Uses of Plants by the Hidatsas of the Northern Plains. 2014. 71 figs. 1 map. 472 p. gr8vo. Hardcover.

In 1916 anthropologist Gilbert L. Wilson worked closely with Buffalobird-woman, a highly respected Hidatsa born in 1839 on the Fort Berthold Reservation in western North Dakota, for a study of the Hidatsas uses of local plants. What resulted was a treasure trove of ethnobotanical information that was buriedfor more than seventy-five years in Wilsons archives, now held jointly by the Minnesota Historical Society and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Wilson recorded Buffalobird-womans insightful and vivid descriptions of howthe nineteenth-century Hidatsa people had gathered, prepared, and used the plants and wood in their local environment for food, medicine, smoking, fiber, fuel, dye, toys, rituals, and construction.