USES OF PLANTS BY THE INDIANS OF THE MISSOURI 
RIVER REGION 
By Menvin Ranpnoren Gi~mMore 
INTRODUCTION 
During the period which has elapsed since the European occupancy 
of the continent of North America there has never been a thorough- 
going, 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 ethnobotany 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 adequate 
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 they were accustomed at 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. What- 
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 people of foreign habits and tastes. There are large 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. So long as the peo- 
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