A Taste of Heritage: Crow Indian Recipes and Herbal Medicines, Paperback

Drawing on the knowledge and wisdom of countless generations of Crow Indian women, the well-known speaker and teacher Alma Hogan Snell presents an indispensable guide to the traditional lore, culinary uses, and healing properties of native foods. A Taste of Heritage imparts the lore of ages along with the traditional Crow philosophy of healing and detailed practical advice for finding and harvesting plants: from the key to creating irresistible dishes of cattails and dandelions, salsify and Juneberries, antelope meat and buffalo hooves, to the secret of using plants to enhance beauty and incite love. Snell describes the age-old practice of turning wildflowers and garden plants into balms and remedies for such ailments and injuries as snakebite, headache, leg cramps, swollen joints, asthma, and sores. She brings to bear not only her lifetime of experience but also the invaluable lessons of her grandmother, the legendary medicine woman Pretty Shield. With life-enhancing recipes for everything from soups, teas, and breads to poultices, aphrodisiacs, and fertility aids, A Taste of Heritage is above all a fascinating cultural document certain to enrich the reader's relationship with the natural world. A partial list of recipes: Wild Bitterroot Sauce Wild Carrot Pudding Cattail Biscuits Dandelion Soup Salsify Oyster Stew Balapia (Berry Pudding) Juneberry Pie Chokecherry Cake Wild Mint Tea Bitterberry Lemonade Wheel Bread Boiled Hooves Bill's Mother's Antelope Roast Stuffed Trout Elk Roast Stuffed Eggs Old-Time Moose Roast Wild Turnip Porridge Wild Turnip Bread Fresh Wild Salad Buffalo Cattail Stew Ground Tomato Salad Gooseberry Pudding Bearberry Butter Spicy Dried Plum Cake Buffaloberry Jelly Alma Hogan Snell (1923-2008) is the granddaughter of the famed Crow medicine woman Pretty Shield, on whose life the classic Pretty-shield is based. She is the author of Grandmother's Grandchild: My Crow Indian Life, available in a Bison Books edition. Lisa Castle is a graduate student in biology at the University of Kansas. Kelly Kindscher is an associate scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey and the author of Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie: An Ethnobotanical Guide.

About the Author:

Alma Hogan Snell (1923-2008) is the granddaughter of the famed Crow medicine woman Pretty Shield, on whose life the classic Pretty-shield is based. She is the author of Grandmother's Grandchild: My Crow Indian Life, available in a Bison Books edition. Lisa Castle is a graduate student in biology at the University of Kansas. Kelly Kindscher is an associate scientist at the Kansas Biological Survey and the author of Medicinal Wild Plants of the Prairie: An Ethnobotanical Guide.