How did Native Americans use the plants they found around the Cave?
Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana) is a hardy shrub widely distributed in North America. The small white flowers give way to dark round fruits, or cherries, with large seeds. The cherries are edible but will pucker the mouth when not fully ripe. The Plains Indians mixed the chokecherry with pounded meat and bone grease to make pemmican. They also ate the berries when ripe, dried them and used the berry juice for paint and stain. The stem and bark were used to make a tea. Native Americans used the small straight branches for arrow shafts since the needed little straightening because of its durability. Wild animals and bird species also depended on the cherries for food. Juniper (Juniperus communis) is a shrub which many mistakenly refer to as cedar. The berries are bluish in color, edible, but unappetizing. Native Americans squashed the berries for use as dyes, for face paint and, perhaps, as a pigment for painting pictographs on the cave walls. The seeds were used as medicines and also as
