“Gisheek: Spirit of the Cedar”
Printed annually, 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 below.
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.
Tentatively scheduled for October 2011.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The trip will cost $2,200 per youth volunteer. This includes:
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.
(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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
The Marquette Monthly featured a Story on the Zaagkii Project – entitled “KBIC helps indigenous plant restoration with greenhouse” in the July, 2010 issue by Greg Peterson.
Visit the Marquette Monthly web site to read the full story.
Years 2008 & 2009 of the Zaagkii Project are briefly recapped and the third and final year 2010 is summarized in this article posted Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Jan Schultz.
Visit the USFS web site to read the full story.
Native American Times News Story on Zaagkii Project – entitled “As bees die, Keweena Bay Indian Community adults, teens actively protect pollinators” posted Monday, October 27, 2008.
Visit the Native American Times web site to read the full story.
Tree Hugger News Story on Zaagkii Project – entitled “Michigan Teens Build Butterfly Houses and Plant 26,000 Native Plants through the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project” posted Sunday, October 26, 2008 by Sara Novak, Columbia, SC.
Visit the Tree Hugger web site to read the full story.