I was of the impression that indigenous used the bark scraped off red willow mixed with tobacco to extend their supply of smoking material. Then I was told to take the scraping of the red willow alone and make a strong tea mix , strain the tea so that all of the bark was out, then boil snares and traps in the tea. It left the snares and traps almost a purple color. I've been doing this for almost 60 years of trapping and its worked as good and better than any store bought dye. Frozen red willow, the new shoots, scraped with a knife seen to make a finer brew. Has anyone heard or tried it or better yet used it.

Willow is not kinnikinnick, I'll snap a picture of some in a bit and post it here.
The leaves can be smoked, and I have Russian friends who soak the berries in vodka to make a medicinal syrup.

The botanist David Douglas claimed that the Kalapuyas were farming small patches of a local tobacco like plant along the Willamette river which they preferred over the white mans' tobacco. He was almost killed trying to get a leaf/flower sample for his collection when he was discovered in one of their plantations.

Kinnickinick is a ground shrub that grows under lodgepole trees that has a red berry native here smoked it in the pre European days, it is also commonly called bear berry.

Just took this picture. It likes damp but well drained soil, full sunlight or shade.

also a pair of rivers in WI
one a tributary to the St Croix and the other runs up from the south west and empties into lake Michigan at the Milwaukee harbor

I have always called that bearberry, and my understanding is that it is one of the often used ingredients in smoking mixtures. Lots of other ingredients and recipes depending on the region. Sumac leaves, yellow cinquefoil leaves, red osier dogwood bark (which tastes like chocolate chip cookie dough when smoked!), and quite a few others in addition to tobacco.

I have never been a smoker, however, now that you mention the flavour of red osier dogwood....

Google search showed all of the above including red willow or dog wood. Parts of the country no doubt have their take. The bottom line is if you want a trap dye, scent masking option, try it. I believe it grows (red willow that is) locally pretty much everywhere. I'm not a horiculturist just a common trapper.

FOr my 8th grade project, we had to do a bug collection, find something consumable in nature etc. I brought in kinnikinic for the teacher to smoke. HE went to the teacher's lounge with his pipe and my sample. He came back a few minutes later spitting repeatedly, and told me it was like smoking hay.

A lot of folks north of me call red osier dogwood “red willow”. When you say red willow, are you referring to Cornus sericea or Salix laevigata? The cookie dough taste comes from Cornus sericea.

Seldom have I heard it called anything but red willow except landscapers and gardeners call it dogwood. We don;t have any fancy names for it but if anything eats it, its moose, they love it. but honestly it does make a great trap and snare dye. I've never had an animal back out on a snare after dying it this way..

Being from Manitoba he would be talking about Red Oiser Dogwood (Cornus serica).
Red Willow (Salix laevigata) only grows in the south western US, California, Baja California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada.

Savvy has demonstrated again the problem with using just common names.
The "Fancy Names" he mentions are the only way to communicate with others all over the world who most likely have different common names for the same thing.

^^^^
Agreed. But don't try telling guys in the New England states that a fisher is not a "fisher cat".