Over generations, plants become traditional to cultures around the world. Every tribal nation has plants that it considers sacred. For example, the Schweinitz’s sunflower is important to the Catawba Nation of South Carolina.
Roo (Catawba Nation) talks about how his idea of “traditional” plants has changed. According to Roo, the traditional stance for Catawba people has always been to adopt new plants and to make them traditional over time.
What makes a plant traditional? How can this change over time?