Paleo Foraging

Indigenous uses of California poppy.

The pollen was also used by the Cahuilla as a facial cosmetic and an unspecified part was used as a sedative for babies.

Note that the Indigenous peoples mentioned are still living cultures and when I use past tense it is to describe practices in a historical context.

This video is for educational or entertainment purposes. To be safe, DO NOT try anything I say or do. Foragers should be 100% certain of the ID of anything consumed.

REFERENCES
- Bean, John Lowell and Katherine Siva Saubel. 1972. Temalpakh (from the earth): Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants.
- Chesnut, V. K. 1902. Plants used by the Indians of Mendocino County, California.
- GBIF Secretariat (range map)
- Goodrich, J., Lawson, C., and Lawson, V. P. 1980. Kashaya Pomo plants.



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Native uses of incense cedar.

Note that the Indigenous peoples mentioned are still living cultures and when I use past tense it is to describe practices in a historical context.

This video is for educational or entertainment purposes. To be safe, DO NOT try anything I say or do. Foragers should be 100% certain of the ID of anything consumed.

REFERENCES
- Chesnut, V. K. 1902. Plants used by the Indians of Mendocino County, California. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.
- GBIF Secretariat (range maps)



My book: www.amazon.com/Native-Food-Plants-Texas-Indigenous/dp/B0FW7K4GXL

E-book and merch: paleoforaging.com/shop

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Wild Texas Teas: yarrow flowers.

This video is for educational or entertainment purposes. To be safe, DO NOT try anything I say or do. Foragers should be 100% certain of the ID of anything consumed.

REFERENCES
- Baker. 1981. The ethnobotany of the Yurok, Tolowa, and Karok Indians of northwest California.
- Baltas et al. 2019. Achilles and Patroclus: Lesser known Physicians of Homer’s Iliad.
- Banks. 1953. Ethnobotany of the Cherokee Indians.
- Berlandier. 1969. The Indians of Texas in 1830.
- Blankinship. 1905. Native Economic Plants of Montana.
- ChamberlinV. 1911: The ethno-botany of the Gosiute Indians of Utah.
- Chesnut. 1902. Plants used by the Indians of Mendocino County, California.
- Elmore. 1943. Ethnobotany of the Navajo.
- Gilmore. 1977. Uses of plants by the Indians of the Missouri river region.
- Goodrich et al. 1980. Kashaya Pomo plants.
- Hart. 1979. The ethnobotany of the Flathead Indians of western Montana.
- Hart. 1981. The ethnobotany of the northern Cheyenne Indians of Montana.
- Hellson and Gadd. 1974. Ethnobotany of the Blackfoot Indians.
- Kress et al. 1931. Diary of a visit of inspection of the Texas Missions made by Fray Gaspar José de Solís in the year 1767-68.
- Latorre and Latorre. 1977. Plants used by the Mexican Kickapoo Indians.
- Leighton. 1985. Wild plant use by the Woods Cree (Nihīthawak) of east-central Saskatchewan.
- Mead. The ethnobotany of the California Indians.
- Munson. 1981. Contributions to Osage and Lakota Ethnobotany.
- Smith. 1927. Materia medica of the Bella Coola and neighbouring tribes of British Columbia.
- Smith. 1923. Ethnobotany of the Menomini Indians.
- Smith. 1932. Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians.
- Stevenson. 1909. Ethnobotany of the Zuñi Indians.
- Vestal and Schultes. 1939. Economic botany of the Kiowa Indians.



My book: www.amazon.com/Native-Food-Plants-Texas-Indigenous/dp/B0FW7K4GXL

Foraging walk registration: paleoforaging.com/booking

European searocket - spicy beach mustard!



My book: www.amazon.com/Native-Food-Plants-Texas-Indigenous/dp/B0FW7K4GXL

E-book and merch: paleoforaging.com/shop

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Making the 2nd oldest instrument.

Bullroarers are free aerophones and the oldest known was made over 17,000 years ago in Europe. The oldest known musical instrument is a 43,000-year-old bone flute from Europe. The bullroarer or some other instrument may pre-date the flute, but simply did not last in the archaeological record.

REFERENCES
- Kavanagh, Thomas W. (ed.). 2008. Comanche ethnography: field notes of E. Adamson Hoebel, Waldo R. Wedel, Gustav G. Carlson, and Robert H. Lowie. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE.
- Loeb, Edwin M. 1926. Pomo folkways. University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology 19(2):149-405.
- Montagu, Jeremy. 2004. How old is music? The Galpin Society Journal 57:171-182.
- Morley, Iain. 2003 The Evolutionary Origins and Archaeology of Music. PhD Dissertation, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK.




My book: www.amazon.com/Native-Food-Plants-Texas-Indigenous/dp/B0FW7K4GXL

E-book and merch: paleoforaging.com/shop

Foraging walk registration: paleoforaging.com/booking

Catclaw acacia - Indigenous uses.

Note that the Indigenous peoples mentioned are still living cultures and when I use past tense it is to describe practices in a historical context.

This video is for educational or entertainment purposes.To be safe, DO NOT try anything I say or do. Foragers should be 100% certain of the ID of anything consumed.

REFERENCES
- Barrows, David Prescott. 1967. The ethno-botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California.
- Bean, John Lowell and Katherine Siva Saubel. 1972. Temalpakh (from the earth): Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants.
- Castetter, Edward F. and Ruth M. Underhill. 1935. The ethnobiology of the Papago Indians.
- Felger, Richard Stephen, and Mary Beck Moser. 1985. People of the desert and sea: ethnobotany of the Seri Indians.
- GBIF Secretariat (range maps)



My book: www.amazon.com/Native-Food-Plants-Texas-Indigenous/dp/B0FW7K4GXL

Foraging walk registration: paleoforaging.com/booking

I invented an ideal foraging net.

It is heavily inspired by historical Indigenous fruit, seed, and grain collection methods & tools. These were typically made of basketry materials. The fabric, I believe, is a bit of an improvement, and at least makes it easier for the average person to make.

I made this two years ago (repost) and have yet to find a superior method for harvesting small fruits, seeds, and grains. I have used this net countless times and it has held up extremely well. It is my #1 recommendation for a foraging tool.

I describe its construction and uses in detail in my book, “Native Food Plants of Texas” by Cyrus Harp. Available here: www.amazon.com/Native-Food-Plants-Texas-Indigenous/dp/B0FW7K4GXL

Foraging walks at paleoforaging.com/booking

crafts

“Botanical sexism”

If we want to complain about the choice of trees planted in urban environments, let’s complain about the lack of edible species. We could be loading up the sidewalks with plums, pecans, mesquites, mulberries, cherries, loquats, walnuts, persimmons, etc. instead of four billion oak trees (which are edible but less readily).

REFERENCES
- Brannan, Charles F. 1949. Trees: the yearbook of agriculture. USDA, Washington, D.C.
- Hu, J.C. 2021. The complicated truth behind “botanical sexism.” Slate Magazine. Accessed April 17th, 2026.
- Ogren, Thoms Leo. 2015. Botanical sexism cultivates home-grown allergies. Scientific American.
- Otto, S.P. and J. Whitton. 2000. Polyploid incidence and evolution. Annu. Rev. Genet. 34:401-437.
- Padres, D. 2024. Is “botanical sexism” really to blame for increased pollen allergies in urban cities? McGill Office for Science and Society analysis. Accessed April 17th, 2026.
- Renner, S.S. and R.E. Ricklefs. 1995. Dioecy and its correlates in the flowering plants. Am. J. Bot. 82:596–606.
- Renner, S.S. 2014. The relative and absolute frequencies of angiosperm sexual systems: Dioecy, monoecy, gynodioecy, and an updated online database. Am. J. Bot. 101:1588–1596.
- and finally, debunked this last spring, but also saying global rising temperatures and CO2 (and consequent plant production) are a possible explanation for increased pollen and allergies, which is an excellent hypothesis.



Get my book, “Native Food Plants of Texas” by Cyrus Harp here: www.amazon.com/Native-Food-Plants-Texas-Indigenous/dp/B0FW7K4GXL

Or sign up for a foraging walk here: paleoforaging.com/booking

This root tastes like sugarcane.

Note that the Indigenous peoples mentioned are still living cultures and when I use past tense it is to describe practices in a historical context.

REFERENCES
- Carlson, Gustav G. and Volney H. Jones. 1939. Some notes on uses of plants by the Comanche Indians.
- GBIF Secretariat (range maps)
- McClintock, Walter. 1909. Materia medica of the Blackfeet.
- Munson, Patrick J. 1981. Contributions to Osage and Lakota ethnobotany.
- Robbins, Wilfred William, Harrington, John Peabody, and Barbara Freire-Marreco. 1916. Ethnobotany of the Tewa Indians.
- Smith, Huron H. 1928. Ethnobotany of the Meskwaki Indians.
- Vestal, Paul A. and Richard Evans Schultes. 1939. Economic botany of the Kiowa Indians: as it relates to the history of the tribe.



My book: www.amazon.com/Native-Food-Plants-Texas-Indigenous/dp/B0FW7K4GXL

Foraging walk registration: paleoforaging.com/booking

Wild Texas Teas: mesquite flowers.

This video is for educational or entertainment purposes. To be safe, DO NOT try anything I say or do. Foragers should be 100% certain of the ID of anything consumed.

REFERENCES
- Bean, John Lowell and Katherine Siva Saubel. 1972. Temalpakh (from the earth): Cahuilla Indian knowledge and usage of plants.
- GBIF Secretariat (range maps)
- Kelly, William H. 1977. Cocopa ethnography.
- Mails, Thomas, E. 1974. People called Apache.



My book: www.amazon.com/Native-Food-Plants-Texas-Indigenous/dp/B0FW7K4GXL

Foraging walk registration: paleoforaging.com/booking