Plains Apache Ethnobotany

One tribe's traditional knowledge of plants, presented for the first time

Residents of the Great Plains since the early 1500s, the Apache people were well acquainted with the native flora of the region. In Plains Apache Ethnobotany, Julia A. Jordan documents more than 110 plant species valued by the Plains Apache and preserves a wealth of detail concerning traditional Apache collection, preparation, and use of these plant species for food, medicine, ritual, and material culture.

The traditional Apache economy centered on hunting, gathering, and trading with other tribes. Throughout their long history the Apache lived in or traveled to many different parts of the plains, gaining an intimate knowledge of a wide variety of plant resources. Part of this traditional knowledge, especially that pertaining to plants of Oklahoma, has been captured here by Jordan's fieldwork, conducted with elders of the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma in the mid-1960s, a time when much traditional knowledge was being lost.

Plains Apache Ethnobotany is the most comprehensive ethnobotanical study of a southern plains tribe. Handsomely illustrated, this book is a valuable resource for ethnobotanists, anthropologists, historians, and anyone interested in American Indian use of native plants.

Author: Julia A. Jordan
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 12/08/2008
Pages: 244
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.00w x 1.10d
ISBN13: 9780806139685
ISBN10: 0806139684
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | American | Native American Studies
- Science | Life Sciences | Botany
- Nature | Plants | General