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Therapeutic plants and foods
The Kizh Tribe & LINKS
Reviving native plant and food traditions
Who Are the Kizh?
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The Kizh (pronounced Keech) Nation us the original tribe of the greater Los Angeles Basin. The Kizh people have lived in relationship with the land for thousands of years - gathering medicine, tending wild food gardens, and passing on knowledge through oral tradition and ceremony. Through LINKS, the Kizh Tribe continues to revitalize plant-based healing practices and foodways in urban and tribal spaces alike.
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Plant Medicine is Cultural Medicine
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The Kizh's approach to plants is about relationship, not resource. Every plant has a spirit, a teaching, and a purpose. LINKS-supported gardens and programs feature native plants used by the Kizh people for physical healing (antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, respiratory), spiritual cleansing (smoke, teas, and bathing), cultural ceremony (offerings, regalia, rituals) and everyday nutrition (nutritive and seasonal wild foods).
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Key Therapeutic Plants in LINKS Projects
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​​​​​​​Traditional Foods as Medicine
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Healing also comes through ancestral nutrition. LINKS supports the revitalization of Indigenous food systems. For example, how to process acorn and teaching about oak stewardship. Also, use of prickly pear cactus (nopales) for blood sugar regulation. Chia seeds (Salvia columbariae) are used for hydration and energy. Wild greens (miner’s lettuce, amaranth, lambsquarters) are used for minerals and fiber. These foods not only nourish the body, but they restore cultural memory and sovereignty.
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LINKS Works with Healing Gardens
LINKS collaborates with schools, clinics, and communities to create healing gardens that center Kizh plant knowledge, serve as ceremonial and educational spaces and offers a place for elders, youth, and healers to connect and share.
Gardens become places of intergenerational healing and land-based resilience.
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This work is about more than just plants. It's about rematriation, cultural survival, and collective wellness. Through LINKS, the Kizh Tribe reclaims and protects sacred plant knowledge, rebuilds local access to traditional foods and medicines and supports sovereignty through knowledge transmission and ecological care.
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Salvia apiana (White Sage)
White Sage is used for purification, protection, and spiritual focus. It also has antibacterial and respiratory clearing properties. it is culturally significant and under threat so LINKS promotes ethical cultivation.
Artemisia californica (California Sagebrush)
California Sagebrush is used in liniments, teas, and smudge for joint pain and colds. It represents protection and women’s strength in Kizh teachings.​
Eriodictyon crassifolium (Yerba Santa)
Yerba Santa is known for treating coughs, asthma, and chest congestion. Its leaves are chewed or brewed as tea. It is a sacred healing plant.
Heteromeles arbutifolia (Toyon)
Toyon's berries were cooked and eaten while its bark was used for digestive issues. It is important in traditional winter ceremonies.
Eriogonum fasciculatum (California Buckwheat)
California Buckwheat's flower is made into a tea used for headaches and hypertension. It supports pollinators and is very drought resilient.
