There are multiple medicinal uses Native Americans have found for the Ponderosa pine. The Cheyenne tribe would use the gum (a sticky discharge from the tree) as a salve or ointment for sores and scabby skin. After boiling the gum to extract certain natural chemicals (a process called decoction), it would be used as an ointment for sore eyes. Hot gum was also used in combination with animal fat by the Thompson tribe to pour over horses’ sores and wounds. Lastly, the Navajo and Ramah tribes would use a compound decoction of the needles for bad coughs and fevers.