September 2011
1 post
August 2011
6 posts
Study finds sunflowers were domesticated in...
Here’s a link to a recent study that found sunflowers to have been domesticated in the southern Mississipi River basin:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-08-sunflower-domesticated-mexico.html
Seeds in Space!
This summer, we enjoyed a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity to participate in NASA’s last space shuttle Flight STS-135. Tobacco seeds from our collection traveled 5,284,662 miles in 200 earth orbits aboard shuttle Atlantis. Jim Rock, Dakota educator and a member of the Science Museum’s American Indian Advisory Board secured us some space to test the extent to which their germination would...
July 2011
2 posts
June 2011
2 posts
Check out this great article on Indigenous food... →
September 2010
1 post
August 2010
4 posts
June 2010
4 posts
August 2009
4 posts
July 2009
2 posts
June 2009
7 posts
The garden is in bloom!
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...
Get the entire Turtle Garden Plant Guide Here:
http://www.smm.org/static/bigbackyard/plantguide_turtle-effigy.pdf
Check out this TED talk on the importance of Seed...
http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_drori_why_we_re_storing_billions_of_seeds.html
May 2009
3 posts
The plants are here, the plants are here!
We planted our 2009 Ethnobotany gardens yesterday in 97 degree heat. Luckily, all of our plants are doing fine. What a healthy bunch they are, too. Many thanks to Francis Bettelyoun and Barbara Bettelyoun for their participation and help in this project—especially for the space and care in the greenhouse!
Scott Shoemaker carefully setting Kickapoo golden flour corn and Mandan striped...
January 2009
1 post
Still gardening in January?
Yes! Our ethnobotany program keeps us busy year-round. Here’s Scott preparing the seeds from the Iroquois squash. Notice how yellow the skin is, transformed from the beautiful green in previous posts. We were also surprised that the seeds are GREEN!
October 2008
2 posts
September 2008
2 posts
A squash surprise!
With the added weight of flowers on this clump of Maximillian Sunflowers, their stems have begun leaning toward the ground. To my surprise, growing right in the middle of this clump is an Iroquois Squash. It was even more surprising, since its particular parent plant had a hard time getting established and growing this summer. Even though this is the only squash this particular plant was able to...
Plant Profile: Sunflowers
September is the time for Sunflowers to bloom. The sunflower is one of the oldest domesticated plants in North America and has been cultivated by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. In the Changing Gardens Through Time we have two different types of sunflowers. In the foreground we see the domesticated sunflower which is commonly known as the Hopi Purple Dye Sunflower, while the other in...
August 2008
8 posts
Turtle Effigy Native Plant Guide
Want to know how American Indians used all of the plants in the Turtle Effigy garden? Check out our Ethnobotanical Plant Guide!
http://www.smm.org/static/bigbackyard/plantguide_turtle-effigy.pdf
Plant Profile: Rattlesnake Master
Common Name: Rattlesnake Master
Latin Name: Eryngium yuccifolium
Dakota/Lakota Name: rhiyantan
Where It Grows: Ranges throughout the eastern United States, in wet soils, along waters edges in fresh to brackish marshes, low woods, meadows, bogs, swamps and ditches.
Part of Plant Used: root
Cultural Uses: teas treat stomach disorders, infusions of roots aid nausea, expectorant to clear the...
Plant profile: Bergamot
Common Name: Bergamot
Latin Name: Monarda fistulosa
Dakota/Lakota Name: hehaka tapejuta, wahkpe wastemma
Ojibwe Name: bibigwanakak, wabinowak
Where It Grows: Ranges throughout the United States, found in upland woods, thickets, and prairies
Part of Plant Used: Leaves, flowers.
Cultural Uses: Cure for headaches, cold medicine, reduces fever, aids weak or upset stomach, helps abdominal pain,...
SMM has 3 exhibition and research gardens. Today's...
SMM’s ethnobotany research doubles as a venue for exhibitions and teaching visitors about American Indian uses of plants. This is the Turtle Effigy garden. It’s in the shape of a turtle with four quadrants featuring plants used for women, men, children, and general health issues. The head and tail are planted with sage, and the four legs are sweetgrass.
See the next few posts for...
What is it?
This beautiful red stemmed plant is Hopi Red Amaranth. It will produce tiny seeds that people eat as a grain. Many cultures use the flowers as a dye as well—we’re going to try that in the coming weeks.
The harvest has begun
Scott and volunteer Ashley Murphy harvested these beans last week. The beans are an assortment of Ojibwe Scarlet Runner Beans, Iroquois Cranberry Beans, Mandan Sheild Beans, Lakota Eagle Beans, and Potawatomi Lima Beans. This is first step in beginning our cataloging process. After harvesting the beans last week we placed them in our museum isolation room to dry and so that anything that may...
Gardens go LIVE!
http://www.smm.org/gardencam/
Check out this link, and you can see the Three Sisters Garden and Changing Gardens through Time LIVE.
Corn Smut!
I recently found some corn smut growing on one of the tassels of the Dakota corn in the Three Sisters Garden. Corn smut has probably been around as long as corn has been in existence and indigenous people have found it useful for food and ceremonial uses. Much of the literature you will find on corn smut labels it as a pathogen or a disease that infects corn and that when found the smut must be...
July 2008
6 posts
Plant Profile
Common Name: Corn
Latin Name: Zea mays
Dakota Name: wamnaheza
Ojibwe Name: mandaamin
Some of its history: Most people refer to commercially available speckled corn varieties as “Indian Corn”, but in reality, all corn is Indian corn! Corn is indigenous only to the Western Hemisphere and has sustained indigenous communities for millennia. Through contact with Europeans and other groups, corn has...