Knowledge Keepers Creating Inventory of Medicinal Plants Found on Land Shared by Prairie Farmers

Linda Obey-Lavallee learned all about plants — how to read them, how to pick them properly, their medicinal properties — from her late husband Harold Lavallee, who learned from his grandparents.

Obey-Lavallee, from Piapot First Nation, is a traditional picker and knowledge keeper of medicinal plants.

Whenever she enters an area, she makes sure to say a prayer and lay down tobacco before picking. It shows respect to the land and to Mother Earth for providing the medicines we need, she said.

“When I am out there picking, I’ll only take what I need,” she said. “If it’s the flower tops, I’ll cut off the flower tops, if it’s the root, then I’ll dig up the root and put the whole tops back into ground and pat it down to make it look like I wasn’t even here.”

You put things back the way you found it, she said, and in return the plants will regrow.