Densmore writes and shows how birchbark patterns were used for bead embroidery and weaving, with patterns often cut from pretty leaves or flowers found. Major plant photos, engravings, drawings imagebase gateway. His approach is scientific, not mystical. Very good color photos, his own, and those by Mimi Camp, accurate habitat descriptions and correct universal botanic names make all of the above books good field handbooks for their respective regions. How the California basketweavers saved some plants from a dam.
Some articles are tough going, some are easy.
Every white writer on Indian medicine and herbology has stolen from Vogel ever since. Classic compendium by well-known Native scholar. Vogel uses medical practices as a lens to focus on changing relationships between invading whites and natives, as well as discussing practical and pharmacological bases of plant-based healing and remedies. Book is organized by condition or problem, listing herbal remedies of various tribes for each. Last section of the book is more interesting, the plants shown and told about there are usable today.