• Native Americans made use of all they could find for practical purposes, including wild plants. Many wild flowers became an essential part of the Native American culture. Native American tribes had uses for plants that ranged from decorative to medicinal purposes, making wild flowers one of the most useful elements of nature for American Indians.
  
  

Medicinal

• Wild plants and flowers were often used for medicinal purposes by Native Americans. Skunk cabbage, for instance, which grows primarily in wetlands, was used by the Cherokee people to treat asthma. Snake root, yellow-spined thistle, catnip and the creosote bush were also used to treat illnesses that included colic or bronchial problems.
  
  

Food

• Wild flowers and plants were used as food by Indians throughout the United States. Indian tribes in the Mojave Desert depended heavily on wild plants as part of their survival. Some of the wild plants consumed include nuts from the pinyon pine and the California fan palm. The honey mesquite was also eaten and considered high in nutrition. Plants consumed by Great Plains Indians include prairie turnips, chokeberries and wild plums.
  
  

Crafts

• Many plants were used to make baskets, ornamental embellishments for weapons and clothing. Apache women used yucca leaves, willow reeds and juniper bark in the making of their baskets. Dyes were created by grinding and mashing colorful wild flowers into clay bowls.