HACKMATAC:
MEDICINE OF THE FOREST
“Hackmatack”
is an Abenaki Indian word meaning “wood used for snowshoes”,
however this graceful tree can provide healing potions for many ills.
This tree is also referred to as Tamarack or Larch and is a
deciduous conifer which sheds its needles in the fall.. A tea made
from Hackmatack bark can be used as a laxative, tonic, medicine for
jaundice, treatment for arthritis, and a remedy for certain skin
ailments. Tea made from the needles can be good for haemorrhoids,
diarrhoea, and dysentery.
As a cure for depression, Alma Hutchins suggests a tea made from 1
teaspoon of the inner bark of the Hackmatack boiled and steeped for
30 minutes in 1 cup full of water. Hutchins comments, “Because of
its astringent and gently stimulating qualities, the inner bark is
especially useful for melancholy, often caused by the enlarged,
sluggish, hardened, condition of the liver and spleen which
inactivates various other functions of the metabolism …”. J.
Kloss in Back to Eden says that Hackmatack tea can be used for
ear aches and a weak tea made of it can be used as an eye wash.
Hackmatack can also be used to stop bleeding. The old settlers used to make a tea by boiling Hackmatack needles in sugar and hot water. This was their spring tonic.
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