Grass is almost everywhere. Consider the vegetation of front lawns, creeks, swamps, and highlands, as well as fields of grain for feeding humans and cattle. Types of grasses are almost as varied as the places they grow and the products made from them. In this age of technology, it is easy to ignore the historical role of grasses in American life.

In many traditional cultures, survival--particularly food and shelter--depended upon local vegetation. Grasses persist as a useful and beautiful reminder of the relationship between man and nature.

Ancient cultures celebrated the harvest through the presentation of gifts to the spirits responsible for the next season's feast or famine. Today, wheat weavers of the Great Plains perpetuate the spirit of this rite in their fabrication of "corn dollies." "Corn" is the English term for all food grains; "dolly" is a corruption of the word "idol." Through artistic manipulation of the grain stalks (the part that would ordinarily be wasted), spirals, cages, braids, and representations of human forms are created.