Common Serviceberry

Southwest Virginia Project

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From: Henshaw, Julia W. 1915. Wild flowers of the North American mountains. New York: R.M. McBride. Google Books

This is the low pearly-flowered shrub which grows on the sandy banks and flats, and which the Indians call Saskatoon, for its sweet purple berries form a staple article of food with them during the months of July and August.

From Lewis, Meriwether, William Clark, and James Kendall Hosmer. 1903. History of the expedition of Captain Lewis and Clark, 1804-5-6. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.

Google Books

The ceremony of smoking being concluded, Captain Lewis explained to the chief the purposes of his visit, and as by this time all the women and children of the camp had gathered around the lodge to indulge in a view of the first white man they had ever seen, he distributed among them the remainder of the small articles he had brought with him. It was now late in the afternoon, and our party had tasted no food since the night before. On apprising the chief of this circumstance, he said that he had nothing but berries to eat, and presented some cakes made of serviceberry and chokecherries which had been dried in the sun. On these Captain Lewis made a hearty meal, and then walked down towards the river.

From

The Century. 1892. New York: The Century Co. May, 1892-Octorber, 1892 Vol 86:565-580. The Great Plains of Canada

http://books.google.com/books?id=2XYAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA572&dq=%22Service+Berry%22+Indian&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=vawXSJPyLYKWzASV0sWGCA

p. 572 But the most esteemed wild berry of the region is that which is called by the poetical name " Saskatoon." It is the Amelanchier Canadensis of the botanists, known by various common names, as the shad-berry, the June-berry, and the service-berry. It is gathered in large quantities, and one of its principal uses is in making berry pemmican, than which there is no more delectable food to an Indian or a Hudson's Bay man.