grows from Santa Barbara southward to the end of Lower California, and the Mexican peninsula. The tree grows in terraced gorges and ravines and is rarely to be found anywhere else.
The leaves were steamed and applied externally as a poultice over the swollen parts of the throat caused by inflammation of the throat glands, and also for scrofula. While the latter malady didn’t exist among the Indians, yet they treated and cured some of the whites who had it, with Nicotiana glauca. ”

“ To obtain the service of a doctor is well-nigh an impossibility and ptomaine poisoning is a fast-working, exceedingly dangerous poison, where delay is fatal.
The plant Eriogonum grows nowadays in the coastal regions as well as in the desert where it originally came from, and the first thing to do when attacked by ptomaine poison is to make a strong infusion from the blossoms of the Eriogonum, or, if these are not available, use the roots, and take, 51 or give to the poison victim, two brimful cups with a pinch of salt added to each cup. ”

“ While navigating the rough sea across the Santa Barbara channel in their little boats, some of them would sometimes catch cold from getting wet and being exposed to cold winds. When reaching the islands some would have a high fever and chills, and then aid was given them in the form of Malva rosa, this being the plant used to break up the fever. And it will do so if properly administered. The Indians had so much faith in its value that they brought some of the seeds to the mainland where they were planted. ”

“ When hunting this bear the Indians would select one which had the best coat of hair. Two Indians would work together, beginning with yelling, singing, and dancing around him to such effect that he became very angry and charged one of the hunters. With speed and precision the other one would run up to the bear from behind and shoot his arrow straight into the bear’s kidneys, thus in most cases rendering the bear quite helpless ”

“ When the Chu-Mash tribe, in its later years, had dwindled in numbers, Mr. Romero joined the Cahuilla tribe “to help fight the United States Government for our land treaty rights.” Today this tribe is the second oldest in California and the strongest in membership.
The author’s interests are wide. He is a director of Indian Affairs for seven Southern California counties, and while his principal hobby is medicinal botany, he is also a collector of minerals, stamps, books, and fossils, and dabbles in taxidermy. Fond of children, he has adopted and reared ten orphans. ”

“ A great deal in the way of royalties are due the Indian, in return for the use of his art-craft, yet a few jewelry items have been overlooked by Mr. Jeweler—items which, peradventure, may bring him great wealth if properly ballyhooed.
Let us take, for instance, the case of the witch-doctor among the Indians with his special ornamental necklace—the symbol of his profession—a necklace denoting supernatural powers, a crystal quartz for a nose-piece. The necklace is made of eagle-, bear- and lion-claws, the poison fangs of rattlesnakes, etc. ”

“ The beautiful dwarf plant is very common throughout the coastal region and far into the inland valleys. It appears about July in most barley fields after the harvest. It is truly a paradise for wild turtledoves, and the hunter who goes into a place where the Croton setigerus grows may be sure of bagging a good number of doves in a short time.
The Indians gathered the plant for use in their fishing operations, and some of it was stored away for winter use. The weed has a strongly intoxicating effect on fish. ”