Written by: Kelly Beaster
Each of us has our own stories about plants that are special to us or experiences that were shaped by plants. On a warm, calm evening, the ANPE crew gathered along the St. Louis River at Chamber’s Grove to hear about one individual’s personal relationship with plants that shaped her life and spurred reflection upon our own relationships with plants.
Valerie Ross Zhaawendaagozikwe is enrolled in the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe/Long Plains First Nation; Duwamish, Dakota, Ojibwe, and Yakama, and she graciously shared her upbringing as the daughter of a medicine man who taught her to care for anyone who needed the help of medicinal plants. She learned to always offer a gift to plant beings before expecting or even asking for their help. She learned to give offerings for the medicines she gathered, and even on our walk, she carried her gathered medicines or “tobacco” to give at will when she came upon a really exciting plant.
On our walk, Val showed us that even the smallest of creatures can have something to teach us, as she recounted how she was told as a child to watch a chipmunk to learn from it. She saw the chipmunk store its secrets in the forest. As the group walked down the wooded path, Val pointed out a large exposed bedrock outcrop. “If you’re seeking help, go sit on a rock, give it tobacco and ask for help. They know how to be strong and hold things together. They’ve been here for millions of years.”
She explained that she doesn’t put expectations on her natural curiosity about plants. She is willing to learn only what the plants are willing to teach. One plant in particular often called “princess pine” or clubmoss (Lycopodium sp) has caught her attention for a long time, and when she sees it, she gives it some tobacco and asks that it one day will reveal to her some of its mysteries. Maybe one day someone she knows will share their knowledge of it with her.
Another concept that the western world has trouble accepting is the decline of some of our iconic species like ash and birch. Ash trees have long been used as cradle boards for native American babies and birch were used for baskets to gather and canoes to travel. Val explained that those items are now made with other materials. Those species are no longer needed. But at the same time, our region is seeing an influx of valerian (Valeriana officinalis), which Val explained is known to calm anxiety by just walking through it, smelling it, and exchanging chemicals with it. Val is of the belief that some species are retreating as others are moving in as needed because in her words, “who knows better than the plants?”
Val has been a part of an ongoing study of cultural fire on Wisconsin Point. To learn more, read the published paper – Indigenous fire stewardship shaped North American Great Lakes forests
Arrowhead Native Plant Explorers 