Wilson Butte Cave

 

Plants were an essential, nutritious part of the native diet. Prehistoric Americans harvested and traded various plant roots and nuts for food, medicine and other uses. The gathering, cleaning and cooking of the roots were tasks usually performed by women and girls, while men were busy performing other duties, such as hunting and fishing. 

 

During the early spring, women of the Shoshone, Paiute and Bannock tribes of the Great Basin gathered biscuitroot, yampa, bitterroot and camas, and  processed pinon seeds. In late summer and fall, women gathered berries high in Vitamin C such as chokecherries, elderberries, currants, juniper berries and serviceberries. Also in autumn, women used large poles to knock limber pine nuts to the ground for winter storage. Seeds were eaten raw and sometimes roasted in the sand, and berries were collected, dried and stored. Early Americans learned to be cautious when using many of these plants because sections of the plants were poisonous.