The North Metro Atlanta Chapter of the Georgia Native Plant Society

Join the North Metro Atlanta Chapter for an educational event, Native Plants of the Cherokee on August 13th at 10:30AM at the Alpharetta Library featuring author Mark Warren talking on how some of the most common native plants and trees were used by the Cherokee for food, medicine, insect repellent, crafts, shelter and fire. Mark Warren is the owner of the nationally renowned Medicine Bow Wilderness School in Dahlonega, GA, has been teaching nature and survival skills of the Cherokee to adults and children for half a century.

About the program

Mark believes today’s society can — and should — learn some valuable lessons and skills from those native people who inhabited this continent hundreds of years before European explorers ever landed on its shores. He will be discussing how some of the most common native plants and trees were used by the Cherokee for food, medicine, insect repellent, crafts, shelter and fire. Mark will bring along some plants and handmade crafts for viewing and discussion.

“All of us who live in Southern Appalachia reside on land that once belonged to the Cherokee. While these native people led lives of intimate daily interaction with their natural surroundings, most folks today have reduced nature to a backdrop of scenery. The great deficit in this scenario is our lack of understanding that we still depend upon nature. That dependency is largely hidden to us, especially to the new generations that come along to take over the ‘rules’ of how we behave with nature — air to breathe, water to drink, energy to consume for our daily actions. These are commodities that are easy to take for granted. If taken for granted, humans will have no reason to respect and conserve the pieces of the puzzle we call ecology.” – Mark Warren

About Mark Warren

Mark Warren is a graduate of the University of Georgia. At Medicine Bow, his nationally renowned wilderness school in the Southern Appalachians, he teaches nature classes and survival skills of the Cherokees. The National Wildlife Federation named him Georgia’s Conservation Educator of the Year in 1980. In 1998 Mark became the U.S. National Champion in whitewater canoeing, and in 1999 he won the World Championship Longbow title.

Warren has written extensively about nature for local and national magazines. He lectures on Native American history and survival skills, and Western Frontier History presenting at museums and cultural centers around the country. He is a member of the Wild West History Association, and Western Writers of America. His Wyatt Earp, An American Odyssey trilogy was honored by WWA’s Spur Awards, The Historical Novel Society and the 2020 Will Rogers Medallion Awards under the original hardback editions, Born to the Badge (2018) and Promised Land (2019.)

His published books include: from Lyons Press, Two Winters in a Tipi and Secrets of the Forest (a four volume series on nature and primitive skills), from Five Star – Gale Cengage and Two Dot, Wyatt Earp, An American Odyssey (an historical fiction trilogy on the life of Wyatt Earp), from Five Star – Gale Cengage, Indigo Heaven, The Cowboy, The Librarian and the Broomsman from the anthology Librarians of the West: A Quartet, Westering Trail Travesties, and from Speaking Volumes, Song of the Horseman and Last of the Pistoleers.

**Note: The Alpharetta Library prohibits the sale of books at events. If you would like to purchase from the author, please visit his website at www.markwarrenbooks.com