The current status of documented ethnobotanical knowledge pertaining to plants found at the INEEL is tabulated on the following pages.  We endeavored to distinguish between generalized ethnobotanical information - that attributed to “the Indians,” as if all indigenous groups could be represented by one cultural milieu - and specific ethnobotanical repertoire included in Shoshone/Bannock cultural ecology.  The task of documenting a Shoshone/Bannock ethnobotany is ongoing and is largely a matter of reconstructing past behavior from lingering linguistic evidence and reporting present day practices from ethnographic research.  The following table shows the native Shoshone/Bannock term for the plant or plant parts, if it is known, and a symbol referring to the documented status concerning use of the plant by the area’s native aboriginal population (see key at the beginning of table).  These symbols do not represent Shoshone/Bannock use or non-use of a plant;  instead, they represent the state of documentation concerning a plant’s use.  This distinction is meant to establish a baseline from which further research, more in the vein of reconstructive ethnography, might stem.  It should also be noted that many of the “food plants” listed in the table are exotic species that were introduced to the area after European settlement.  These would have come into use by local Native Americans during the last two centuries.

Ethnobotany of the INEEL