Representatives of 5 tribal communities attended an April 2012 pollinator protection and native plants restoration workshop at the Hannahville Indian Community.
Hannahville Indian School students planted apple and cedar saplings as part of the U.S. Forest Service-funded Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
Coordinated by the nonprofit Cedar Tree Institute, the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project partners with Northern Michigan and Wisconsin tribes to restore native plants and protect pollinators like bees and butterflies.
Hannahville Indian Community hosts U.S. Forest Service, Cedar Tree Institute April 2012 Workshop on Pollinator Protection and Native Plant Restoration
(Wilson, Michigan) – A northern Michigan American Indian elder believes something is amiss in nature and is encouraging tribal communities to join with non-tribal partners for pollinator protection and the restoration of native plants.
A crisis is imminent.
Honeybees and native pollinators such as bumblebees are declining at alarming rates as the native plants that sustain them are decreasing due to habitat loss via non-native invasive plants.
“It is your responsibility – as well as ours – to be tenders of the garden,” said Earl Meshigaud, Hannahville Potawatomi Indian Community Tribal Council Member and Culture Department Director. “That’s what we were put here for – to take care of God’s Creation.”
“If we do that – then we will always have what we need,” Meshigaud said. “And over the years we saw a lot of people neglect that – and as a result we have lost a lot of these things that we have come to rely upon – they are no longer here.”
2012 Zaagkii Project: “Be tenders of the garden” – Hannahville Potawatomi Elder Earl Meshigaud
Meshigaud spoke to representatives of 5 tribal communities during an April 2012 pollinator protection and native plants restoration workshop hosted by the Hannahville Indian Community and part of an ongoing effort to educate the public and address the disappearance of pollinators and indigenous plants.
At the end of the all-day workshop, several native tree saplings were planted on the Hannahville Reservation by volunteers and students from the Hannahville Indian School (Nah Tah Wahsh PSA). The students especially enjoyed planting the apple tree saplings.
Volunteers and students from the Hannahville Indian School (Nah Tah Wahsh PSA) planting the apple tree saplings.
Funded by the U.S. Forest Service and others, the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project has partnered with Northern Michigan and Wisconsin tribes for the past 5 years to protect pollinators like bees and butterflies – and to restore lands with native plants such as wild rice, Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis), Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) and bee balm (Monarda fistulosa), according to Jan Schultz, botanist for the United States Forest Service/Eastern Region (USFS) in Milwaukee.
Benchmarks include projects on reservations and non-tribal lands.
In 2010, the USFS-funded Zaagkii Wings and Seeds project assisted in the building of a native plants greenhouse at the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) along Lake Superior – and in recent years native and non-native youth have worked together to build butterfly and bee houses – plus raise awareness in the community about the death of one-third of the bee population, Schultz said.
Despite a historical mistrust that Native Americans have for the federal government, Potawatomi elder Earl Meshigaud says in the area of environmental protection and restoration tribes should be open to working with the U.S. Forest Service and others who are offering good-willed assistance.
“It is your responsibility – as well as ours – to be tenders of the garden. That’s what we were put here for,” said Earl Meshigaud, Potawatomi Cultural teacher at the Hannahville Indian Community
“I would like to have you people urge your leadership in your community – where ever you go – to accept some of the ways that the people are trying to restore some of these things back – especially in the plant world back into our communities,” he said cupping his hands as if to hold a plant.
“I want to say this because it is very important, especially to the Indian communities today,” Meshigaud said. “Indian people themselves over the years went through a period where we lost a lot of our land.”
“We were very protective of our land,” Earl Meshigaud said. “So we always go back … upon what they often refer to as sovereign rights.”
“We want to protect our land – and in the process of doing that we don’t want anyone else to mess around with that,” he said.
“Unfortunately what has happened is that we are missing out on a lot of opportunities,” Meshigaud said in reference to some tribal reluctance to participate in projects being offered by the USFS.
The Zaagkii Project is coordinated by the Cedar Tree Institute, a nonprofit organization that provides services and initiates projects in the areas of mental health, religion and the environment.
Zaagkii Project sponsors include Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC), the United States Forest Service (USFS), Marquette County Juvenile Court, U.P. Children’s Museum and the Northern Michigan University Center for Native American Studies (NMU CNAS).
Tribal communities and groups represented at the workshop included the Hannahville Indian Community, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC), Sault Ste. Marie Band of Chippewa Indians, Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin (MITW), and the Center for Native American Studies at Northern Michigan University.
The Hannahville Indian Community meeting was the third in a series of Zaagkii Project/U.S. Forest Service tribal workshops in northern Michigan. Prior workshops were held in July 2012 at KBIC and July 2011 at Presque Isle Park in Marquette.
The fourth workshop will be on Thursday, Sept. 13 and Friday, Sept., 14, 2012 at Lac Vieux Desert (LVD) near Watersmeet, Michigan. The LVD workshop will include pollinator protection and native plants restoration information with a focus on wild rice, among other topics.
On April 12th, 2012, a few hundred yards from a small Michigan’s tribe’s administrative offices, 43 representatives from 5 American Indian communities met to explore the important recovery of native plants, sharing a vision to building a new cooperative effort for restoring threatened plant species. Sounds of drums and the smell of sweet grass set a ceremonial context for honest conversations about tough challenges facing indigenous peoples seeking to recover their important original roles as caretakers, hunters, and gatherers across the forested landscapes of the Upper Midwest.
Earl Meshigaud, tribal culture teacher and Potowatomi elder, opened with insights about Anishinaabe language, medicinal plants, and rituals that still frame traditional harvesting practices. Scott Herron, PhD, Native American ethnobotanist and Associate professor of biology at Ferris State University, pointed to the critical, sensitive work of integrating traditional teachings and Western science. Jan Schultz, botanist with the United States Forest Service’s Eastern Region, addressed the threat of diminishing species, pollinator protection, “technical transfer” and building bridges for sharing helpful experiences and research between cultures.
Earl Meshigaud, Potowatomi elder & Jan Schultz, Botanist, US Forest Service
Zaagkii is an Ojibwe term that translates “Loving gifts coming from the earth.”
Karen Anderson, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, and other representatives from 43 workshop participants
Kinomaage is from Annishinaabe, meaning, “The earth shows us the way.”
Scott Herron, Anishinaabe ethnobotanist, with eagle feather leading the workshop's closing Talking Circle
The Wings and Seeds Project (Zaagkii) is a Native plants and pollinator protection initiative launched in 2008 by the Cedar Tree Institute in cooperation with the United States Forest Service, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC), Northern Michigan University’s Center for Native American Studies, and Michigan’s Marquette County Juvenile Court. Now in its 5th year, it has involved 50 youth volunteers in over 3100 hours of community service. During 2010 Project partners worked in collaboration with KBIC to build the first Native Plants greenhouse on an American Indian Reservation in Michigan.
The 4th Kinomaage native plants restoration workshop is scheduled for September 2012. It will be hosted by the Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians in Watersmeet, Michigan.
Hannahville Indian Community's next generation of tribal leaders and Native plant protectors
When 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
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.”
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.
An 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.
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.
Representatives of 5 tribal communities attended an April 2012 pollinator protection and native plants restoration workshop at the Hannahville Indian Community. 
(Wilson, Michigan) – A northern Michigan American Indian elder believes something is amiss in nature and is encouraging tribal communities to join with non-tribal partners for pollinator protection and the restoration of native plants.
You are invited to…
When 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.
Secrets of the Monarch from the land & peoples of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 
An 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.
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. 