Milkweed / Pitukëna / Wiihsakan

Pitukëna is well known as the host plant for Monarch Butterflies.  Now, it’s time to metamorphosize your awareness of it. Indigenous people have long known Pitukëna as a plant for textiles and medicine.

Pitukëna has been recognized as a medicine, including for women’s health. The Haudenosaunee have utilized Milkweed as a temporary contraceptive by drying, grinding, and ingesting the root and rhizomes. New Haudenosaunee mothers have also drunk an herbal tea, that includes Milkweed, to prevent hemorrhaging after childbirth. And to stimulate milk flow, the Chippewa have added an extract from Milkweed roots to food.

Pitukëna is also a textile. Many Indigenous communities have made the plant’s bark into sewing thread and cordage. They have also utilized the floss inside Pitukëna seed pods as a stuffing for pillows and sleeping pads because it is naturally lightweight, buoyant, and water-repellent. Appropriating this Indigenous knowledge, the Navy used Pitukëna floss-stuffed life preservers during World War II.

Learn more about the other native plants on “The Place Where Plants Grow - Enta Sakink Epëmawsiwikil” by clicking here and returning to the plant list.