Try this tart, fresh tasting tea today, hot or on ice. Native Americans used Cranberries extensively as medicine, and as a preservative to help keep meats fresh. European Settlers who came to Eastern North America coined the name crane-berr...y because of the resemblance of the flower stamens to the bill of a crane. By the mid 1600's, this name had become Cranberry, first noted in a letter by a Cape Cod missionary in 1647.