Food: Flowers and blue-grey fruit are edible; rich source of vitamins A and C. Berries were dried and stored for winter then boiled.

Medicinal: Flowers were soaked and the wash was used for a skin conditioner. Bundles of tied Elderberry flowers were hung in sweet lodges to stimulate sweating in dry fevers.

Flowers were brewed into a tea for fever, upset stomach, and for dental washing. Ku.ut tea was used for newborn babies. The older blossoms were considered best.

A wash of boiled flowers and leaves was used for wounds and as an eye wash. A thick tea was used to sweat out fevers and to clear chest congestion.

Ku.ut leaves were mixed with Manzanita leaves and used to relieve aching feet. Mashed leaves were put on sores and applied to the nose for nosebleeds. Leaves were crushed into a green paste and applied to poison oak infections.

Roots were boiled and mashed and applied to inflammations. The inner bark produced a strong emetic.

Dye: Leaves produced a light yellow to green dye. A black dye from twigs and fruit was used to stain juncus.

Spiritual: Branches of Ku.ut were made into “wands” and carried during puberty rites for girls.

Utensils : Short stems were hollowed out and plugged at each end for use as a tobacco container which was placed in the earlobe as an ornament. Stems were used for light arrow shafts for hunting small game.

Musical Instruments: Clapper sticks, flutes, and whistles were made from Ku.ut.

 Warning: the red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa) is toxic. Ku.ut is not to be used in pregnancy as it is strongly purgative.

Small tree.

Blossoms March through September.

Open flats and cismontane valleys and canyons below 4500 feet; largely Coastal Sage Scrub, Chaparral, Southern Oak Woodlands; occasional in desert mountains.