Scott Herron | Wings and Seeds – The Zaagkii Project

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# Tag Archives: Scott Herron

# Chocolay Township Intertribal Native Plants Workshop

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Admin

MONDAY
AUGUST 7th 2017
10am-4pm
Chocolay Township Offices
5010 US 41 South • Marquette Michigan

## ZAAGKII

## TEACHINGS FROM THE EARTH

### A NATIVE PLANTS & POLLINATOR PROTECTION INITIATIVE

A partnership of the Cedar Tree Institute with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community & Marquette county’s Chocolay Township, with invited guests from the Continue reading →

# Chicago Intertribal Native Plants Workshop

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Admin

TUESDAY
SEPTEMBER 15
2015
9AM-5PM
Chicago Botanic Garden
Glencoe, Illinois

## A Native Plants Restoration & Pollinator Protection Workshop for Native American Tribal Communities in Northern Michigan

TRAVEL DATES: SEPTEMBER 14-16 ~ Registered tribal representatives will travel by chartered bus from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to Illinois.

### Sponsored by the Cedar Tree Institute in collaboration with the US Forest Service & the Chicago Botanic Garden

Continue reading →

# Intertribal Native Plants Workshop

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Admin

THURSDAY
JULY 16
2015
10AM-4PM
Tribal Cultural Center
Wilson, Michigan

## A Native Plants Restoration & Pollinator Protection Workshop for Native American Tribal Communities in Northern Michigan

Continue reading →

# Kinomaage Workshop October 4

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Admin

You 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

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

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Admin

## LVD, KBIC join partnerships

By Charlie Otto Rasmussen

Watersmeet, 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.”

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.

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.

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 Workshop September 13 & 14

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Admin

You 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.

# Michigan’s Hannahville Indian (Potowatomi) Community hosts 3rd Native Plants Workshop

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Admin

Native Plants Workshop

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

# Kinomaagewin-aki, Teachings from the Earth

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Admin

You 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

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.

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### US Forest Service Links

- Celebrating Wildflowers
- Ethnobotany
- Native Plant Program
- Pollinators Page

### Recent Zaagkii News

- Chocolay Township Intertribal Native Plants Workshop
- Chicago Intertribal Native Plants Workshop
- Choosing Between Your Money and Your Soul
- Maamaadizi II – 2015
- Intertribal Native Plants Workshop

### Categories

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### Tags

- An Overview of Just How Far We've Come in the Battle against Invasive Species
- Bay Mills Indian Community
- Bees
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- Celebrating Native American Tradition
- Charlie Otto Rasmussen
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- CTI
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- Evelyn Ravindran
- Fighting Invasive Weeds in Midwest
- Forest County Potawatomi Community
- giiwegiizhigookway (giiwe) Martin
- Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission
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