Native American Medicine Osha Root or Bear Medicine
Ligusticum porteri, known as Osha or oshá, is a perennial herb found in parts of the Rocky Mountains and northern Mexico, especially in the southwestern United States.
Its common names include osha root, Porter’s lovage, Porter’s licorice-root, lovage, wild lovage, Porter’s wild lovage, loveroot, Porter’s ligusticum, bear medicine, bear root, Colorado cough root, Indian root, Indian parsley, wild parsley, mountain ginseng, mountain carrot, nipo, empress of the dark forest, chuchupate, chuchupati, chuchupaste, chuchupatle, guariaca, hierba del cochino or yerba de cochino, raíz del cochino, and washí (tarahumara). In the Jicarilla language, osha is called ha’ich’idéé. The White Mountain Apache call it ha ‘il chii’ gah.
