Flooring

Spruce

As food

Spruce gum, dzèh kwan' (G) dzih drinh' (T), is the hard, older kind of tree sap or pitch, with a red or rose colour. It can be picked year round from the trees with a knife, stick or fingers. It can then be chewed like a piece of gum. Both the gum and the juice it produces can be swallowed as you chew. Spruce gum was commonly given to children as a treat when out in the bush cutting wood or picking berries.

As medicine

English

Willow

As fuel
The small, dry twigs found among branches on the willow tree are good for starting fires. Mary Francis (COPE,c) said that willow was used to make smoke for drying meat. 
 
As food
In the spring, the Gwich’in peel bark from the new shoots and lick the sweet juice, chew the stem or eat the tips. Annie Norbert said,

           Mrs. Norris used to eat the pussy buds just like that.

English

Dwarf birch

As flooring
Dwarf birch is widespread in the Gwich’in Settlement Region and is commonly found growing among cranberries and alders (red willow) on muskeg. It is used for flooring in tents. When it is placed among ah’ (spruce boughs) the birch keeps the boughs fresh longer.
Source: Andre, Alestine and Alan Fehr, Gwich'in Ethnobotany, 2nd ed. (2002)
 
As medicine
English
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