Vascular Plants Utilized by the Plains Apache in Southwestern Oklahoma

Abstract

Based on field studies conducted in 1963 and 1964, the Plains Apache in southwestern Oklahoma utilized at least 105 species of vascular plants as edible plants and for material culture, ritual and medicinal purposes, and personal care and adornment. Most species (98) are native to western Oklahoma and the Great Plains. The only North American exotics are watercress, white sweetclover, and Johnsongrass; peyote, sweetgrass, frosted mint, and mescal bean are the only North American natives used that do not occur in Oklahoma. We propose that many of the plants utilized by the Plains Apache have a long history of usage
among numerous tribes in the temperate steppe ecoregion of North America, because 44 species appear in the archaeobotanical
record throughout the Great Plains. Although the Plains Apache were historically nomadic and had an economy based in large part
on the American Bison, they have a rich ethnobotanical heritage.