> šéstótó'e, "coniferous tree"; this is general word for cedar, pine, fir, and spruce (Petter 1915: 1004), other Cheyenne name of Engelmann spruce wasn't found
Engelmann spruce is an evergreen tree, 20 to 45 m tall. It has needle-like leaves, 1,5–2,5 cm long, foursquare, glaucous bluish-green, soft, not prickly, pulverized bad-smelling. Shoots are brownish-yellow, usually densely pubescent. Cones are 4–8 cm long, slender, cylindrical, at the beginning yellow-red, later brown. Engelmann spruce grows in mountain and subalpine forests, at 900 to 3500 m altitude. It ranges from central British Columbia and southwest Alberta to northern California, southeast Arizona and New Mexico; also in the Bighorn Mountains and the ranges of Colorado.
The Cheyenne chewed pitch of Engelmann spruce as a gum. In olden times, when a young man falled in love with a girl who ignored him he could offer pipe to medicine man specialized in the love affairs. The medicine man gave him the spruce pitch sometimes and adviced him to make the girl chew this charmed piece of pitch. If he succeed the girl would think of him for ever (Grinnell 1923 I: 134).
