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"Learn the natural ways of the Chippewa Indians with this great book from Dover." — Texas Kitchen and Garden and More
The uses of plants — for food, for medicine, for arts, crafts, and dyeing — among the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota and Wisconsin show the great extent to which they understood and utilized natural resources. In this book those traditions are captured, providing a wealth of new material for those interested in natural food, natural cures, and native crafts.
In separate sections describing the major areas of use, Miss Densmore, an ethnologist with the Smithsonian Institution, details the uses of nearly 200 plants with emphasis on wild plants and lesser-known uses. For those interested in natural foods she gives extensive coverage to the gathering and preparation of maple sugar and wild rice, as well as preparations for beverages from leaves and twigs of common plants, seasonings including mint and bearberry, the methods of preparing wild rice and corn, cultivated and wild vegetables, and wild fruits and berries. On Indian medicines she tells the basic methods of gathering plants and the basic surgical and medical methods. Then she gives a complete list of the plants with their botanical names, uses, parts used, preparation and administration, and other notes and references. Also covered are plants used as charms, plants used in natural dyes, and plants in the useful and decorative arts including uses for household items, toys, mats, twine, baskets, bows, and tools, with special emphasis on the uses of birch bark and cedar. This section will be especially useful for supplying new and unusual craft ideas. In addition, 36 plates show the many stages of plant gathering and preparation and many of the artistic uses. While a number of the plants discussed are native only to the Great Lakes region, many are found throughout a wide range.
Those studying the Indians of the Great Lakes region, or those trying to get back to nature through understanding and using natural materials, will find much about the use of plants in all areas of community life. Because of Miss Densmore’s deep knowledge and clear presentation, her study remains a rich and useful source for learning about or using native foods, native cures, and native crafts.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780486131108 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Dover Publications |
| Publication date: | 02/08/2012 |
| Series: | Native American |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 160 |
| File size: | 21 MB |
| Note: | This product may take a few minutes to download. |
Read an Excerpt
How Indians Use Wild Plants
For Food, Medicine and Crafts
By Frances Densmore
Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 1974 Dover Publications, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-13110-8
INTRODUCTION
A majority of the plants to be described in this paper were obtained on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota. Specimens were also collected on the Red Lake, Cass Lake, Leech Lake, and Mille Lac Reservations in Minnesota, the Lac Court Oreilles Reservation in Wisconsin, and the Manitou Rapids Reserve in Ontario, Canada. Many of these were duplicates of plants obtained at White Earth but others were peculiar to the locality in which they were obtained.
The White Earth Reservation is located somewhat west of north-central Minnesota, on the border of the prairie that extends westward and forms part of the Great Plains. It also contains the lakes and pine forests that characterize northern Minnesota and extend into Canada. This produces an unusual variety of vegetation, so that the Chippewa living on other reservations are accustomed to go or send to White Earth for many of their medicinal herbs. Birch trees are found in abundance, either standing in groups (pl. 28), covering a hillside, or bordering a quiet lake. There are large tracts of sugar maples and forests of pine, cedar, balsam, and spruce. (Pl. 29. ) Many of the lakes contain rice fields, and there are pretty, pebbly streams winding their way among overhanging trees. (Pl. 30.) Toward the west the prairie is dotted with little lakes or ponds, shining like mirrors. In June the air is sweet with wild roses and in midsummer the fields are beautiful with red lilies, bluebells, and a marvelous variety of color. In autumn the sumac flings its scarlet across the landscape and in winter there are miles of white, untrodden snow. The northern woodland is a beautiful country, and knowing it in all its changing seasons, one can not wonder at the poetry that is so inherent a part of Chippewa thought.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from How Indians Use Wild Plants by Frances Densmore. Copyright © 1974 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
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Table of Contents
ForewordInformants
Phonetics
Introduction
List of plants arranged according to botanical name
List of plants arranged according to common name
List of plants arranged according to native name
Medicinal properties of plants used by the Chippewa
Principal active medincinal constituents of plants used by the Chippewa
Plants as food
List of plants used as food
Making maple sugar
Gathering wild rice
Beverages
Seasonings
Cereals
Vegetables
Fruits and berries
Plants as medicine
Treatment by means of plants
Substances other than vegetable used as remedies
Medical appliances
Surgical treatment and appliances
Dental surgery
Classification of diseases and injuries
List of medical plants used medicinally
Plants used in dyes
Process of dyeing
List of plants used in dyes
Mineral substances used in dyes
Formulae for dyes
Plants used as charms
List of plants used in charms
Plants used in useful and decorative arts
List of plants
Manner of use
Legend of Winabojo and the birch tree
Legend of Winabojo and the cedar tree
Gathering birch bark and cedar bark
Atricles made of birch bark