Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region

A classic of ethnobotany, Uses of Plants by the Indians of the Missouri River Region has been enlarged for this Bison Book edition with thirty drawings, by Bellamy Parks Jansen, of plants discussed by Gilmore. The taxonomic glossary has been updated as well. Readers will find here, conveniently described, the uses that Plains Indians made of the wild plants they collected and of those plants they cultivated for food, clothing, medicine, and ornamentation. This fascinating book, originally published in 1919, reveals cultures that evolved in close harmony with their environment. 

"A work extraordinarily modern in spirit, one of the very first to open up the realms of ethnobotany and ecology... But Gilmore's work is not only a treasure of ethnobotanical lore. The intellectual journey covered by the author ... explains his astonishing openness of mind and his capacity, remarkable for the time, of making a synthesis of disciplines and lines of thought which were then kept separated. Gilmore was one of the first to understand at the same time that a wealth of ... resources lay concealed in the botanical knowledge of the Indians ... which the brutal destruction of native cultures would, without his effort, have wiped out irreparably."-Claude Levi-Strauss, L'Homme -- Claude Levi-Strauss L'Homme

Melvin R. Gilmore (1868–1940) ended his distinguished career as curator of ethnology at the Museum of Anthropology of the University of Michigan after serving at the state historical societies of Nebraska and North Dakota and at the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.