Three trips were made, usually of six weeks duration. The first was
made in June, 1923 to the Lac du Flambeau Reservation, in Vilas County,
Wisconsin. The same region was visited again later in the fall. During
the spring of 1924 one trip was made to Leech Lake, Minnesota, where
the remnant of the Pillager Band of the Ojibwe live on Bear Island,
(Plate 60, fig. 1), and the surrounding mainland. Since then, trips
have been made to Redcliff, Bayfield County, to Odanah, Iron County,
to Lac Court Oreilles, Clark County, and to scattered bands in various
sections of northern Wisconsin. The principal work was done at Lac du
Flambeau and Leech Lake. The Leech Lake trip checked results obtained
at Lac du Flambeau.
The writer thanks those officials and private citizens who assisted by
introductions to Indians and by making his stay among them comfortable.
Mr. James W. Balmer, Indian Agent, then at Lac du Flambeau, now at
Pipestone, Minnesota, and his chief clerk, Mr. Walter H. Shawnee,
a Shawnee Indian, still in service at Lac du Flambeau, and Mr. John
Allen, Ojibwe Indian and school disciplinarian all gave valued advice
and quartered us at their Teacher’s Club. Mr. Edward Rogers, of
Walker, Minnesota, a very successful Ojibwe attorney, and the Noble
brothers, Mr. John W. Noble and Mr. E. W. (“Van”) Noble, proprietor of
Forest View Lodge, directly across from Bear Island, rendered valuable
assistance with the Pillager band of Ojibwe.
The writer collected every plant he could find in each region because
he had been informed that the Ojibwe differ from other Wisconsin
Indians in that they believe that every plant that grows is some kind
of medicine or useful for something. The only plants discovered for
which they had no name or use were adventive plants, and one could
fairly well establish the date of their appearance in the state,
because the Indians pay much more attention to our native flora than do
the whites.
Most of our informants were men, because they found it easier to talk
to the writer than the women. It was easy to get the women to talk of
old time methods of preparing aboriginal foods. The Ojibwe had a large
number of hunting medicines used as charms. These were accompanied
by drawings on the ground designating what they hoped to accomplish
in killing game for their larder. About sixty-five per cent of their
medicinal plants were actually valuable medicinally, the remainder
being employed in a shamanistic or superstitious manner. The writer
concludes that their great knowledge of plants has been achieved
through long periods of time by a process of trial and error, basing
this belief upon their fear of mushrooms. Both men and women pointed
out plants in their native habitat and were willing to explain their
uses. They are the real ones to thank for the facts discovered and
without their cooperation such a study would be impossible. A list of
them follows.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account