WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR???
- A drink called atole was made from a concoction of ground beans and water
- Trunks and limbs were used for shelters and fencing.
- Aztecs made a lotion to soothe sore eyes from ground mesquite leaves mixed with water.
- Yuma Indians treated venereal disease with an infusion of leaves, and Comanches relieved toothaches by chewing the leaves.
- Yaquis treated headaches with a poultice made from mashing leaves to a pulp, mixing them with water and binding the mixture to the forehead.
- The sap that oozed from mesquite bark was mixed with water to treat sore throats and diarrhea, aid digestion, and help wounds heal.
- The Yavapai rubbed a mixture of mud and mesquite sap into their hair to simultaneously kill lice and dye their hair.
- Roots provided a reliable source of water in the generally treeless desert Southwest
- The light-amber colored sap that oozes from mesquite bark in the fall was used as a glue to mend pottery.
- Indian women made cuts in the bark to gather a darker sap, full of tannins, to use as hair dye or to decorate bark clothing.
- Indian women pounded bark into flat sheets of fiber for clothing.
- Southwestern Indians used mesquite wood or root fiber to fashion harpoons, harpoon cords, bowstrings, cradles, and agricultural tools including weed cutters and planters. Mesquite sapglued arrow points and feathers onto arrow shafts, and it waterproofed the insides and outsides of basket-jars for carrying water.
