Circular sandstone metate (left; FOUS 723) and Mano (FOUS 3906)

Pommes blanches, or Pediomelum argophyllum, is more commonly called Indian breadroot. The plant’s energy-rich and nutritious root was harvested, as Audubon observed, and frequently ground into a flour that the women of the Plains peoples added to soups or stews they cooked. The circular sandstone metate (left; FOUS 723) and reddish mano (FOUS 3906) shown here might be similar to those the women Audubon admired later could have used to grind the breadroot tubers into flour.