USES OF PLANTS BY THE INDIANS OF THE MISSOURI 

 RIVER REGION 



By Melvin Randolph Giljiore 



INTRODUCTION 



Duringtlie period which hasehipsed since the European occupancy 

 of the continent of North America tliere has never been a thorough- 

 jroing. comprehensive survey of the flora with respect to the knowl- 

 edge of it and its uses possessed by the aboriginal population. Until 

 recent years little study had been made of the ethnobolany of any of 

 the tribes or of any phytogeographic region. Individual studies 

 have been made, but the subject has not claimed a proportionate 

 share of interest with other phases of botanical study. The people 

 of the European race in coming into the New World have not really 

 sought to make friends of the native population, or to make adecpiate 

 use of the plants or the animals indigenous to this continent, but 

 rather to exterminate everything found here and to supplant it with 

 the plants and animals to which tliey were accustomed a( home. It 

 is quite natural that aliens should have a longing for the familiar 

 things of home, but the surest road to contentment would be by way 

 of gaining friendly acquaintance with the new environment. AMiat- 

 ever of good we may find in the new land need not exclude the good 

 things we may bring from the old. but rather augment the sum total 

 contributing to our welfare. Agriculture and horticulture .should 

 constantly improve the useful plants we already have, while discovery 

 of others should be sought. 



We shall make the best and most economical use of all our land 

 when our population shall have become adjusted in habit to the nat- 

 ural conditions. The country can not be wholly made over and ad- 

 justed to a jjeople of foreign habits and tastes. There are lai'ge tracts 

 of land in America whose bounty is wasted because the plants which 

 can be grown on them are not acceptable to our people. This is not 

 because these plants are not in themselves useful and desirable, but 

 because their valuable qualities are unknown. .§ft long a.s ,the i^eo- 



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