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Plains Apache Ethnobotany. By Julia A. Jordan. Foreword by Paul E. Minnis and Wayne J. Elisens. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2008. xxvii + 212 pp. Photographs, map, tables, references, index. $34.95 cloth.
Prior to resettlement and assimilation, Plains Apaches had sophisticated knowledge of the plants that sustained their way of life in the Great Plains. This book by Julia A. Jordan is the only extensive work that documents Plains Apache ethnobotanical knowledge. Jordan's research relies on interviews with six elders who experienced traditional plant use during a time of cultural transition from the 1890s to the 1960s. The book is divided into two parts, with the first part focused on methods, history, and plant conceptualization, the second on plant names, descriptions, and cultural use. The data collected from these...