“My grandmother once told me, ‘Don’t
forget what I have taught you. Words are powerful’”. Alma Snell
said this about her childhood growing up on the Crow Reservation. Snell’s
mother had a difficult childbirth and died one year later from Tuberculosis,
leaving the young girl to be taken care of by her grandmother Pretty Shield.
Her grandmother was a famous Crow medicine woman who was born into a time where
buffalo were disappearing by the hundreds of thousands and tribes were being
forced onto reservations. Young Alma and Pretty Shield formed a tight bond and
explored eastern Montana together, learning about different plants, roots, and
berries. Pretty Shield taught Alma the traditional ways of the Crow people,
more specifically ethnobotany. Ethnobotany is defined as the scientific study
of the traditional knowledge and customs of a people concerning plants and
their medical, religious, and other uses. Alma learned things like
how to crush both the fruit of the wild chokecherry and the pit in order to get
the nutrients inside the almond-like nut. After the fruit was crushed, it was
sun dried to eliminate the cyanide content. Today, Alma makes a modern
adaptation with chocolate covered chokecherries. Outside of culinary
uses for native plants, Pretty Shield taught young Alma about herbal remedies
for various ailments. For example, in Snell’s book she talks about making an
echinacea tincture for snakebite. First, a cloth is soaked in the tincture and
applied to the bite and a few drops of the echinacea should be swallowed as
well. Then if kidney problems arise, Alma suggests making a strong yarrow tea
to keep the patient hydrated.
When Alma became a teenager, she was sent
to Flandreau Indian Boarding School in South Dakota (Alma). She had a difficult
time trying to combine her Native culture and the new American culture she was
being forced to assimilate to. She understood her old traditional values and
respect for nature, but had to learn that Christianity, discipline, and order
were the new governing factors during her time at Flandreau. At the boarding
school she met her future husband Bill Snell, but he was an Assiniboine, an
enemy tribe of the Crow. The Assiniboine were an independent warrior tribe that
looked down upon intermarriage, making the relationship between Alma and Bill
difficult. Finally, after World War II, they got married and according to the
Billings Gazette they celebrated their 60th anniversary in 2008.
Today, Alma is known as a wonderful
teacher, wife, author, and a success story for the Crow tribe. She teaches
Indian sign language and is fluent in both Crow and English. But, she is most
well-known for preserving and sharing the knowledge of ethnobotany she has
learned from her own studies and her grandmother teaching. Alma Snell has
written two books during her lifetime. The first is A Taste of Heritage, where she combines “wild plant knowledge,
historical and modern recipes, natural medicine, and advice for life”. In the book she thanks her husband for trying all of her strange recipes,
especially boiled buffalo hooves. The second book she has written is Grandmother’s Grandchild, a story about
her youth growing up with Pretty Shield on the Crow Reservation. She has also
given presentations to school children and tribal college students across the
country and has been a medicinal healer to hundreds of people. The National
Park Service, PBS, the Montana Herb Gathering, and the Smithsonian, just to
name a few, have all asked for Mrs. Snell’s help on various projects.
In conclusion, Alma has been a leader and
a teacher for both native and non-native people. She has preserved a hundred
years of Crow tradition in print, when it would otherwise be lost. Mrs. Snell
passed away in 2008, but her memory lives on through her books, friends and
family. From her influential childhood with Pretty Shield to her current
teaching, writing, and healing, Alma Snell has been a remarkable person.
