Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians 14

Ethnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians 14

They have always made the greatest use of the edible plants of their

environment, but did not progress very far in an agricultural way

until the last quarter century, when each reservation was furnished

with an Indian or white farmer, preferably an Indian. He has used the

school children to cultivate demonstration farms, and his example

is persisting in some of his former pupils. The older people had

a few simple products from prehistoric days and have not allowed

them to completely run out. The garden patch was always small, and

the caretaker was invariably the woman of the household. Among the

cultivated crops were: Cranberry pole beans, maize or Indian corn,

potatoes of an early variety, squash and tobacco. The last crop has

not been grown by them in fifty years, as they now depend upon the

white men for their source of supply. At the present time, they raise

any of the crops, that the white men raise. In their gardens, one will

find lettuce and onions, radishes, carrots, parsnips, beets, turnips,

cabbage, potatoes of standard varieties, beans and peas, and any other

crop one will find in an up-to-date garden. Stranger still, one may

find garden flowers, and the lady of the house will be quite proud of

them, and usually a little jealous, if her neighbor has some flowers

that she has not.

 

Some of the wild crops they gather possess considerable commercial

value, such as blueberries and wild rice. The laborious work of

preparing wild rice for table use has boosted the price to $1.05 a

pound, which those “in the know” gladly pay. Blueberries yield a goodly

part of their cash income, for the berries usually sell for about

twenty cents a quart, and it is easy for an Indian family to pick

eighty quarts in a day. They do not pick them like the white man does,

but comb the bushes with their fingers, removing the leaves and twigs

later.

 

The Ojibwe are fond of their native foods, and since they regard all

plants as the gift of their deities, and sacred to their uses, they

feel that their native foods are medicine to keep them in health as

well as foods. While they know nothing about vitamins or chemical

constituents, they think that there are some salts or minerals in their

native foods that keep them well. We know that they are correct in

that. They ascribe many of their present diseases to the abandonment of

their native foods and the adoption of white men’s foods. They think

that the early failure of their teeth is due to using too much white

flour for bread.

 

From the middle of July to the middle of September, one will find

the women busily caring for the various food harvests. Maize will be

drying on cloth screens, and blueberries will be drying to tough, inky

pellets. Raspberries and dewberries are cooked into jams, cranberries

are cooked with maple sugar into a jelly, and circles of squash are

strung on a basswood bark string. Men and women are busy at the shallow

lake harvesting wild rice, and all are very active. Sundays they will

stop for a pow-wow or dream dance, but not if it is the wild rice

harvest time. The food plants are listed alphabetically by families.

 

 

OJIBWE FOOD PLANTS

 

 

ACERACEAE (MAPLE FAMILY)

 

=Box Elder= (_Acer negundo_ L.), “adjagobiˈ mûk”. The Pillager Ojibwe

collect the sap of the Box Elder and mix it with the sap of the regular

Sugar Maple to drink as a beverage.

 

=Sugar Maple= (_Acer saccharum_ Marsh.), “înenaˈ tîg” [Indian tree]

and “adjagobiˈ mîn”. Both names came from the Pillager Ojibwe,[127]

and although the trees were scarce on the Flambeau Reservation, they

also call it “înenaˈ tîg”, and gather quantities of the sap somewhere

south of the reservation. Maple sugar is one of their most important

foods and is used in almost every kind of cookery. Maple sap is saved

to drink as it comes from the tree, sometimes with the added sap of

the Box Elder or Yellow Birch. Again it is allowed to become sour to

make a vinegar “cîwaˈbo” used in their cookery of venison, which,

when afterwards sweetened with maple sugar, corresponds to the German

fashion of sweet-sour meat. Before they had the salt of the white

man, maple sugar took its place and still does when they can get it.

All kinds of meats were seasoned with it. There are many interesting

legends about the tree, its discovery and sugar making, as related in

Mr. Alanson Skinner’s “Material Culture of the Menomini”.[128] The

Ojibwe garner their sugar crop much the same way as they did years

ago, except that they have used large iron kettles since the coming of

the white man. The sugar camps are rather permanent affairs, and the

framework of the boiling house with its upright poles around the fire

place to hold the kettles is left intact. A bark-covered wigwam is used

to store the tools of sugar sap gathering, and granulation. Most of

the sap vessels and storage vessels are made of birch bark, sewed with

boiled basswood fiber or the core of the Jack Pine root. The vessels

are rendered waterproof by the application of pitch secured by boiling

Jack Pine cones.

 

In early April, the Ojibwe visit their camps, the men to repair the

camps and the storage vats of hollowed logs, and to cut fire wood, the

women to see that the sap buckets and mokoks are scrupulously clean and

watertight. If some can not be repaired, rolls of birchbark are there

to make new ones. The whole family then move to the camp and live in

the large wigwam, while they make sugar for a month. During the sap

flow, a man can chop holes and set taps into from two to three hundred

trees in a day. The first flow of sap is the best, and it gets to be

of a rather poor quality by the end of the flow. The Ojibwe will not

use the night flow of the sap, which they say is bitter, so they cease

collecting an hour before dark. Gathered sap is stored in hollowed

basswood log vats, and covered over with birch bark to keep it clean.

Boiling in the iron kettles is done much as the white man does it,

except that foam is dissipated by stirring with a fresh brush of a

spruce branch. The syrup is strained through a cloth and recooked in

two or three quart quantities until it is ready to sugar. Then, while

still warm, it is poured into a wooden trough, where it is pounded

and crushed with a heavy wooden paddle as it hardens. It is stored

in covered birch bark baskets called mokoks, of from twenty-five to

seventy-five pounds capacity. The sugar is graded according to its

whiteness and stored away. Sap is often added to the dregs in the

kettles and a second grade sugar is secured. To waste or spill any of

the sap is considered an affront to their deities, who punish such an

act by causing the sugar to shrink after it is made.

 

 

ALISMACEAE (WATER-PLANTAIN FAMILY)

 

=Arum-leaved Arrowhead= (_Sagittaria arifolia_ Nutt.) “wabasiˈ pîn”

[white potato].[129] Both the Flambeau and the Pillager Ojibwe call

this by the same name and use it exactly alike as far as its food value

is concerned. The Pillager Ojibwe also use it as a medicine for man and

horse. The Flambeau Ojibwe recognize that it is also a favorite food of

ducks and geese. A similar species found in California is used by the

Indians there as a potato under the name “wappate” or “wapatoo”, and

is called by the whites there “Tule root.”[130] The corms are a most

valued food source to the Ojibwe. They will dig them if they cannot

get them more easily. Muskrat and beavers store them in large caches,

which the Indians have learned to recognize and appropriate. It is

difficult to dig them out still attached to the plant, because the

connection between the roots and the corm is so fragile and small. The

round corms are attached by a tiny rootlet to the main mass of fibrous

roots, and are capable of reproducing the plant in a vegetative manner,

just as the Irish Potato does. They are from one-half to an inch and

a half in diameter and about three-quarters to two inches long. They

are pure white inside, sweet and quite starchy. The Indian does not

differentiate between this species and the Broad-leaved Arrowhead. For

winter use, the potato is boiled, then sliced and strung on a piece of

basswood bark fiber and hung up overhead for storage. They also use the

fresh corms, cooking them with deer meat, and maple sugar. Some of the

potatoes are kept over after cooking and the maple sugar is thickened

until they might almost be called candied sweet potatoes.

 

 

ANACARDIACEAE (SUMAC FAMILY)

 

=Smooth Sumac= (_Rhus glabra_ L.), “bakwaˈ nak” [binding tree]. The

Flambeau Ojibwe gather the berries to make a pleasant beverage much

like lemonade. The berries are tart and are sweetened with maple sugar,

soaked in water until required for use. They also gather and dry them

for winter use. The dried berries are cooked in water with maple sugar,

and form a hot drink, instead of a cooling one, as used in the summer

and fall.

 

=Staghorn Sumac= (_Rhus typhina_ L.), “bakwaˈ natîg” [binding

tree].[131] The Pillager Ojibwe use the berries in the same way as the

Flambeau Ojibwe use this species, and under the same name. They also

store up the dried seed heads for winter use.

 

 

ARISTOLOCHIACEAE (BIRTHWORT FAMILY)

 

=Wild Ginger= (_Asarum canadense_ L. var. _acuminatum_ Ashe), “nameˈ

pîn”, [sturgeon potato].[132] The Pillager Ojibwe often use this root

in cookery to season the food. They claim it takes away any muddy taste

from fish, and will render any meat dish digestible by anyone, even if

they are sick. The roots are processed in lye water for cookery on a

large scale.

 

 

ASCLEPIADACEAE (MILKWEED FAMILY)

 

=Common Milkweed= (_Asclepias syriaca_ L.), “caboˈ sîkûn” [milk],

“înîniwûnj” [indian plant] Flambeau name.[133] The Pillager Ojibwe

eat the fresh flowers and tips of the shoots in soups. They are

usually cooked with some kind of meat and become somewhat mucilaginous

like okra, when cooked. They also gather and dry the flowers for

refreshening in the winter time, to make into soup.

 

 

BETULACEAE (BIRCH FAMILY)

 

=Yellow Birch= (_Betula lutea_ Michx. f.), “wiˈnîsîk”. The Flambeau and

Couderay Ojibwe tap the Yellow Birch for sap to add to maple sap for a

pleasant beverage drink.

 

=Hazelnut= (_Corylus americana_ Walt.), “mûkwobagaˈ nak” [bear

nut].[134] The Flambeau Indians use the hazel nut as a food and are

especially fond of the newly gathered nuts before the kernel has

hardened. The name is often shortened to “bagaˈ nak”.

 

=Beaked Hazelnut= (_Corylus rostrata_ Ait.), “baˈ ganaˈ mîc” [nut

tree]. The Pillager Ojibwe also use the Beaked Hazelnut. The Flambeau

Ojibwe also recognize it as “bagaˈ nak” [nut] and use it as a food.