“More Valuable Than Gold” Ethnobotany textbook by Richard Lonewolf and Sondra Wilson
Page updated 3/5/2025 by Sondra Wilson.
This well-organized, easy-to-use ethnobotany textbook was written by wilderness survival expert and former US military survival trainer Richard Lonewolf between 2010 and 2016 alongside longtime student Sondra Wilson in the lower Sierra Nevada Mountain range:
Beyond Mere Survival:
More Valuable contains more than 180 identification-friendly color photos, as well as step-by-step instructions for processing more than 50 common plants, shrubs, trees, and vines for their edible, utility, and (historically) medicinal uses. Many of the organisms in this book grow coast to coast throughout North America, and several other countries throughout the northern hemisphere. Learn to make acorn bread, buckeye nut flour, sycamore syrup, how to harvest and prepare the six edible parts on cattail plants, and many everyday uses for plants and trees you probably see every day and had no clue had so many uses. Several highly-efficient ancient cooking techniques are also covered (and beautifically photographed), such as the steam pit, blast oven, and more.
“I remember walking to school as a kid and seeing acorns all over the ground. I was always told that humans can’t eat them! When Lonewolf showed me how to turn them into flour in just 20 minutes, and learned that my European ancestors ate them as well, I developed Wild Willpower to help support Native American teachers in a way that gets this vital knowledge back to the people.” – Sondra Wilson
About Richard Lonewolf:
Lonewolf is an incredible human being with an interesting family history. His family arrived in Kern County, California during the Great Depression, when there was a mass migration of Cherokee to the Kern River Valley. Originally consisting of mountain-dwelling tribes around what is now North Carolina, the Cherokee nation was relocated to the flat lands of Georgia and Alabama before being marched to Oklahoma on the infamous (and unconstitutional) Trail of Tears. The goal of many Cherokee during this migration was to get back to a mountainous ecosystem like their ancestors lived in.
Since he was a young boy Lonewolf continued to practice and develop upon the ancestral skills his grandparents instilled into him. As he grew older he continued to integrate into his repertoire any knowledge of plant uses and other survival skills he could find in books, and from speaking with other native people who preserved this sacred knowledge. While serving in the US Army, his superiors realized he knew more about survival and ethnobotany than their current instructors, leading them to offer him a role in training US military units. He went on to teach at multiple schools and universities , from kids to adults. Now in his late 60s, More Valuable Than Gold marks his first book to help spread his life’s work to people around the world.
“I was so moved by Lonewolf’s story and the story of his ancestors, I felt called to help him create this book. I hitchhiked around California for 8 years taking photos of plants and trees, street performing with my guitar and foraging to survive, then hitchhiking back to Lonewolf’s to sit next to him and write as he’d look through my photos and dictate. Although we spent time performing hands-on training in the Sequoia National Forest, the fact that he was a disabled veteran not receiving his benefits didn’t make things easy for us. I’m really proud of we accomplished.” – Sondra Wilson
“If I had one book to take with me in a real survival situation, this would be it – and I’m really not saying that just because I wrote it! This is the type of book I wish I’d been able to learn from when I were younger.” – Richard Lonewolf
Preview Photos – scroll down to order your copy:
Preview page – Oak trees:
Preview pages – Oak:
Preview page – bow and drill for fire making:
Preview page – Cattails:
Preview page – Steam Pit cooking technique:
There’s also a 6-page Traditional Medicines Index & Quick-Reference Guide:
Notice: Request for Capital for Printing Costs
Wild Willpower PAC is currently seeking to raise $35,000 capital in order to get More Valuable Than Gold printed via Heuss Printing in Ames, Iowa. After contacting more than ten publishers, the best quote we have received, which does not depend on exploiting ill-treated workers overseas, is Heuss. The exact quote, $33,874.61, will enable us to print 1250 soft covers and 1250 hard covers. While other price points were given, this ~$35K was the “sweet spot” which would enable us to order enough quantity to drive down the price and make them affordable: $20 for soft covers, $30 for hard covers.
As a political action committee registered with the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board, and the IRS as a 527 tax-exempt political organization, Wild Willpower PAC may accept political “campaign contributions” (as opposed to donations).
After the Books are Printed:
A Strategy for Intercultural Healing
Once the books are printed, we envision large campaign contributions being used to offset the cost of these textbooks. For example if a philanthropist or good Samaritan were to offer a campaign contribution to Wild Willpower PAC in order to offset costs to consumers, or so that we could offer 10,000 books, at no cost, to every Indian Reservation, so as to help return this sacred and blessed knowledge back to the people from whom it was taken from, not only would (a) Richard Lonewolf’s family receive royalties so that his children will have enough to survive, but (2) Wild Willpower PAC would be able to perform an initial action of Good Will toward the tribal nations. As an organization, it is a primary goal to aid indigenous elders from around the world who still possess the Old World knowledge. We seek to hire documentation crews and sponsor such teachers, so that footage may be uploaded into the Wild Living Skills App™. Imagine, seven generations from now, if you will, that our descendants might look back at this piece of technology and see their ancestors, in an olive branch of Good Will, working together to co-create a piece of technology that brings this knowledge back to the people, during a time when it seemed that all hope was lost with regard to being able to connect with nature in this way. It is such a profound piece of technology that, we here at Wild Willpower PAC firmly believe, we owe it to future generations to deliver such a tool. Imagine the words of an indigenous elder’s great, great grandchild, watching a video of their great, great grandmother, teaching how to make food from wild plants, and saying, to the children around them, “That’s my great, great grandmother.” If that is not a beautiful thought and worth striving for, as it is such an attainable goal, we don’t know what is.
Although Wild Willpower PAC does have other plans to help all of humanity, the United States, and the tribal nations, such as the creation of the Oceti Sakowin Heritage Trail, our first step, as an organization, is to assist just one indigenous elder, Richard Lonewolf, via getting his book off the printer so that his family will have money to survive on. Lonewolf, being a U.S. Army Veteran who trained U.S. military units in wilderness survival, and now not receiving, at this time, the benefits he is due, he reminds me too much of the blessed and never-to-be-forgotten Ira Hayes, whom Johnny Cash sang about.
As of today, on 3-5-2025, only 26 days before The Great Action,
Please contact [email protected] with MORE VALUABLE in the subject line in order to assist with this important humanitarian effort. Please note that, while Wild Willpower PAC’s websites are not perfect – many web pages are unfinished or outdated – that everything you see throughout
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Learn More About Richard Lonewolf & Watch Videos of Him Teaching
View Some of His Credential Letters
Return to WildWillpower.org