English

Scientific Name

Cirsium spp

Arapaho

Translation of the Arapaho

‘they’re sharp’

Thistles and the Arapaho

Food: vegetable. An Arapaho woman reports that thistle is used in soups and stews: the stems were stripped, then chopped up. The entire stalk can also be steamed or boiled, the eaten with salt. The exact same use is/was made by the Cheyenne of the thistle Cirsium edule, and the Arapaho may have used the same species. The species with a single, large, purple/pink head with many spines was the one normally eaten. Young stalks can also be eaten raw, with the starchy inner stalk at the base of the plant especially preferred.