Plant Life History Knowledge & Tribal Lore Implications from Native American Plant Names

Native American plant, animal, and landscape names can provide unique perceptions of nature that may otherwise be poorly documented. In this study,  the English translations of indigenous plant names in 5 publications (Arapaho, Chiricahua & Mescalero Apache, Plains Apache, Navajo, and Lakota (Sicanu/Brule) were examined for names with plant life history knowledge or plant lore implications.  In contrast to traditional ethnobotany that uses all available information to assign plants to plant-use categories, such as food, fiber, medicine or ceremonial, this study used a lingusitic approach.  In this approach, plants were assigned to categories based solely on thier translated names.  About 5% of nearly 800 translated names in these articles referred to plant life history knowledge.  Less than 1% of these names referred to tribal lore.  A list of these few, but informative plant names is presented and discussed.  These plants include species of Astragalus, Betula, Euphorbia, Glycyrrhiza, Ipomoea, Lupinus, Sedum, and Townsendia.