Aboriginal Plant Use in Canada's Northwest Boreal Forest

Book excerpt: This handbook describes the traditional uses by aboriginal people of more than 200 different plants from Canada's boreal forest. It is the result of original ethnobotanical fieldwork in 29 communities across the boreal forest region of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. Natural resources of the boreal forest have always been essential to the dietary, medical, economic, and spiritual well-being of First Nations people, but until now much of their traditional environmental knowledge has remained unrecorded and at risk of being lost.