A two-volume book set published in collaboration with the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum, with contributions by Stacey Montooth, Dr. Joshua Bonde, Izzy NewMoon, and Bobbi Rahder
Originally published in 1939, Desert Friends was created at the Stewart Indian School, a federal Indian Boarding School in Carson City, Nevada. Blending Traditional Ecological Knowledge with school-based instruction, the book was written and illustrated by Native and non-Native educators, students, and community members committed to preserving Indigenous relationships with native plants.
Rooted in the teachings of Native Elders and informed by the botanical studies and cultural revival efforts of the 1930s, Desert Friends offers a rare, Native-centered perspective on the plants of the Great Basin—presenting them not just as resources, but as “friends” with whom one lives in respectful relationship. This new edition invites readers to learn from a worldview that values gratitude, ecological balance, and the interconnection of all living things.
Reprinted in 2025 through a partnership between the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center & Museum and the Nevada Museum of Art, the updated publication provides expanded historical and cultural context. It highlights how Indigenous languages encode sophisticated ecological knowledge, and how language loss threatens the knowledge people use to understand and sustain their environments. Following its original release, Desert Friends was distributed statewide by the Nevada Department of Education in 1964, underscoring its lasting educational and cultural importance.