O.T. for all you who're interested in ndn herbs and foods!!!

Yvsa

Yvsa

Joined
May 18, 1999
Messages
15,395
Some of y'all have expressed interest in picking my brain for a little knowledge about different wild medicinal plants and edible foods.
I've forgotten a lot of what I did know because I haven't been able to "gather" much for the last few years, but I still know a little.;)

I have found this website to be very helpful in the past. Check out the list on the left side for plants and trees and for foods and recipes.
There's also a lot of wonderful material for survivalists and those interested in learning as much as possible about staying alive in the wild without any of the amenities we've become accustomed to.:)
 
Neat site. I saved it.

(Not sure I WANT to survive, but nice to have some information.):)
 
I got some Paiute/Shoshone plants listed.

But be very very careful in the identification process . I found what looked to me to be an indiginous pepper - took it back in and finally had it identified. It was locoweed.

We also have peyote cactus around here. Indians slice little bits of pieces, chew them, then spit it out. Non-ndns pop a whole button in their mouths and chew it, then swallow it. Only thing left to do for them is give them a "Christian" burial.

National forests are not only being seeded with Marijuana, just in the last week they located a 40,000 plant opium poppy site.

It was maybe fun playing Euell Gibbs and stalking the wild asparagus 20 years ago. Today you best have a bunch of well armed friends with you in the 21st century in case you discover someone's cash crop.
 
I thank you, too!:)
Good for quick reference, especially with pics.

Embarrassed to say, have been to that site for other things. Not noticing the "plants and trees" section.

My searchlight (little lightbulb in my head) must have been wired for
"medicine", "herbs", "foods" or "uses" and failed to tip me off to the obvious.
Always amazed at what I manage to miss. Won't let on, about how "Amazing!" I get with each passing year.:rolleyes: :D
 
Years ago when my wife and I were treading gently on the land and living close to the earth, the native people would always enthusiastically share their knowledge of the local “natural foods”.

After learning about gathering Wild Parsnips from an old Maidu woman, we found a patch of them growing right by the river where we were camped. We prepared a meal of them roasted with trout.

The next several hours were spent motionless on the bank of the Truckee River. We hadn’t planned such an extended after-meal repose, but our vegetable treat turned out not to be Wild Parsnips, but a very similar appearing plant called Water Hemlock which paralyzed our bodies from the waist down.

Luckily it wasn’t a fatal dose, and there were no lasting after effects, but we never tried to harvested Wild parsnips again.
 
Remember talking to an old EMT who'd gotten a peyote overdose to the hospital. Kid didn't want to talk about it to the cops, so he went in and gave the kid the facts.

Told him he was dying, fact - nothing they could do at that point to stop it. Then said the guys who gave him the stuff didn't give a hoot. Now did he want to protect them or see they got put away for a few years.

The kid died. But not before giving a deathbed statement nailing his friends to the wall.

On the other hand, when my dad died of cancer some 30 years back, If I knew then what I know now I'd have gotten some marijuana for him.

The "old" EMT is now one of my best friends and in constant pain from gas poisoning of the lungs - a work related accident. If he asked, and told me where to find it, I'd go harvest the peyote for him. Peyote is also an analgesic in proper doses. He's now on a different painkiller that doesn't work to alleviate the pain quite as well, but does leave him more coherent and able to do things. He's pretty happy and tolerates the level of pain to have his sanity back. Course he also does deep meditation daily to maintain his bond with occupant/grandfather/creator.
 
Rusty,

I don’t think there has ever been a recorded death from the use of Peyote. However, many have died ingesting what was claimed to be “Mescaline”, the psychoactive alkaloid from Peyote that they purchased as a street drug. What they really ingested is usually unknown, but since Mescaline has never been successfully synthesized in commercial quantities, it’s fairly certain it was something else. There have also been cases of fake Peyote buttons made from parts of other plants soaked in “chemicals” and sold to the naive.

In it’s organic form of Peyote buttons, adverse physical effects of mescaline are usually limited to vomiting, abdominal cramps, and muscle aches. These symptoms are regarded as part of the ceremony and are welcomed the same as the psycho-spiritual effects.

In the more ancient Mexican tradition, by way of Arizona Navajo adaptation, the cactus is cut in small pieces, dried, ground into a powder, and made into a tea. The most common contemporary method among followers of the Native American Church which is generally considered the Kiowa-Comanche-Cherokee tradition is to ingest the buttons themselves. Dosage varies by the individual, but the average is probably about a dozen buttons. Tolerance seems to be cumulative and I have talked to participants who claim to use three or four dozen at each ceremony.

The Ancient Way claimed that to use Peyote without the traditional ritual was a sacrilege and an offense which could prove fatal not only to the individual, but to the people and their culture. During the 1960’s, the younger, and more contemporary users, were seen as compromising the culture and turning Peyote into a “drug”. The official founding of the NAC, and it’s victory over the anti-drug forces of the government on grounds of religious freedom, was born out of this cultural-generational conflict.
 
Ben, I may have been wrong about it being peyote because the Paiute prophet or messiah Jack Wilson aka "Wovoka" who restarted the Ghost Dance movement in the 1890's that his father had earlier started in the 1870's was reported to have taken massive doses of peyote.EDIT: had skimmed your post and forgotten your point on cumulative tolerance, but I'd wondered if it was.

Maybe it was mescaline or some chemical derivative. My source has from time to time proven incorrect as he is on pain medication. Mostly though, he's been right on. Maybe he told it right and I disremembered. Anyway, your point has been noted and recorded. Thanks - seriously.
 
I ate quite a lot of peyote at a Native American Church meeting one night with no ill affects.
I wouldn't mind going back, but it's too Christian for me. Kinda funny that as Quanah Parker used the church meetings as a joke against Christianity and I understand that's what it was originally for.:D
Had that practice of continued instead of turning into a Christian religion I would participate regularly just for the ceremony as the peyote didn't do a thing for me, didn't even keep me awake as it's supposed to do although it did Barbie.:rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top