Kinomaagewin-aki, Teachings from the Earth

Kinomaage-Aki, Teachings from the EarthYou are invited to…
A Native Plants Restoration and Pollinator Protection Workshop
~ For Native American Tribal Communities in Northern Michigan ~

Thursday April, 12th from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Hannahville Indian (Potawatomi) Community in Wilson, Michigan

Kinomaagewin-aki

Teachings from the Earth

  • Insights into traditional Native cultural teachings, medicinal plants & challenges facing native plants restoration efforts in Indian country
  • An overview of native plant restoration and pollinator-protection efforts among Native American tribal communities
  • Perspectives from the U.S. Forest Service on grant possibilities & technical support

Special Presenters

Earl Meshigaud
Cultural Director, Historian
(Hannaville Indian Community)

Scott Herron, PhD.
Ethnobotanist
(Odawa, Anishanaabe)

Jan Schultz
Botanist
U.S. Forest Service, Eastern Region

With invited representatives from:

  • Keeweenaw Bay Indian Community
  • Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa Indians
  • Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
  • Hannahville Indian Community
  • Bay Mills Indian Community
  • Northern Michigan University’s Center for Native American Studies
Gathering Grounds Harvest 2010, Hannaville Indian Community

Gathering Grounds Harvest 2010, Hannaville Indian Community

Sponsored by The Cedar Tree Institute in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and Hannahville Indian Community

For More Information:

Jon Magnuson
The Cedar Tree Institute, Director
magnusonx2@charter.net
(906)228-5494

~or~

Tom Biron
Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa Indians
tom@reinhardtassociates.net

The Earth Shows Us the Way.

View Kinomaage-Aki Flyer at full size

Efforts for Plant Restoration Unite Tribes in Northern Michigan

Collaborative Efforts for Plant Restoration Unite Tribes in Northern MichiganWhen sounds of drums echoed through the forests in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in a dedication of a Native plants greenhouse at the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC), neighboring communities across the Great Lakes basin took notice.

That evening, less than a year ago, marked the beginning of a deeper connection among the region’s tribes in reclaiming their role as stewards of an original ecosystem. The Zaagkii Project (Anishanaabe for “The love that comes from the Earth”) was sparked in 2008 as a collaborative effort of the Cedar Tree Institute, the US Forest Service, the Center for Native American Studies at Northern Michigan University, and Marquette County’s Juvenile Court.

Building a redemptive circle, KBIC tribal staffs are utilizing native plants propagated at the KBIC greenhouse to help restore ground cover at Sand Point, a cultural landmark, with federal funds appropriated from the Great Lakes Restoration Act. Additional benchmarks for the 2011 project include the restoration of locally native species (Canada wild rye, Black-eyed Susan, Hairgrass and many more species) planted on Lake Superior’s Grand Island via youth volunteers and Hiawatha National Forest staff , and the distribution of hundreds of milkweed plugs. Since 2008, over 100 handcrafted butterfly and bee shelters have been built by youth and offered as gifts to the wider community.

Native Plants Greenhouse in Zeba, Michigan 2011

Native Plants Greenhouse in Zeba, Michigan 2011

The jewel of the Zaagkii Project remains the 33’ geodesic, environmentally friendly Native plants greenhouse, built in 2010 near the shores of Keweenaw Bay, home of KBIC, the largest land-based Native American community in Northern Michigan. Along with implementing training events for the tribal leaders, the Zaagkii Project sponsored representatives to the National Indigenous Native Plants Conference in 2010 and the USFS Conference on Monarch Butterflies in 2011. In March of 2011, the Zaagkii Project was recipient of the Wings across the Americas Butterfly Conservation Award for their restoration work in native plants and their pollinators.

Scott Herron, Odawa, serves as consulting ethnobotanist for this Peninsula-wide effort that’s home for five American Indian (Potawatomi and Ojibway) Reservations. Jan Schultz, Program Lead – Botany, Special Forest Products and Non-native Invasive Species – FS Eastern Region assists tribal leaders in evolving program goals and objectives. Jon Magnuson, Director of the Cedar Tree Institute, coordinates logistics. April Lindala, Director with NMU’s Center for Native American Studies, serves as a key partner for the Project, having archived 24 video-taped interviews with Anishanaabe elders, all of which will become available on the USDA FS Celebrating Wildflowers/ Ethnobotany Website in 2012. http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ “There’s always been one deep conviction underlying the Zaagkii Project,” Magnuson says. “Restoring the earth is inextricably linked to a healing of the human spirit.”

Zaagkii Booklet

Zaagkii Booklet Secrets of the Monarch from the land & peoples of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Recently printed, this booklet gives insight to the motivation behind the project, a run down of our accomplishments to date, as well as what’s on the horizon for the future of The Zaagkii Project. You can view it online as a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) file.

Zaagkii Booklet

USDAFS Ethnobotany Project

USDAFS Ethnobotany ProjectAn important component of the Zaagkii Project in 2010 included the filming of 24 interviews with Ojibway elders speaking about traditional plants. These recorded interviews are being linked to the national USDAFS Ethnobotany Resource Center in Washington D.C.

More information coming soon.

Riding the Wind

Tentatively scheduled for October 2011.

Following the Monarch Butterfly
from Michigan to Mexico

October 2011

A small group of Native Americans and Youth Volunteers join the United States Forest Service and the Cedar Tree Institute on a journey into the mountain sanctuary of El Rosario.

The Zaagkii Project is a collaboration between the Cedar Tree Institute, Marquette County Juvenile Court, the US Forest Service and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

Its goal is to increase general awareness of the environment among select youth through hands-on education of pollinator species, such as bees and Monarch butterflies.

The Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) is considering sending a team consisting of a CTI representative, select youth from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and staff from the US Forest Service on a trip to a Monarch butterfly sanctuary in Mexico. Some of the goals of the trip are to highlight the importance of pollinators and the shared environmental threats, struggles of indigenous peoples, and challenges facing today’s youth. Ultimately, the trip should forge lasting relationships between seemingly disparate cultures by making connections through the Monarch butterfly’s migration route. The Monarch, as a symbol of resurrection and transformation, represents an uplifting analogy to overcoming the difficulties and obstacles many youth face today.

The week-long trip is planned for late October/early November to coincide with the beginning of the arrival of Monarch butterflies to their over-wintering grounds in the Mexican states of Michoacán and Mexico. Traveling roughly 75 miles a day, some of these butterflies will have made the journey from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, many of them launching from the Stonington Peninsula, on Lake Michigan.

Life cycle

There are four stages to the Monarch’s life cycle: the egg, the larvae (caterpillar), the pupa (chrysalis), and the adult butterfly. There are also four generations that the Monarch goes through during one year.

Migration

In order to escape the cold, harsh winters of the northern United States and Canada, the Monarch migrates south in the autumn. Monarchs in eastern North America migrate to the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico, while those in western North America (west of the Rocky Mountains) over-winter in California.

Pollination

According to the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, “an estimated one out of every three bites of food we eat comes from a pollinator.”

While larval Monarchs feed exclusively on milkweed, adults require large amounts of nectar during peak seasons, such as their spring and fall migrations. While feeding, they help distribute pollen among many varieties of flowering plants. Without pollinators such as bees and butterflies feeding on nectar sources, 90% of flowering plants could not reproduce, which would greatly affect biodiversity and, in turn, the health of wildlife and humans.

Environmental Threats

The Monarch butterfly is being seen in record low numbers throughout North America and continues to face a number of threats to survival, primarily a dearth of milkweed, necessary to the Monarch’s survival, and deforestation at its wintering grounds in Mexico.

November 2 – Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos)

This annual Mexican holiday is derived from the Catholic All Soul’s Day. The Day of the Dead represents a mix of both indigenous and Catholic tradition. Adherents believe that death is simply a transition from one life to another and that the living and dead have the ability to communicate during this holiday.

The arrival of the Monarchs at their wintering grounds coincides roughly with this holiday, leading regional indigenous groups, including the Mazahua and P’urhépecha (also spelled Purépecha; also often referred to as Tarascans) to associate the migrating Monarchs with the returning souls of the dead.

Help Support Youth Volunteers

The trip will cost $2,200 per youth volunteer. This includes:

  • passport fees
  • travel by jeep, bus, truck and foot
  • lodging
  • airfare
  • food
  • expenses

To make a contribution for the youth volunteers, click the button below and enter the amount you would like to give. The Cedar Tree Institute is a nonprofit 501(c3) organization.
All donations are tax deductible.





KBIC helps indigenous plant restoration with geodesic dome solar-powered greenhouse

KBIC Zaagkii project solar-power greenhouse
dedication is August 31/September 1

(L’Anse, Michigan) – A dedication ceremony will be held in late August for the 16-foot geodesic dome solar-powered greenhouse that was built this summer at the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) in an effort to restore native species plants to northern Michigan.

It’s located at the tribe’s Natural Resources Department north of L’Anse along Lake Superior.

Part of the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project, the greenhouse project is sponsored by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC), the United States Forest Service (USFS), the Center for Native American Studies at Northern Michigan University and the nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) in Marquette, MI.

Native plants “are one of the underpinnings of the ecosystem for wildlife and water quality,” said Todd Warner, KBIC Natural Resource Director. “They are a foundation for all the insect and pollinator populations.”
“We are expanding our capacity for native plants projects on the reservation,” Warner said.

Tribal members and others will help decide what plants will be grown and where they will be planted
“We try to be part of nature,” said Evelyn Ravindran, KBIC NRD natural resources specialist. “It’s giving a helping hand to get things back to the way they were.”

“We’ll have input from the Cedar Tree Institute and the Forest Service (and others) getting some suggestions about plants that we can grow in the greenhouse,” Ravindran said.

KBIC members will help decide what plants will be grown and where they will be planted.

Idigenous Plant Greenhouse

KBIC NRD Director Todd Warner, Sue Rabitaille of Borealis Seed Company, USFS regional botanist Jan Schultz, KBIC Tribal Council President Warren "Chris" Swartz and KBIC Tribal Wildlife Biologist Pam Nankervis check out the KBIC greenhouse.

The greenhouse will grow a wide-range of plants indigenous to the Upper Peninsula starting with the most “cooperative” native plants including Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) and bee balm (Monarda fistulosa), according to Jan Schultz, regional botanist for the United States Forest Service (USFS) regional office in Milwaukee.

“The new native plant greenhouse at KBIC provides additional tools to help restore damaged lands, offers new educational and recreational opportunities to members of all ages, and hands on experience in the very important tasks of healing the earth,” said Schultz, USFS eastern region program leader for botany, non-native invasive species and special forest products program. “We’re happy, excited and very proud to be involved in the many partnering opportunities for us all – we all benefit and grow from this.”

Idigenous Plant Greenhouse-19

The greenhouse arrived in a color-coded kit purchased from Growing Spaces of Pagosa Springs, Colorado.
The greenhouse includes reflectics insulation on the north side, three solar-powered cooling fans that will take “cool air from the outside and blow it into the dome to help keep it cool in the summer” and a 2,000 gallon water tank designed to store heat, said Allan Werthan, crew supervisor for Growing Spaces.

“It’s designed to grow year around with solar energy – it collects the heat of the day and stores it in massive water tank – so the heat will dissipate slowly at night,” Werthan said.

The outside of the dome is covered with translucent polycarbonite panels and the north side of the dome has additional reflectics insulation to help keep it warm in the winter.

“Since we do not get any sunshine on the north side of the dome – where there is no solar gain to be had – we added another layer of insulation to help make it through the challenging winters here in northern Michigan,” Werthan said. “It also reflects the heat back into the dome so we are not losing it out of the top of the dome.”

A metal glazing strip was attached on top of the aviation tape that cover the dome seams, he said, otherwise the highly-durable tape would disintegrate in the sun in about five years.

“It also makes it look high tech” and adds a space age feel, Werthan said.

Idigenous Plant Greenhouse-23

About 15 volunteers began erecting the greenhouse on Monday (May 17, 2010) and it was finished five days later.

The greenhouse will support pollinators – like bees and butterflies – by providing plants indigenous to northern Michigan.

This is the third and final summer for the Zaagkii Project, that involves KBIC and other Ojibwa elders from several tribes teaching Marquette area teens and KBIC youth to protect pollinators and learn why pollinators like bees and butterflies depend on native species plants – some of which used to be considered weeds.

During the past two summers, the youth built dozens of mason bee houses and butterfly houses that have been erected across the KBIC and northern Michigan. The teens planted/distributed tens of thousands of native species plant and seeds.

The greenhouse is one of the first of its kind on an American Indian reservation.

The Zaagiii project was created in response to the deaths of billions of bees and the disappearance of millions of monarch butterflies.

Dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), the syndrome has especially devastated honeybee and bumble bee populations worldwide – with the Midwest U.S. one of the hardest hit areas.

Reasons for CCD include pollution, pesticides and mites.

Researchers reported that millions of monarch butterflies did not show up as usual in the spring of 2010 in Mexico and California. One of the flight paths in the annual Monarch migration is through the southern Upper Peninsula.

Idigenous Plant Greenhouse-1

Trudell Construction of Ishpeming was the volunteer builder for the greenhouse project.

“The volunteers have been awesome,” said Rich Trudell, owner of Trudell Construction. “Its been a fun and fascinating project and I am glad to be able to help.”

“I hope to be in touch in the future with Growing Spaces to carry this out to smaller version which they carry, to provide for homeowners,” Trudell said.

Indigenous plants are vital to the health of bees and butterflies.

“These native plants are part of a pollinator cycle in which these native plants are part of the inner fabric of a natural ecosystem,” said Rev. Jon Magnuson of Marquette, Zaagkii Project founder. “Once they are gone, the system is always, always threatened with collapse.”

“We hope the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community becomes a training site for other Native American communities and for the general public,” said Magnuson, CTI executive director.

Zaagkii Project sponsors include KBIC, USFS, Marquette County Juvenile Court, U.P. Children’s Museum and the Northern Michigan University Center for Native American Studies (NMU CNAS).

Zaagkii Project contributors include Marquette Community Foundation, M.E. Davenport Foundation, Kaufman Foundation, Phyllis and Max Reynolds Foundation and many individual supporters.

A two-day grand opening, dedication and naming ceremony will be held on August 31 and
September 1.

View the Photo Gallery

Project Interns Make Presentation at NAISA Conference

Zaagkii Project interns with the Northern Michigan University Center for Native American Studies make presentation about the pollinator protection initiative at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association 2010 Conference in Arizona.

Led by NMU Center for Native American Studies Director April Lindala, a team of Zaagkii Project interns and an NMU CNAS Professor, attended the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) 2010 Conference on May 22, 2010 in Tuscon, Arizona.

The NMU students made a presentation about the Zaagkii Project during a forum entitled “Engaging Students through Community Action and Service”

The Zaagkii Project is sponsored by the nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute (CTI), Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) and the United States Forest Service (USFS).

Zaagkii Project Partners through the years include the Marquette Community Foundation, Marquette County Juvenile Court, the M.E. Davenport Foundation, the Kaufman Foundation, the Phyllis and Max Reynolds Foundation, the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum in Marquette and the Borealis Seed Company in Big Bay, MI.

NAISA 2010 Conference

Organizer & Chair:
Adriana Greci Green, Northern Michigan University

Participants included:
Leora Tadgerson, Levi Tadgerson, and Samantha “Sam” Hasek, all Zaagkii Project interns from Northern Michigan University Center for Native American Studies
Damien Lee, Trent University, Canada
Linc Kesler, University of British Columbia, Canada

View the Photo Gallery