Cattails are the perfect survival food, tool, shelter and medicine
Cattails can be found virtually anywhere in the wilderness where there is a water source and are a supermarket full of food and uses that can help ensure your survival.
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.
Camas Lily was a staple food of many native tribes
The Camas lily was used by Native Americans for medicinal purposes and its root bulbs were collected to make bread, or roasted like a potato.
Native American super foods
On American Indian reservations, the traditional diet of wild plants and game for food is increasingly being replaced with a far less healthful diet of predominantly high-carb, high-sugar foods.
The Standing People (trees) each have different qualities
The Standing People (trees) each have different qualities associated with their species. Here are some of the meanings associated with trees.
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.
Corn, beans and squash – An enduring trinity
Long before the Pilgrims sailed into Plymouth harbor, tribes living in what today is called Arizona developed a distinctive cuisine around corn, beans and squash. It was corn, believed to be the ultimate source of life, that dominated.
Cherokee Nation Grape Dumplings
This traditional recipe was originally made with gathered wild grapes called possum grapes. Today's Indian cooks now often make it with Welch's Grape Juice.
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?