Category Food & Dyes & Medicine

Many Native American food, dyes, and medicine plants are still used today.

Native American medicines can be spiritual or physical. Each animate and inanimate object in our world holds its own special powers, lessons, and healing qualities. Many modern medicines we use today have their basis in native American medicine teachings.

Foods native americans consider tabboo

What native american foods do we eat today?

Navajos have consumed horse meat since 1500s

Horse meat is not only a delicacy in Europe and China; it’s also one here. Since at least the 1500s, Navajos have harvested and consumed horses.

This is according to Tim Begay, a Navajo Cultural Specialist with the Navajo Historic Preservation Department, who added that horse consumption in the Navajo Nation was and is mostly a way to combat the common cold and flu, and an alternative food source for families during the winter months.

Plants Harvested by the Washoe Indians

The Washoe Indians were hunter - gatherers from the arid Great Basin Region. The Washoe women gathered plants for food and medicinal purposes. Some were eaten as soon as they were collected. Others were prepared for winter use. Up to 70% of the Washoe diet came from wild plants. These included nearly 200 species. Some of the most common were:

Mercury-tainted fish are a concern in Great Lakes communities

WELLSTON, Mich. (AP) - As the setting sun cast long shadows over Pine Lake,
its surface rippled by a gentle breeze, Jimmie Mitchell dropped a pinch of
tobacco into the water - a gesture of gratitude for nature's bounty. 

Mitchell, chairman of the natural resources commission with the Little River
Band of Ottawa Indians, and tribal biologist Marty Holtgren have netted 11
yellow perch and two bluegill from the small lake in southern Manistee County. 

Their mission is partly scientific - evaluating fish population dynamics in
area lakes. But the perch and bluegill will be frozen and eventually served
during a ceremony, perhaps a funeral or festival. To the Anishnaabe tribes of
northern Michigan, fish is more than just food. It's a link with past
generations, a symbol of cultural identity.

And that makes mercury contamination a particularly touchy matter.

The Black Drink

Ever wonder how prehistoric man survived without coffee? Millions of Americans depend on a morning cup of coffee to jump-start their day. Florida’s own Timucua Indians had something just as good - the Black Drink. It came from a plant called Yaupon Holly, in Latin - Ilex vomitoria. How could a plant with a name like that rival modern coffee?