tional botanical knowledge, can be extremely detrimental to cultural revitalization and has created a critical need to triage ethnobotanical research efforts. Through triage, available resources, including research assistance, can be assigned to the most pressing community concerns first (Hinton 2001b).Historically, ethnobotanical research agendas have been developed without significant input from indigenous communities. Too often, research questions, methods, analyses, and conclusions are formulated in an academic vacuum, outside the indigenous community, and yield findings that are interesting but not urgently needed. Triaging an indigenous community's ethnobotanical needs requires intimate knowledge of community values, traditions, resources, and long-term goals-knowledge only the community itself holds. We suggest ethnobotanical research agendas be locally determined and guided by indigenous communities themselves. In fact, a number of ethnobotanical revitalization projects have yielded success with this approach including preservation of ethnobotanical language Community-Led Ethnobotanical Triage: Case study-Myaamia corn traditionsMichael P. Gonella, Daryl W. Baldwin, and Adolph M. Greenberg Research AbstractRapid loss of indigenous ethnobotanical traditions has created a need to triage research efforts to preserve this traditional knowledge. A triage process, however, is best led by those who understand the cultural context of historical data and are keenly aware of the community's pressing needs-the indigenous community itself. Non-community researchers can be involved by lending research skills and connections towards the community-established research goals. This study described a process by which two non-indigenous community researchers supported an indigenous, Myaamia (Miami) research scholar in triaging Myaamia ethnobotanical research priorities and in conducting a focused study on the highest priority plant according to that community: corn (Zea mays L.). Data gathered regarding Myaamia corn traditions allowed the reconstruction of the traditional corn cultivation cycle. Description of traditional corn processing techniques, recipes, and identifying traditional corn varieties is helping the Myaamia community in their efforts to preserve cultural historical knowledge associated with planting of corn and in so doing revitalize Myaamia language and culture.

Asclepias syriaca L. (common milkweed) is known to contain sufficient amounts of cardiac glycosides, which are known to be toxic to humans. Nonetheless, it is traditionally used for food by Native Americans, including the Myaamia people of Indiana and Oklahoma. In order to test the hypothesis that traditional horticultural and culinary practices prevent the Myaamia from ingesting toxic levels of cardiac glycosides, we have determined the level of glycosides (digitoxin equivalent) in A. syriaca 1) in various parts of the plant, 2) at various heights for pre-reproductive plants, and 3) before and after cooking according to traditional Myaamia procedures. Plants were grown, harvested, dried, ground, and extracted twice with ethanol. The amount of digitoxin-equivalent glycoside in plant extract was determined spectrophotometrically using 2,2’,4,4’-tetranitrodiphenyl, a selective derivatizing agent. We find that all parts of the plant contain significant levels of cardiac glycosides at all stages of growth. Plants harvested as young shoots for food, the common practice of the Myaamia, contain slightly lower levels of cardiac glycosides when compared to the leaves and stems of older, taller plants. Moreover, the toxicity is significantly reduced by the traditional Myaamia cooking procedure—a repeated boiling with several changes of water. Therefore, it appears as though the risk of glycoside poisoning from traditional Myaamia use of milkweed for food is moderated by their harvesting practice and traditional cooking procedure.