Kinomaage Workshop October 4

Kinomaage WorkshopYou are invited to…
A 6th Native Plants Restoration and Pollinator Protection Workshop
~ For Native American Tribal Communities in Northern Michigan ~

Friday October 4th from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Keweenaw Bay Indian Community – Baraga, Michigan

Ojibway Community College

Kinomaage

Teachings from the Earth

  • Fungi harvesting: identification, medicinal and eatable characteristics
  • An overview of native plant restoration and pollinator protection efforts among Native American tribal communities
  • A focus on establishing forest products: blueberry cultivation, cranberry harvesting, maple syrup and sugar processing, wild ginger gathering

Special Presenters

Evelyn Ravindran
KBIC Department of Natural Resources
…along with KBIC Elders & Tribal Leaders

Scott Herron, PhD.
Ethnobotanist
(Odawa, Anishanaabe)

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

Martin Reinhardt, PhD.
Center for Native American Studies, NMU

With invited representatives from:

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

Sponsored by The Cedar Tree Institute in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and Keeweenaw Bay 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
birontho@gmail.com

View Kinomaage Poster at full size

Restoring Native Plants in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a Community Effort

LVD, KBIC join partnerships

By Charlie Otto Rasmussen

Community EffortWatersmeet, Mich. – Scott Herron sees a bright future for native plants – one illuminated by the reddish, orange glow of firelight.

“Most invasive plants can’t handle fire,” said Herron, a Ferris State University ethnobotanist. “Native plants, however, have adapted to fire. We can restore some of these plant communities on a larger scale than what I see out there now.”

An organizer and featured speaker at the fourth Kinomaage Workshop, Herron said most Michigan restoration projects appear in the form of modest rain gardens, featuring just a few plants. Additional restoration is occurring on reclaimed brown fields – abandoned industrial sites – in places like Detroit. Land managers, he said, might go further, drawing from the well of traditional ecological knowledge to realize broader landscape restoration.

“If we use a holistic Anishinaabe model, we can move beyond single species restoration,” he said. That means the strategic application of fire on larger chunks of land, generating new growth across entire plant communities. “We’ve got firekeepers all across Anishinaabe Country. We can work together to revive some of those seed banks.”

Manoomin Parching

Professor Scott Herron demonstrates manoomin parching at LVD’s Old Village during the Kinomaage Workshop. Pictured to right: Sue Rabitaille, Hiawatha National Forest native plants contractor, Ken Rabitaille, and LVD member Melissa McGeshick. (photo by Charlie Otto Rasmussen)

Herron said it’s not enough to rely on government programs like the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to pay for restoration projects; organization and funding on the local level is essential to pool all available resources to help the ecosystems. Like reconstructing elements of native plant communities, interconnecting people is vital to restoration success.

To that end the Kinomaage (teachings from the earth) program is a working model. Launched by the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute, Kinomaage partners include the Lac Vieux Desert (LVD) Band, U.S. Forest Service and individuals from tribal communities across Upper Michigan.

Manoomin Jigging

In a pair of buckskin moccasins, Roger LaBine demonstrates manoomin jigging. (photo by COR)

“We exist in between organizations,” said Jon Magnuson, Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) Director. “We’re a catalyst, a trigger for an emerging vision: to return the caretaker legacy of Native American communities across North America.”

That legacy is on display at Rice Bay on Lake Lac Vieux Desert where many of the three-dozen Kinomaage participants witnessed the full richness of manoomin harvesting, processing and reseeding—all done by hand. The LVD Band, Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission and other partners are 10 years into efforts to rejuvenate ancient manoomin (wild rice) beds on the lake’s north shore. With assistance from Herron, on Kinomaage’s second day LVD’s Roger LaBine detailed the life cycle of manoomin and its journey from a seed in the lake bottom to a table-ready food.

Herron poignantly ran down a list of native species required to both harvest and process manoomin: rice knockers made from giizhik (cedar), mashkiigwaatig (tamarack) and aagimaak (black ash) push poles, nooshkaachinaagan (winnowing trays) utilizing wiigwaas (birch bark) and wiigob (basswood).

“We need all of these plants to do this one activity,” Herron said, adding that native plant stewardship is fundamentally “ethnobotanical driven—not just for the sake of having a restored ecosystem.”

Giizhik and pollinators

Through the Cedar Tree effort, The Manitou Project volunteers planted 10,000 northern white cedar seedlings throughout the Upper Peninsula in early summer 2012. LVD Band members placed 1,000 of those trees into western UP soil and also assisted in other areas including the site of the Duck Lake fire, which torched more than 21,000 acres.

Youth Paints Butterfly House

As part of the Zaagkii project, tribal youth have constructed 18 butterfly houses for monarchs to rest and shelter from severe weather. In this 2008 photo, KBIC's Janelle Paquin applies a coat of primer to a butterfly house. (photo by Greg Peterson)

The CTI also developed Zaagkii, the Wings & Seeds Project, with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community and other Upper Michigan collaborators. Supporting the priceless work of insects—which are responsible for pollinating a great many wild plants—is the core of Zaagkii. Insects make contact with pollen dust as they visit plants to feed on nectar. As they move along, insects distribute pollen to plant reproductive systems across the landscape.

In Upper Michigan, the program has keyed in on two conspicuous pollinators: monarch butterflies and bees. Volunteers, tribal youth, and additional kids from the Marquette County Juvenile Courts program constructed and installed 36 bee shelters and 18 butterfly houses. The structures provide protection from severe weather. “Monarch butterflies are very fragile,” CTI’s Magnuson said. “They ride the thermal winds on incredible migrations across the continent, but access to adequate shelter is critical for them.”

Jan Schultz, the principal US Forest Service Zaagkii partner, frames the work ahead in pragmatic terms. “Every third bite of food (Americans consume) comes from pollination,” said Schultz, Region 9’s top botanist. “It’s jaw dropping.”

She said restoring native communities is a game of keeping as many “parts” as possible. That includes inventorying and preserving the original plants found on the landscape. Some plants represent the sole food source for native pollinators. For monarch butterflies, milkweed is a crucial host plant. Without nutrition from the leaves of milkweed, monarch larvae cannot develop into a butterfly.

“Keeping the pieces is huge,” Schultz said. The Sault Tribe is slated to host the next Kinomaage workshop in April 2013.

Kinomaage Success Story

KINOMAAGE

Celebrating Native American Tradition

Restoring and Recovering Native Plants

On September 13-14, 2012, representatives from four American Indian tribes in the Upper Great Lakes Basin met with US National Forest Service staff to continue sharing skills and experiences for use in collaborative efforts to restore and preserve native plants and protect pollinators.

Giiwegiizhigookway Martin

Giiwegiizhigookway (Giiwe) Martin

The Lac View Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians (LVD) hosted the event in Watersmeet, Michigan with the second day of the workshop held at the Old Village Round House, a traditional ceremonial and gathering place for the LVD tribal community. Key presenters included Scott Herron, PhD, ethno-botanist and Odawa tribal member, Giiwegiizhigookway (Giiwe) Martin, Director of LVD Historic Preservation, and Roger LaBine, LVD tribal Conversation committee and an oversight supervisor for wild rice harvesting. Hands-on sessions for the 39 participants involved practical sessions on seed cleaning, seed storage, invasive species, and native seed harvesting. Sue Rabitaille provided technical insights from her role as greenhouse manager for the Hiawatha National Forest.

Tribes represented at the event included the Sault Ste Marie Band of Chippewa Indians, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC), the Forest County Potawatomi Community, and the Lac View Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. Evelyn Rivandren, KBIC tribal member and Kelly Constantino, Director of Youth Activities and Education for the Sault Ste Indian Community were designated as key leaders for this ongoing native plants initiative.

The 4th such gathering since 2010, the event was coordinated by The Cedar Tree Institute and Jan Schultz, USDAFS Botanist, Eastern Region of the USDAFS. The title for these workshops, rooted in the language of the Anishinaabe, is Kinomaage meaning “teachings from the earth.” The intention of these workshops is to assist indigenous leaders in affirming and reclaiming key roles as traditional caretakers and protectors of the Great Lakes botanical ecosystem. The next workshop is scheduled for April 2013.

Kinomaage Talking Circle

The Kinomaage Talking Circle, Lac Vieux Desert Lake Superior Band of Chippewa Indians

The Kinomaage series is part of the Wings and Seeds Project (Zaagkii) first launched in 2008 by the Cedar Tree Institute, the USDA Forest Service, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, Northern Michigan University’s Center for Native American Studies, and Michigan’s Marquette County Juvenile Court.

Scott Herron at the Old Village Roundhouse

Scott Herron, Anishinaabe ethno-botanist, addresses workshop participants at the Old Village Roundhouse, Watersmeet, Michigan

New Video with U.S. Forest Service Botanist Jan Schultz

Fighting Invasive Weeds in Midwest/Restoring Native Plants

Jan Schultz VideoUSFS Eastern Region Botanist Jan Schultz was the keynote speaker on Tues., Oct. 16, 2012 at the Rapid Response Invasive Plant Intervention Team of the U.P.! (RIPP IT UP!) Third Annual Northern Great Lakes Conference named “A United Front against Invasive Species” in Marquette.

The presentation titled “An Overview of Just How Far We’ve Come in the Battle against Invasive Species” was watched by many USFS employees and several groups assisting in the fight to stop invasive non-native weeds that are choking out all forms of wildlife.

Schultz is the USFS Non-native Invasive Species and Special Forest Products Program Leader stationed in Milwaukee, WI.

U.S. Forest Service Botanist Jan Schultz: Fighting Invasive Weeds in Midwest/Restoring Native Plants

Kinomaage Workshop September 13 & 14

Lac Vieux Desert Band of L.S. ChippewaYou are invited to…
A 4th Native Plants Restoration and Pollinator Protection Workshop
~ For Native American Tribal Communities in Northern Michigan ~

Thursday September 13th from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and
Friday September 14th from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa – Watersmeet, Michigan

Kinomaage

Teachings from the Earth

  • An overview of native plant restoration and pollinator-protection efforts among Native American tribal communities
  • Native seeds and components of restoration: harvesting, cleaning, storing
  • Insights into traditional Native cultural teachings, medicinal plants & wild rice seeding and harvesting

Special Presenters

giiwegiizhigookway (giiwe) Martin
Director of Cultural & Historic Preservation
(Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa)
…along with L.V.D. Elders & Tribal Leaders

Scott Herron, PhD.
Ethnobotanist
(Odawa, Anishanaabe)

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

With invited representatives from:

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

Sponsored by The Cedar Tree Institute in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

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
birontho@gmail.com

The Earth Shows Us the Way.

View Kinomaage Poster at full size