Black drink is a name for several kinds of ritual beverages brewed by Native Americans in the

Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...

. Traditional ceremonial people of the

Yuchi The Yuchi people, also spelled Euchee and Uchee, are a Native American tribe based in Oklahoma. In the 16th century, Yuchi people lived in the eastern Tennessee River valley in Tennessee. In the late 17th century, they moved south to Alabama, G ...

, Caddo,

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classif ...

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

, Choctaw,

Muscogee The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsIndigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands use the black drink in purification ceremonies. It was occasionally known as ''white drink'' because of the association of the color white with peace leaders in some Native cultures in the Southeast. The preparation and protocols vary between tribes and ceremonial grounds; a prominent ingredient is the roasted leaves and stems of ''

Ilex vomitoria ''Ilex vomitoria'', commonly known as yaupon () or yaupon holly, is a species of holly that is native to southeastern North America. The word ''yaupon'' was derived from the Catawban ''yą́pą'', from ''yą-'' tree + ''pą'' leaf. Another com ...

'' (commonly known as yaupon holly), a plant native to the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coast, coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The list of U.S. states and territories by coastline, coastal states that have a shor ...

s. Black drink also usually contains

emetic Vomiting (also known as emesis and throwing up) is the involuntary, forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Vomiting can be the result of ailments like food poisoning, gastroenteritis ...

herbs.

Preparation

According to the ethnohistorical record, the yaupon leaves and branches used for the black drink were traditionally picked as close to the time of its planned consumption as possible. After picking, historically they were lightly parched in a ceramic container over fire. The roasting increases the solubility in water of the caffeine, which is the same reason

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

beans are roasted. After browning, they were boiled in large containers of water until the liquid reached a dark brown or black color, giving it its name. The liquid was then strained into containers to cool, until it was cool enough to not scald the skin, and drunk while still hot. Because caffeine is 30 times more soluble in boiling water than room temperature water, this heightened its effect. It was then consumed in a ritual manner. Its physiological effects are believed to be mainly those of massive doses of caffeine. Three to six cups of strong coffee is equal to 0.5 to 1.0 grams of caffeine; the black drink could have delivered at least this much and possibly up to 3.0 to 6.0 grams of caffeine. Owen gives the caffeine content of coffee as between 1.01 and 1.42 percent In comparison, ''Ilex vomitoria'' leaves contain 0.0038 to 0.2288 percent caffeine by weight according to experiments performed by Adam Edwards in 2002. Similar methods of production were adopted by European colonists for the production of a drink that often shared the same names with Native names for the black drink but was used for different, secular purposes. The general method of production is known, but not all details of the preparation and ceremonial usage of the black drink are. The source of the emetic effect of black drink is not known and has been speculated upon by historians, archaeologists, and botanists. Some professionals believe it to be caused by the addition of poisonous button snakeroot. Contemporary preparation and usage of the black drink by Native Americans is less well documented. Online recipes for the black drink have been criticized by some Native Americans as potentially dangerous and potentially poisonous due to those recipes leaving out key steps. The berries of the yaupon holly are poisonous. Kidney failure is one possible outcome of consuming beverages containing holly leaves. Adam Edwards and Bradley Bennett tested stems, roots, and leaves of the yaupon. They found that the only possible toxic substance was

theobromine Theobromine, also known as xantheose, is the principal alkaloid of '' Theobroma cacao'' (cacao plant). Theobromine is slightly water-soluble (330 mg/L) with a bitter taste. In industry, theobromine is used as an additive and precursor to ...

, an alkaloid, but the amounts of the chemical were so low that a single gram of cocoa contained over 2,255 times more theobromine than yaupon.

Archaeological accounts

Archaeologists have demonstrated the use of various kinds of black drink among Native American groups stretching back far into antiquity, possibly dating to Late Archaic times. During the Hopewell period, the shell cups known from later black drink rituals become common in high-status burials along with mortuary pottery and engraved stone and copper tablets. The significance of the shell cups may indicate the beginning of black drink ceremonialism. The fact that both the shells and the yaupon holly come from the same geographical location may indicate they were traded together in the Hopewell Interaction Sphere. The appearance of shell cups can be used as a virtual marker for the advent of Hopewell culture in many instances. During the Mississippian culture period, the presence of items associated with the black drink ceremony had spread over most of the south, with many hundreds of examples from Etowah, Spiro, Moundville and

Hiwassee Island Hiwassee Island, also known as Jollys Island and Benham Island, is located in Meigs County, Tennessee, at the confluence of the Tennessee and Hiwassee Rivers. It is about northeast of Chattanooga. The island was the second largest land mass on th ...

Black drink at Cahokia

Woodhenge motif black drink beaker HRoe 2013

Archaeologists working at

Cahokia The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site ( 11 MS 2) is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in south- ...

, the largest Mississippian culture settlement located near the modern city of

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

, found distinctive and relatively rare pottery beakers dating from 1050 to 1250 CE. The beakers are small round pots with a handle on one side and a tiny lip on the opposing side. The surfaces of the unfired vessels was incised with motifs representing water and the underworld and resemble the whelk shells known to have been used for the consumption of the beverage during historic times. The inside of the vessels were found to be coated with a plant residue, which when tested was found to contain

, caffeine and

ursolic acid Ursolic acid (sometimes referred to as urson, prunol, malol, or 3β-hydroxyurs-12-en-28-oic acid), is a pentacyclic triterpenoid identified in the epicuticular waxes of apples as early as 1920 and widely found in the peels of fruits, as well ...

in the right proportions to have come from the ''Ilex vomitoria''. The presence of the black drink in the Greater Cahokia area at this early date pushes back the definitive use of the black drink by several centuries. The presence of the black drink hundreds of miles outside of its natural range on the East and Gulf coasts is evidence of a substantial trade network with the southeast, a trade that also involved sharks teeth and whelk shells.

Shell cups

In historic accounts from the 16th and 17th century, the black drink is usually imbibed in rituals using a cup made of marine shell. Three main species of marine shells have been identified as being used as cups for the black drink,

lightning whelk ''Sinistrofulgur perversum'', the lightning whelk, is an edible species of very large predatory sea snail or whelk, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks. This species has a left-handed or sinistral shell. It ...

, emperor helmet, and the

horse conch ''Triplofusus giganteus'', previously known as ''Pleuroploca gigantea'', common name the Florida horse conch, is a species of extremely large predatory subtropical and tropical sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Fasciolariidae, ...

. The most common was the lightning whelk, which has a left-handed or sinistral spiral. The left-handed spiral may have held religious significance because of its association with dance and ritual. The center columnella, which runs longitudinally down the shell, would be removed, and the rough edges sanded down to make a dipper-like cup. The columnella would then be used as a pendant, a motif that shows up frequently in

Southeastern Ceremonial Complex The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (formerly the Southern Cult), aka S.E.C.C., is the name given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies, and mythology of the Mississippian culture. It coincided with their ado ...

designs. In the archaeological record columnella pendants are usually found in conjunction with bi-lobed arrows, stone maces, earspools, and necklace beads (all of which are motifs identified with the '' falcon dancer/warrior/chunkey player'' mythological figure). Artifacts made from these marine shells have been found as far north as

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and as far west as Oklahoma. Several examples of cups from Moundville and Spiro have been found to have rings of black residue in the bottoms, suggesting they were used for black drink rituals. Many examples of shell cups found in Mississippian culture mounds are engraved with S.E.C.C. imagery. A few examples portray what is theorized to be black drink rituals, including what some anthropologists have interpreted as vomit issuing from the mouths of mythological beings.

US Southwest and Mexican Northwest

Pottery samples recovered from sites in modern Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico have tested positive for the ratio of

methylxanthines Xanthine ( or ; archaically xanthic acid; systematic name 3,7-dihydropurine-2,6-dione) is a purine base found in most human body tissues and fluids, as well as in other organisms. Several stimulants are derived from xanthine, including caffein ...

associated with those produced by ''Ilex vomitoria''. The same study also identified methylxanthines ratios associated with ''

Theobroma cacao ''Theobroma cacao'', also called the cacao tree and the cocoa tree, is a small ( tall) evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae. Its seeds, cocoa beans, are used to make chocolate liquor, cocoa solids, cocoa butter and chocolate. The largest pr ...

''. Neither plants are native to the areas from which the pottery samples were recovered, which suggests trading between areas where those plants are native. The chemical analysis also suggests a possible increase in drinks prepared from cacao after the year 1200, and a decrease in the use of drinks prepared from ''Ilex vomitoria''. Freshwater shells from Texas and Arkansas have been recovered from

Pueblo Bonito Pueblo Bonito (Spanish for ''beautiful town'') is the largest and best-known great house in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, northern New Mexico. It was built by the Ancestral Puebloans who occupied the structure between AD 828 and 1126 ...

, which have been used as possible evidence for the trade of ''Ilex vomitoria'' from the east. There are also some stands of ''Ilex vomitoria'' in

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica ...

, so the exact origins of the ''Ilex vomitoria'' used to prepare the drinks is currently unknown.

Historical accounts

Several tribes across the Southeastern United States use a form of the black drink in their ceremonies. Muscogee Creeks,

s, Choctaws,

Ais AIS may refer to: Medicine * Abbreviated Injury Scale, an anatomical-based coding system to classify and describe the severity of injuries * Acute ischemic stroke, the thromboembolic type of stroke * Androgen insensitivity syndrome, an intersex ...

Guale Guale was a historic Native American chiefdom of Mississippian culture peoples located along the coast of present-day Georgia and the Sea Islands. Spanish Florida established its Roman Catholic missionary system in the chiefdom in the late 16t ...

Chitimacha The Chitimacha ( ; or ) are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans who live in the U.S. state of Louisiana, mainly on their reservation in St. Mary Parish near Charenton on Bayou Teche. They are the only Indigenous people in the st ...

Timucua The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The v ...

, and others are documented users of a type of black drink. Although rituals vary amongst the different tribes, there are some common traits among them. Black drink is most commonly drunk by men, who also prepare it, but there are some accounts of its preparation and use by women among some groups. Removal of tribes to areas outside the natural range of ''Ilex vomitoria'' has been partially responsible for a decline in the preparation of the black drink among present Native Americans.

Ais

In 1696,

Jonathan Dickinson Jonathan Dickinson (1663–1722) was a merchant from Port Royal, Jamaica who was shipwrecked on the southeast coast of Florida in 1696, along with his family and the other passengers and crew members of the ship. The party was held captive by Job ...

witnessed the use of a beverage brewed from the

Yaupon Holly ''Ilex vomitoria'', commonly known as yaupon () or yaupon holly, is a species of holly that is native to southeastern North America. The word ''yaupon'' was derived from the Catawban ''yą́pą'', from ''yą-'' tree + ''pą'' leaf. Another com ...

among the

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

. Dickinson later learned that the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

called the plant ''casseena''. The Ais parched the leaves in a pot, and then boiled them. The resulting liquid was then transferred to a large bowl using a

gourd Gourds include the fruits of some flowering plant species in the family Cucurbitaceae, particularly ''Cucurbita'' and '' Lagenaria''. The term refers to a number of species and subspecies, many with hard shells, and some without. One of the ear ...

that had a long neck with a small hole at the top, and a hole in the side. On the occasion Dickinson witnessed, he estimated that there were nearly three gallons of the beverage in the bowl. After the liquid had cooled, the chief was presented with a conch-shell of the beverage. The chief threw part of it on the ground as a blessing and drank the rest. The chief's associates were then served in turn. Lower status men, women, and children were not allowed to touch or taste the beverage. The chief and his associates sat drinking this brew, smoking and talking for most of the day. In the evening, the bowl that had held the beverage was covered with a skin to make a drum. The Ais, accompanied by the drum and some rattles, sang and danced until the middle of the night.

Cherokee

black drink is taken for purification at several traditional ceremonies. Made with

emetics Vomiting (also known as emesis and throwing up) is the involuntary, forceful expulsion of the contents of one's stomach through the mouth and sometimes the nose. Vomiting can be the result of ailments like food poisoning, gastroenteritis ...

, the complete recipe is not shared with the public. The black drink induces vomiting for purification purposes. Other ritual medicinal beverages are also used in the ceremonies. ''Ilex vomitoria'' was not native to the traditional area controlled by the Cherokee before removal, but it was brought in to the area through trade and then transplanted.

Muscogean peoples

Among the

Muscogee The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsEnglish English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

as ''

Osceola Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Asi-yahola in Muscogee language, Creek), named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a S ...

'').

Timucua

Among the

, a type of black drink was called ''cacina'' by the Spanish and spelled ''casino'' in Pareja's

writings. The preparation and consumption of the drink were strictly limited to the community council house. Women (other than an occasional female chief) were normally excluded from the council house except for activities such as dances, but did prepare the ''cacina''. In 1678 a bedridden ''cacica'' (a female chief) was given permission to brew and consume ''cacina'' in her house, on the condition that no one else could be present while she did so. The first sip of the black drink was called in Timucua ''casinomucu'' "eye of cacina".

Cassina or yaupon tea

After European contact with tribes in what is today the Southeastern United States, colonists began using the charred leaves of the yaupon holly to make a tea similar to the black drink, but without the ritual vomiting of it. Its use by colonists in Spanish Florida is documented as far back as 1615. An account from that year describes Spaniards as experiencing symptoms that would now be described as caffeine dependence due to daily consumption of what they called ''cacina'' or ''té del indio''. The use of ''Ilex vomitoria'' by colonists for tea making and for medicinal uses in the Carolinas is documented by the early eighteenth century. In the English-speaking colonies, it was known variously as cassina, yaupon tea, Indian tea, Carolina tea, and Appalachian tea. It was commonly believed to be and used as a

diuretic A diuretic () is any substance that promotes diuresis, the increased production of urine. This includes forced diuresis. A diuretic tablet is sometimes colloquially called a water tablet. There are several categories of diuretics. All diuretics i ...

. By the late 1700s, yaupon tea was described as being more commonly used in North Carolina at breakfast than tea made with '' Camellia sinensis''. In addition to using it on their own, European colonists often consumed black drinks when engaging in discussions and treaties with Natives. Its preparation by European colonists was nearly identical to the method of preparation used by their Native neighbors. Its consumption by colonists in

French Louisiana The term French Louisiana refers to two distinct regions: * first, to colonial French Louisiana, comprising the massive, middle section of North America claimed by France during the 17th and 18th centuries; and, * second, to modern French Louisi ...

is speculated to have occurred, but lacks documentation other than one source describing its medicinal uses from 1716. During the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

, yaupon tea was used as a substitute for coffee and tea throughout the South. Yaupon continued to be used in North Carolina for medicinal purposes and as a common drink until the late 1890s. At that point, its use was stigmatized because of its natural abundance as being a habit associated with rural poor people. By 1928 it was described as only being in common use on

Knotts Island, North Carolina Knotts Island is a marshy island and a small unincorporated community. The island is shared by Currituck County, North Carolina and Virginia Beach, Virginia, United States, bounded by the Currituck Sound, North Landing River, Back Bay, and Knott ...

. During the Interwar period the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

investigated the use of cassina tea as a substitute for coffee and tea. There were also a few attempts at the commercialization of cassina tea during that same period. By 1973 it was believed that cassina tea was only being served at the Pony Island Restaurant on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina. In the early 2000s yaupon tea began witnessing a resurgence in its popularity, and can now be purchased online and at several historical sites related to Native Americans.

References

Bibliography

* Hudson, Charles M. (1979). ''Black Drink: A Native American Tea''. University of Georgia Press. * Hale, Edwin Moses (1891). ''Ilex Cassine: The aboriginal North American tea : its history, distribution, and use among the native American Indians''. Bulletin U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Division of Botany. * Andrews, Charles Mclean and Andrews, Evangeline Walker (1945). ''Jonathan Dickinson's Journal or, God's Protecting Providence. Being the Narrative of a Journey from Port Royal in Jamaica to Philadelphia between August 23, 1696 to April 1, 1697''. Yale University Press. Reprinted 1981. Florida Classics Library.

External links

* * * Photo of Cahokia mugs associated with black drink : {{DEFAULTSORT:Black Drink Mississippian culture Ceremonial food and drink Herbal tea Tea culture Native American religion Native American cuisine Indigenous culture of the Southeastern Woodlands Ilex drinks Ethnobotany