Alpine knotweed, Polygonium phytolaccaefolium. They would pound the root and put it on a swelling to draw out the poison. paˀaníx̣ana płɨ́x̣ tamax̣płáki amaš kʷná tɨ́tsana ‘they used to make a medicine with alpine knotweed (for) where you were having a swelling’.
As spoken by a group of elders in the early 1980s when thinking about putting their language to writing.
The words and sentences in this dictionary are mostly the contribution of Twáway, otherwise known of as Inez Spino Reves. Twáway has never flinched from working with linguists, and her command of the “old language” with all its intricacies of grammar and vocabulary is second to none. Other Umatilla contributors are Charley McKay, Donald Joe, Emily Littlefish, Fred Hill, Joan Watlamet, Mildred Quaempts, and Thomas Morning Owl. Animal and plant identifications were much aided by botanist Dave Corliss (personal communication) and by Eugene Hunn (1979, 1990).
