Emphasis is on native North American uses of plants for medicines
rather than foods, though a last section covers this briefly but
interestingly.
Book is organized by condition or problem, listing herbal
remedies of various tribes for each. How they were prepared -- no info. Methods of identification (b&w sketches, not always clear). An
The majority of plant medicines were women's, (not "shaman's"). Few remedies were comprised of only one plant. Most medicines were complex mixes of several parts of different plants, picked at different times, prepared in diffeernt ways, and mixed in strict proportions, given in careful dosages if taken internally.
Last (Foods) section of the book is more interesting, and least dangerous (should the reader be tempted to experiment) . The
plants shown and told about there are usable today.
Plants are indexed by
common and botanical names, and grouped as "remedies" for problem medical conditions which no one should
try to use. No Indian names for any plant.
Black and white drawings of many (but
not all) plants are of varying quality, seem ot have been taken from old
herbals. None are much good for field identifications. Plants are not shown in different growth stages or seasons, though many must be IDed at one time then picked or dug at another (usually late fall, when they have lost all leaves or perhaps withered entirely from a bulb).
Weiner did all research for this book from old printed materials. There
is no indication he had ever met or spoken with an Indian person,
though he lived some years in Fiji doing research for another book. Most old ethnobotany writings were compiled by male anthros who were more interested in shamans performing than in women, who held and used and knew most of the pharmacopeia. Men couldn't really tell these guys much, and they didn't bother interviewing women, for the most part. Then too, few Native women in the 19th century would have spoken to visting anthros about anything.
Thus most of our real knowledge beyond what oral tradition and practical use preserved comes from a handful of 19th and early 20th century women anthros who were interested in women's knowledge and were trusted: Frances Densmore, Mathilde Coxe Stephenson.
Yankton scholar Vine Deloria, Jr, liked Weiner's book, but I think it is shallow. It tends to suggest
that Native herbal medicine was simplistic and ineffective. The food
sections suggest this is archaic stuff nobody prepares or eats today -- untrue. I find page numbers close to the center of the book (and missing on many pages) maddening when one must constantly flip back and forth between indexes. It bewilders me that only common names are used in the body text, you must look up botanic names in one of the indexes. It would have been easy enough to run them in parenthetically, next to the entry for the plant.
Still he doesn't get into garbled mysticism, and that's a break. It is the case that plant remedies require care, thanks, prayer, and respect, which is best not discussed except in very general ways in print.
Reviewed by Paula Giese, editor of Native American Books website
(http://www.fdl.cc.mn.us/~isk/books/bookmenu.html)
