Page 8 - Early Naturalists of the Black Range

found at Etowah, Georgia, which was a Native American city from about 880 to 1550 (Cooke’s Peak - Pasaron Por Aqui - A Focus on United States History in Southwestern New Mexico, by Donald Howard Couchman, 1990, Cultural Resources Bulletin No. 7 of the United States Bureau of Land Management, p. 21.) This book is the best general history of this area.
Edward Palmer and J. S. Newberry (Examples of Natural History Known to the Indigenous Peoples)
Edward Palmer did little, if any, work in our area. He is one of the major contributors to our knowledge of the botany of the Southwest, however. He has more than 200 species named after him, discovered close to 1,200 new species, and collected more than 100,000 specimens. But it is not for these accomplishments that he is recognized here.
The field of ethnobotany is probably the major source of our knowledge about what the indigenous peoples knew about the natural history of the area in which they lived. Palmer is generally considered to be one of the founders of this field. His summaries of how the indigenous peoples used the plants of their region are informative.
In Food Products of the North American Indians (1871) he included food products from throughout the United States. His description of Solanum fendleri (now S. stoloniferum), shown to the right, and of Mesquite (now Prosopis glandulosa - the Honey Mesquite), shown on the following page, are indicative of his work (p. 409 - 411).
In 1877, Food and Fiber Plants of the North American Indians was published by J. S. Newberry. (The link is a reprint from The Popular Science Monthly of November 1887.)
Works like these provide some of the best documentation we have about the natural history knowledge of the First Peoples. The cited works were based (fully or for the most
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part) on first hand observation and discussion with the people using these foods.
In entries for other individuals mentioned later in this book, there are often references to the observations that they were able to make. We make an effort to differentiate their direct observations from those that are based on second- or third-hand sources.