At the Desert’s Green Edge: An Ethnobotany of the Gila River Pima

i bought this book out of interest in southwestern US foraging. i have many books and field guides concerning wild edibles in various regions of western north america, by many different authors; this book stands completely alone in the depth and variety of relevant information provided. much of the text involves the subjective experiences and opinions of the author's pima informants, including myths, legends, songs and spiritual practices. contradictions and differences of opinion are left to stand where informants have different ideas about things. most authors of books concerning southwest foraging published subsequently frequently cite this book as a primary source. i consider this book a cornerstone of my southwest foraging library, it invariably contains more information on any given plant than other books. expensive, but 100% worth it if you have a serious interest in learning about wild edibles or lifestyles of southwestern people in the pre-colonial era.

A week ago I was working on a project on prehistoric plants from southern Arizona, and I found myself wondering, "What does Amadeo say about this?" I didn't have a copy of this volume, so I went out and ordered one. Found one from the good folks at Friends of the Pima County Library.By training Amadeo Rea is a taxonomic ornithologist. Over the course 30 years of studying birds and their changing environment along the Gila River, southwest of Phoenix, he found he couldn't understand his subject without learning something about the plants and what the local people thought about them. This volume is the culmination of that research (and my own work is mentioned a few times).Although this is not a "coffee table" book, it is illustrated throughout with beautiful sumi-e drawings by Takashi Ijichi. I included one of these, a sketch of Muskmelon, an Old World crop adopted by the Pima.This book is for the serious student of ethnobiology, ethnobotany, folk taxonomy, the O'odahm (Pima, Papago, and linguistic cousins), the Sonoran Desert, the US - Mexico Borderlands, and Southwestern Natural History.

I've been studying the history of the Gila River and its people lately. It was systematically cut off from the O'odam people by 1895. Some upstream farmers were not using the water to farm, it was diverted into the desert. After at least two thousand years of successful living on the lower Gila, they were reduced to starving vagrants.Many Native Elders have told younger generations, "If you don't care to take time to learn the old ways, it will die with us - no tape recordings, no notes, just the memory tradition.""At the Desert's Green Edge" is a gracious sharing of ancient traditions with the world. If you are interested in botany, wild foods, herbal medicines, especially in the lower Sonoran Desert region, this is a must-have resource. I encourage you to memorize it.

Love this book, plus the shipping was timely!

A very well researched book and great writing about o'odham culture.I am grateful that some of our O'odham elders and contemporaries had a place to share some of their knowledge.