Grand Foods of the Grand Canyon State: Traditional Foods of the Tribes of the Southwest – Waddell

The ethnobotanical story of the Southwest begins with the plant knowledge the people have inherited from their ancestors who lived entirely off the land. The nutritional values of many wild foods are only recently gaining attention of western dietitians.  These foods however, have long been known by local Tribes for their nutritional and medicinal value.  So called “superfoods” are those foods which contain high amounts of phytonutrients and antioxidants.  Such foods can in some cases reduce the risk of chronic disease.  This talk will examine several key traditional foods utilized by Southwestern Tribes – foods that have been utilized by the Tribal people for centuries.

Carrie Cannon is a member of the Kiowa tribe of Oklahoma and is also of Oglala Lakota descent. She has a B.S. in Wildlife Biology, and an M.S. in Resource Management. She began working for the Hualapai Tribe of Peach Springs, Arizona in 2005 where she began the creation of an intergenerational ethnobotany program for the Hualapai community.  She is currently employed as an Ethnobotanist for the Hualapai Department of Cultural Resources. She administers a number of projects promoting the intergenerational teaching of Hualapai ethnobotanical knowledge working towards preservation and revitalization to ensure tribal ethnobotanical knowledge persists as a living practice and tradition.