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Colonist claims to have "discovered" a tea with major health benefits.

Date: 1762

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Richard Brooke of Maryland claims to have discovered tea from a "red root shrub" with major health benefits. In a letter to the Society of Arts, Brooke states that he was "introduced" to the plant by a Native person 20 years before. He calls the tea "Mattapany" after the "Indian name" of the place where he was born, but claims to be the first person to ever brew this tea, thereby negating the individual's personhood and neglecting to credit the Indigenous people he learned this practice from. This is one of many examples of the widespread practice of stealing and co-opting Native remedies in the colonial period.