By Stephen Smoot
According to Cherokee lore, in the old days animals could speak in the same tongues as the human beings with whom they lived in harmony. “But as time went on,” it reads in James Mooney’s “Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees,” “the people increased so rapidly that their settlements spread over the whole earth and the poor animals found themselves beginning to be cramped for room.”
At “the Mulberry Place,” the bears first met in council and resolved on war with the human race, but could not come up with an effective weapon with which to fight. Deer, fishes, birds, insects, and reptiles also came together to form a strategy. Eventually “the assembly then began to name and devise various diseases. One after the other, and had their invention finally failed them not one of the human race would have been able to survive.”
Mankind did have its advocates in the world of plants. “Each tree, shrub, and herb, down even to the grasses and mosses, agreed to furnish a remedy for each one of the diseases named and each said, ‘I shall appear to help man when he calls on me in his need.”’
One of those herbs carried the name a’tali kuli, which in the Cherokee language means “it climbs the mountain.” Today most refer to it by its Chinese name “ginseng.”
Starting on Sept. 1 and extending through Nov. 30, many in West Virginia and throughout the Appalachians will climb the mountain in search of this root coveted on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.
Mooney wrote in the 1890s that “the extraordinary medical virtues formerly ascribed to ginseng had no other existence than in the mind of the Chinese.”
Extending back centuries into the past, the Chinese have harvested ginseng due to its medicinal qualities. Part of the word “ginseng” includes the Chinese word for “human,” due to its loose anthropomorphic shape.
Legends surround the plant and its cultivation in the Middle Kingdom. One features a ginseng fairy who angers her father by marrying a mortal. She further enrages him by spreading seeds around the world as medicine to protect humans from a horrific epidemic. The story of Sun Liang tells of a starving farmer who sailed across a broad bay and climbed high mountains seeking out ginseng, only to die in the effort.
In Chinese folklore, he is seen as a hero and, in their estimation, the quest for ginseng takes on more of the nature of a hunt than a harvest.
A medieval Chinese physician, Li Dong Yuan, one of the Four Great Masters of Traditional Chinese Medicine, was quoted in the medical text Shen Non Ben Cao as teaching that “ginseng drains fire, quiets the spirit, stabilizes the corporeal soul, fortifies the spleen, brightens the eyes, eliminates vexatious thirst, breaks hardness and gathering, and treats vacuity taxation, internal damage, and all blood illnesses.” Additionally, Chinese medicine recommends ginseng for curing certain problems inherent in males.
Cherokee shamans found ginseng useful in curing headaches, pains in the side, and problems inherent in females. They also think more in terms of hunting the plant. One formula, described by Mooney, requires the hunter to “address the mountain as the ‘Great Man’ and assures that he only comes to take a small piece of flesh (the ginseng) from its side.”
Modern medicine has opened up to exploring the plant’s health benefits. According to Mount Sinai, ginseng could boost the immune system and cognitive function, inhibit tumor growth, and help to control blood sugar in diabetics.
Mooney noted that “the Cherokees sell large quantities of sang for 50 cents a pound, nearly equivalent there to two days wages.”
Today hunters seek out ginseng in 19 United States states, including much of the Appalachian region. Ginseng can come in either “wet” or “dry” forms. Dried ginseng carries a much higher value. According to the West Virginia Division of Forestry, in the 2019-2020 season, dried ginseng brought $550 per pound versus $160 a pound for “wet.”
Prices have certainly risen since then in both the United States and China. Only as the season gets underway will the prices for 2024 emerge.
One pound of dried ginseng requires approximately 300 roots. The enormous number of plants required to form a pound draws large numbers of hunters to the hills to seek the living treasure. China very strictly regulates and monitors its ginseng to prevent overharvesting.
In West Virginia, digging may only be performed during the established season. “Diggers have until March 31,” according to the West Virginia Division of Forestry “to sell to a registered West Virginia ginseng dealer or have roots weight-receipted at one of the division of forestry weigh stations.”
Only with a weight-receipt from the division of forestry can anyone have possession of ginseng roots between April 1 and Aug. 31.
Also, “Ginseng plants must be at least 5 years old or older and have at least three prongs before they can be harvested. Seeds from the plant must be planted on the site of the harvest. Ginseng must be certified before leaving the boundaries of the state. Only registered dealers can certify ginseng.”
Federal laws state that “requirements for the export of wild ginseng out of the country are established by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. All ginseng plants must be at least 5 years of age and have at least three prongs before being harvested and therefore eligible for export.”
Ginseng hunters can seek out plants in the Monongahela National Forest, but must buy a permit and abide by legal restrictions. One may purchase a permit “at the ranger stations in Parsons, Petersburg, Richwood, Bartow, Marlinton or White Sulphur Springs, or the supervisor’s office in Elkins, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Friday.” Permits cost $20 a piece and hunters must buy a different permit for each forest district. Permits expire as soon as the hunter collects 95 plants from the district, but one may purchase another permit after hitting the limit.
The United States Forest Service also states that “ginseng plants must have three or more prongs and have produced fruit this year to be legal for harvest. When harvesting, plant the fruit on-site and then keep the rest of the plant intact. Harvest no more than 24 plants per day and have no more than 24 plants in your possession while on national forest land.”
