“We call the plants the First People. They were the first created in our oral tradition before the animals, before the fish, before the birds, and their duty was to hold the earth together and live their life as a teaching for those who would be created in the future.

The plants left many things to us as human beings. They left the ones who would be our food, they left the ones that would be our medicine, they left the ones that would be our building material, they left the ones that would be our basketry material, they left the ones that would be the scent and fragrance of the sacred in this universe, they left beauty and they dressed the earth. The earth was bare before the plant people were created.”

Bruce Miller (Skokomish), from Gifts of the First People

Learn about Nettles in this video by Longhouse Media featuring Northwest Indian College’s Traditional Plants and Foods program.