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Visit to the Lower Sioux Community
Pam Halverson, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, at Lower Sioux Indian Community near Morton, Minnesota, invited us to come for a visit to the community. We attended a wonderful community presentation by the community’s children’s summer camp participants. It was very heart warming to hear these children speaking the Dakota language. We could tell how much they loved learning their language and how proud the community and the several fluent Dakota speakers present were of them. Even though it was quite rainy, we toured the Lower Sioux historic site as well, which was integral to the Dakota War of 1862. On the grounds of the site we visited the gardens that the children’s camp worked on throughout the summer. Scott is sitting on the watching platform at the garden pointing out a potential garden predator. The stone building is the warehouse where the Lower Sioux agent refused to distribute the goods inside to the Dakota while they were starving prior to the war.
Part of the trip was also to gather materials for our own version of a Dakota drying rack to be installed in the Science Museum of Minnesota Big Back Yard. Check future blog entries to see the process of making and installing this on the grounds.
Pidamaya Pam and the Lower Sioux Community!
Trip to the Mille Lacs Museum
We recently took a trip to the Mille Lacs Museum. Travis Zimmerman from the Minnesota Historical Society was gracious to give us a behind the scenes tour of the museum. In the first picture, Travis is showing Scott, Jennifer, and Shericka some of the cedar bags in the Ayers Ojibwe Collection housed at the Mille Lacs Museum. Cheyenne was inspired by the beautiful beadwork on display in the exhibit. miigwech Travis!
Tour of Dakota Places with Jim Rock
This photo was taken above Minnehaha Falls last week while we went on a tour of some important Dakota places around the Twin Cities area with Jim Rock (Dakota). Jim is a science teacher and grew up in the Twin Cities. He was gracious to share with us some of the important places to the Dakota people that exist within the Twin Cities area.
While our gardens are on the grounds of the Science Museum of Minnesota, they are also in a Dakota place, the Dakota homeland. It was important for us to think about how our gardening is not just about growing plants, but how our relationships as humans with plants is tied to the earth and the sky. Jim shared with us some of his knowledge about these important relationships to places from a Dakota perspective that truly enriched our own perspectives about our efforts with the Ethnobotany Project. Pidamaya Jim!
Harvesting Tobacco
We’ve just harvested our first tobacco for the season. The first photo shows the tobacco patch. In the second photo, Cheyenne is washing any dirt and debris off of the plants. In the third photo, Shericka is tying the tobacco so that we can hang it up to dry in our isolation room. Cheyenne and Shericka are holding up the finished string for drying. This is just a small amount of tobacco we have growing this year. Harvesting this tobacco will also give some of the smaller tobacco in the patch room to grow so that we have larger plants with bigger leaves.
Meet the garden team!
This summer we have a great crew working with us. From left to right: John Holmlund, volunteer and science and math teacher at American Indian OIC High School; Shericka Maxwell, Ethnobotany Summer Youth Progam team member and American Indian OIC High School student; Jennifer Weber, Ethnobotany Intern and Augsburg College student;and Cheyenne Haskell, Ethnobotany Summer Youth Program team member and American Indian OIC High School student
Mandan Striped Beans are forming! Come on out to the Big Back Yard and see them today.
Cactus in Minnesota, Ya sure, You Bet!
This is the first of the prickly pear cactus blooms, probably another 50 or so to come.
Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus
Latin Name:
Opuntia humifusa
Dakota/Lakota Name:
unkcela (big buffalo burr), unkcela blaska, unkcela tanka
Tassling, already?
Eventhough it’s only about 18 inches tall, the early white corn is tassling. We cover the corn plants with pollination tents to keep good pollen in, and other pollen out, thus keeping the species clean.
It’s mid-June and the Turtle Garden is nearly in full bloom. Seveal of the plants are blooming. Here’s a sampling of some of them:
Common Name: Yarrow
Latin Name: Alchillea millefolium
Dakota/Lakota Name: hante canhlogan (woodchuck tail), taopi pejuta
Ojibwe Name: ajidamoowaanow, waabigwan
Common Name: Valerian
Latin Name: Valeriana officinalis
Common Name: Mandan Striped Squash
Common Name: Garlic (Meadow Garlic)
Latin Name: Allium canadense
Dakota/Lakota Name: psin
Common Name: Prairie (Tall) Cinquefoil
Latin Name: Potentilla arguta
Ojibwe Name: gichi-ode’iminijiibik
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