Includes bibliographical references (pages 427-432). New Book -- December -- 2015
Contents:
Plants that are eaten -- Plants that can be eaten -- Plants that are sweet -- Plants that are good to chew -- Plants that smell good -- Plants that have medicinal uses -- Plants used for fiber -- Plants used for smoking -- Plants used for dye and coloring -- Plants used for toys -- Plants used for utilitarian purposes -- Plants used for rituals or with ritual significance -- Sources of wood -- Uses of wood -- Arrows -- Earthlodges -- Miscellaneous material.
Summary:
In 1916 anthropologist Gilbert L. Wilson worked closely with Buffalobird-woman, a highly respected Hidatsa born in 1839 on the Fort Berthold Reservation in western North Dakota, for a study of the Hidatsas' uses of local plants. What resulted was a treasure trove of ethnobotanical information that was buried for more than seventy-five years in Wilson's archives, now held jointly by the Minnesota Historical Society and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Wilson recorded Buffalobird-woman's insightful and vivid descriptions of how the nineteenth-century Hidatsa people had gathered, prepared, and used the plants and wood in their local environment for food, medicine, smoking, fiber, fuel, dye, toys, rituals, and construction. From courtship rituals that took place while gathering Juneberries, to descriptions of how the women kept young boys from stealing wild plums as they prepared them for use, to recipes for preparing and cooking local plants, Uses of Plants by the Hidatsas of the Northern Plains provides valuable details of Hidatsa daily life during the nineteenth century.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.