by Stephen Harrod Buhner

For the past two decades, I have spent much of my time among plant people—botanists, vegetalistas and herbalists. At conferences such as the Green Nations Gathering or the International Herb Symposium, plant people from every continent on Earth, and all traditions, gather. They are part of a tribe of people that are beyond space and time, a nation connected to the plants, to the Earth, and to similar people in times long gone and yet to come.
A central element of that experience is the vibrant plant traditions of Native peoples, for all of us swim in waters they first discovered. Among the most influential are the tribal cultures of the Americas. The plant knowledge of the Native peoples of North, Central and South America, refined over millennia of practice, has integrated itself throughout human cultures, but few people are aware of this rich contribution to the world’s knowledge of medicinal plants.
We in the United States live in what is, in many respects, an odd culture. Nearly all cultures on Earth have integrated plant medicines into their healthcare systems; the United States is a striking exception. Few in this country understand that pharmaceuticals are not easily biodegradable, the elegant complexity and safety of plant medicines, or the contributions of North American tribal cultures. But plants are the oldest medicines there are, and they have been used for healing since human beings have been.
Evidence of Ancient Use
At least 60,000 years ago, eight unique medicinal plants were placed in a Neanderthal grave in Shanidar Cave in the region now known as Iraq, plants that are still used in that region for healing. And between 15,000 and 25,000 years ago, the first paintings of medicinal plants being used were incorporated into the great cave paintings in Lascaux, France. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and ancient Islamic cultures had highly sophisticated plant materia medica; but richest of all, perhaps, are those of the world’s Indigenous peoples. North America is no exception. For a length of time between 10,000 and 30,000 years, members of American Native cultures have been gathering unique knowledge of plant medicines; they are some of the greatest empirical scientists our planet has ever known.
There is no exhaustive source of Native North American plant knowledge, but Daniel Moerman’s magnificent Native American Ethnobotany (Timber Press, 1998) comes the closest. The result of 30 years of diligent work, it lists, as he notes, “4,029 kinds of plants…used in 44,691 different ways in 291 different societies. Of the 44,691 usages, 24,945 are medicinal.” This rich materia medica, refined by talented healers over generations, includes scores, or even hundreds, of plants which have entered general human use through Native contact with European, African and Asian peoples. They are now, for example, a well-integrated part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western European botanic practice; hundreds are also used in the many vibrant, nonmainstream herbal communities in the United States, including those of the Cajun, Creole, African-American, Hispanic and Caucasian.
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