: Native American Uses: Basketry and Other Miscellaneous Uses

Several tribes used the needles and root fibers to make baskets. The pitch (a resin that comes from the sap) was used as glue in the Crow, Nez Perce, and Cheyenne tribe to make bone and wooden whistles and flutes. They would also place the gum inside of the instruments to improve sounds. Furthermore, the Cheyenne tribe used the roots to make a blue dye. The Shuswap tribe used a pitch and gum concoction (a combination of ingredients mixed up together and dissolved into a liquid) for underarm deodorant. Lastly, the Navajo and Ramah tribes used wood slabs from the tree, tied them together with yucca fiber, and made snowshoes.