Commentary: Commentary on "Cultural Conservation of Medicinal Plant Use in the Ozarks"

Abstract

Cultural Conservation of Medicinal Plant Use in the Ozarks, by Justin Nolan and Michael Robbins (Human Organization 58:67-72, 1999), is a useful and interesting article, particularly its examination of demographic and socioeconomic factors in relation to the survival of traditional medicinal systems. The ethnicity of the 14 plant experts interviewed and their sources of information were not discussed, however, Nolan and Robbins apparently assumed their informants were people of Scottish-Irish and German derivation by way of the Southern Appalachians (pp., 67-68). I wonder if the source of medicinal plant knowledge as well as the ethnic and cultural roots of the informants were Native American, since Cherokee migrated to the region prior to the Scottish-Irish and Germans. Many academics believe that most of the Cherokee left northeastern Arkansas and southern Missouri after the Treaty of 1809, moving into Cherokee lands between the White and Arkansas Rivers, and then most left Arkansas after the Treaty of 1828 (Agnew 1975:357; Littlefield and Underhill 1972:167-169). They assume the Cherokee who remained in Arkansas and Missouri simply disappeared as a distinct people, adopting American culture and blending with American and European immigrants. This is far from the truth. There are literally thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Cherokee in the area who have never lost their identity as Cherokee and have maintained their government, community associations, religion, and other cultural features. These Cherokee rarely identify themselves as Native American, except to other Cherokee or known “Indian sympathizers.” The reason is a long history of prejudice and repression in Arkansas and Missouri, which has developed into a fear of anything that might be identified as “the government.” The history of the Western Cherokee is still not written. You cannot go to the library and pull an academic version of “The History of the Cherokee in Arkansas and Missouri” off the shelf. Their history does not even appear in the stock histories of Missouri and Arkansas (Ashmore 1984; Berry and Novak 1987; Ferguson and Atkinson 1966; March 1967; Meyer 1970; Nagel 1988). Bits and pieces of their history Commentary