Plant rules

Anything we can do to help

Usually, the removal of plants from a national park is against the law. Federal law. Sorta like the rules against keeping arrowheads found on public land. The feds consider it poor form.

Rules weren’t made to be broken, no matter what anybody says. But good rule-makers understand exceptions. Which is why the feds allowed an agreement with citizens of the Cherokee Nation to gather plants at the Buffalo

River last week.

Wild Onion. River Cane. Canadian Wild Ginger.

Federal law allows Indian tribes to enter agreements with national park officials in this way. The latest agreement came because climate change threatens the availability of the Cherokee people’s traditional medicinal plants in Oklahoma. Over here in Arkansas, there are still 76 kinds of plants that Native Americans can gather. And now are being allowed.

Bill Bowden, who’s on the Hey Martha! beat for this paper, covered the story. The article said Native Americans who use these plants for traditional purposes can find them in the Buffalo River National Park. The story quoted Chuck Hoskin Jr., Cherokee Nation principal chief:

“There are so many pressures on Cherokee culture over the centuries since European contact. Certainly that includes pressure on our language and culture that has eroded so much of our lifeways. Certainly modern pressures such as climate change threaten medicinal plants across our reservation as they do for native peoples around the world. So it’s important that Cherokee Nation takes steps to protect, in particular, medicinal plants because the knowledge of those plants is something that is in scarce supply these days.”

White Mockernut Hickory. Flowering Dogwood. Sheep Showers.

Only members of the Cherokee Medicine Keepers are allowed to gather the plants right now. Perhaps more members of the nation will be allowed later. And since this is a government operation, there will be permits issued, IDs checked, and the whole DMV.

Wild Strawberry. Jewelweed. Oxeye Daisy.

There are many details. Plants thrive and bloom and produce fruit at different times, so all that must be sorted out. But we can’t think of any disadvantages of allowing Native Americans to continue their long tradition(s). Maybe it is best expressed by the superintendent of the park, Mark Foust, at the agreement ceremony:

“It’s very fitting, I think, that this is the 50th anniversary year of Buffalo National River,” he said. “But we know in the National Park Service that many came before us as stewards of this land. So our ability to partner with the Cherokee Nation and steward the land that you cared for, and the Medicine Keepers know so well, is truly our honor. So we thank you and we look forward to many, many years of working together and really working hard to protect the ecosystem for the next generation and the generations after that.”

Smooth Sumac. Black Locust. Sassafras. Spiderwort.

There are exceptions to rules. Even the rule of law. There need to be.