Aryana Libris

Author : Alma Hogan Snell
Title : Crow indian recipes & herbal medicines A taste of heritage
Year : 2006

Link download : Alma_Hogan_Snell_-_Crow_indian_recipes_and_herbal_medicines.zip

Foreword. Kelly Kindscher. In southern Montana, across the Crow Reservation, past fields of wheat and sugar beets, past cattle grazing on golden hills, past the St. Frances Xavier Mission and cabins rented to trout fisherman, and past the turnoff to the Yellowtail Dam, lies the Snell family home. I first drove there after my friend Robyn Klein told me that I needed to meet Alma Snell. Alma wanted to write a book on traditional Crow food recipes and herbal medicines, and she was looking for assistance. Much of my ethnobotanical work has involved studying and honoring Native American traditional knowledge, so I knew Robyn was right. I made arrangements to visit Alma at her home, nestled in the red sandstone foothills of the Big Horn Mountains and surrounded by ponderosa pines. I wanted to ask about her cookbook and tell her about Lisa Castle, a new graduate student who had come to work with me at the University of Kansas. Lisa had been an educator at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and I thought would likely be interested in helping with this project. I hadn't been with Alma long before I realized that she is the most loving, positive person I have ever met. She was full of energy and determined to get her book published quickly because friends and relatives were already asking for it. I said that I would gladly help facilitate the book's coming together. Alma supplied me with bison jerky and plum ketchup for the long trip back to Kansas. When I left, the evening light was golden on the mixed-grass prairie. I drove through the Crow Reservation and then south into the dark night of Wyoming. As I chewed on jerky topped with tasty plum sauce, I considered the work I would be doing in helping Alma publish her book. Alma was taught the Crow traditions by her maternal grandmother, Pretty Shield. The knowledge gained from this education that was further influenced by her Christian upbringing, formal food-service training, and interest in herbalism makes Alma's understanding of foods and herbs unique and this book uniquely important. Crow ethnobotany has not been widely shared and is not widely known. Although scattered references to the edible and medicinal uses of plants by the Crow exist, the first published work on uses of Crow plants was J. W. Blankinship's 1905 Native Economic Plants of Montana, which lists Crow uses for thirteen plants.1 A more insightful work was written by a Crow woman, Joy Yellowtail Toineeta, whose 1970 master’s thesis, titled Absarog-Issawua (From the Land of the Crow Indians), is the most detailed ethnobotany of the Crow and discusses sixty-four species of plants.2 Unfortunately, this work has never circulated beyond the few of us who have borrowed it from the Montana State University library. Jeff Hart, a Harvard graduate student, wrote Montana— Native Plants and Early People for a 1976 bicentennial book project.3 He cataloged twenty-five Crow plants and their uses. Together these three works form the heart of the previously published record of Crow ethnobotany. Outside of publications, it is well known that the Crows have a rich tradition of plant use. Because generations of the Crow people have inhabited their lands continuously, this information is steeped in cultural heritage. Alma reveals many unique uses of plants from the Crow tradition that have never been written about. More important than listing the kinds of plants used by the Crows, she provides detailed recipes showing how these plants were and are used to make foods and medicines (with modern updates). Alma Snell’s book offers us an important glimpse into the history and significance of Crow ethnobotany. ...