This new partnership is helping the Cherokee Nation preserve plants and culture

This new partnership is helping the Cherokee Nation preserve plants and culture


OKLAHOMA CITY— Keen eyes and a nose for history allow John Ross to see what others might overlook.

Ross, a member of the Cherokee Nation Medicine Keepers, is well acquainted with this land and its treasures. He’s expertly able to navigate forests, fields and riverbeds to help preserve the flora Cherokee people have used for decades to soothe ailments, produce nourishing food and craft materials.

But on the reservation, many of these plants are becoming depleted from years of picking. Under a new agreement with the National Park Service, the Cherokee Nation will set aside and protect a 1,000-acre site along the banks of the Buffalo National River in Arkansas that is rich with plants and natural resources deemed historically important to tribal traditions and culture. It will allow tribe members to cultivate these plants and transplant them back to Oklahoma.

“These are our traditions, and this is our culture,” said Ross, 68, an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. “To keep these skills alive — and to expand it by getting access to the land — is so exciting.”

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The Cherokee Nation and the National Park Service (NPS) signed the agreement in 2022, a first-of-its-kind agreement in the region. While removing plants from national parks is generally prohibited, a 2016 rule permits park superintendents to establish plant-gathering agreements with Native tribes.

Through an annual permit, the tribe can collect 76 different plants within the Cherokee Nation’s park, including wild indigo, river cane, wild onion, hickory, bloodroot and sage. The tribe will also provide the parks service with a list of citizens involved in gathering these plants.

Ross and the Medicine Keepers have been searching the area of the Buffalo National River ever since, discovering the area filled with untapped potential. They’re preparing for a “grand opening” of sorts for citizens to begin gathering plants later this summer.

Growing up, Ross said his family rarely visited the doctor or hospital. Instead his father would take bark from trees, such as red oak, white oak, hickory or cherry, and boil it in water. The liquid would then be used to help with colds and the flu.

When searching areas on the Cherokee reservation in Oklahoma for the plants needed to make these medicines, he knows what conditions make each plant thrive and grow and so he’s able to narrow the search down to just a few acres.

But Ross said many of the plants on the reservation are becoming depleted from years of picking. Being able to exchange plants with those from Buffalo River will help keep these practices alive.

“It’s so important that we preserve these plants and exchange plants,” Ross said. “Some of them are nearly gone here, so to be able to open up this new area is going to let us preserve and prolong the use of these plants for a long time.”

Chad Harsha, Cherokee Nation’s secretary of natural resources, said the Buffalo National River’s botanical diversity is unique to the area and many of these wild plants have cultural significance for Cherokee people.

The Cherokee people began migrating to the region along the Buffalo River in the Ozark Mountains in the early 18th century after white settlers forced them from their homelands. Tens of thousands of Native Americans, including the Cherokees, were forcibly removed from the southeastern United States by the federal government during the early and mid-19th century. The forced journey, known as the Trail of Tears, resulted in the death of thousands of Cherokee people.

Many of the plants along the Buffalo National River are similar to species available in Cherokee homelands in Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi.

Having new access to these plants, two hours east of Tahlequah, is a great advantage, since they are scarce in Oklahoma.

“From a cultural perspective, these plants are invaluable to our people,” Harsha said. ” Gaining access to the park is integral to maintaining our cultural identity.”

Under the agreement, a designated preserve area for hunting and land conservation was set aside for the Cherokee Nation’s ethnobotany program and seed bank program. Harsha said it’s a dream of his that citizens can create their own gardens filled with plants from this area, helping keep traditional practices alive.

“We send out seeds all over the world and we try to help people cultivate these practices from their very own backyards,” Harsha said. “In that way we are keeping our culture alive.”

Negotiations between members of the Cherokee Nation and Buffalo National River officials began in 2014, with the agreement originally planned to be signed in 2020 but delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cherokee Nation, currently the largest tribe in the U.S., has more than 390,000 citizens worldwide, with approximately 141,000 living within the boundaries of the tribe’s reservation in northeastern Oklahoma.

“It is an honor for the National Park Service to enter into this agreement with the Cherokee Nation,” said Mark Foust, National Park Service Superintendent at Buffalo National River. “This is an important step in the continuing efforts to embrace our tribal partners in the management of public lands at Buffalo National River. The Cherokee Nation offers invaluable information, ecological knowledge, and a unique perspective that will lead to a better understanding of the benefits of public land.”

For Ross, one of the best parts of the Medicine Keepers program is working with the next generation. The group has taken school-age Cherokee children into the field to hunt, gather and craft together.

Ross said sitting around a campfire and mixing the different elements together, and seeing that spark on a young child’s face when they learn how to make something their ancestors made, is priceless.

“It’s the same way I learned,” Ross said. “Helping them experience that and showing them the ways of our tribe means so much to me.”



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