=Hemlock= (_Tsuga canadensis_ [L.] Carr.), “gagagiˈwîc” [its name].
Hemlock bark was used by the Flambeau Ojibwe for fuel, when boiling
their pitch the second time, because the heat from it was more easily
regulated than that from a wood fire.
ROSACEAE (ROSE FAMILY)
=Hawthorn= (_Crataegus_ sp.), “mîneˈsagaˈwûnj”. The Flambeau Ojibwe
women use the sharp thorns for sewing awls on finer work such as
buckskin sewing with sinew.
SALICACEAE (WILLOW FAMILY)
=Shining Willow= (_Salix lucida_ Muhl.), “azisiˈgobmîc” [its name]. The
Flambeau Ojibwe use this bark for their kinnikinnik or native smoking
mixture. It is peeled and toasted over a fire and reduced to flakes.
SPHAGNACEAE (SPHAGNUM MOSS FAMILY)
=Sphagnum= (_Sphagnum dusenii_ C. Jens.), “asaˈgûmîg” [moss]. The
Flambeau and Pillager Ojibwe find Sphagnum Moss, shown in plate 66,
fig. 1, readily available. They gather and dry it to make mattresses.
TILIACEAE (BASSWOOD FAMILY)
=Basswood= (_Tilia americana_ L.), “wigub” [its name]. The tough
fibrous bark of young basswood trees furnishes all Ojibwe with ready
cordage and string in the woods, but it is also prepared by the women
for future use. They strip the bark and peel the outer edge from the
inner fiber with their teeth. The rolls are then kept in coils or
are boiled and kept as coils until needed, being soaked again when
used, to make them pliable. While they have countless uses for this
cordage perhaps the most important is in tying the poles together for
the framework of the wigwam or medicine lodge, as shown in plate 46,
figure 2. When these crossings of poles are lashed together with wet
bark fiber, it is easy to get a tight knot which shrinks when dry and
makes an even tighter joint. The bark of an elm or a balsam, cut into
broad strips is then sewed into place on the framework with basswood
string. In olden times, an oak wood awl was used to punch holes in the
bark, but at Leech Lake when they made the writer’s wigwam, as shown in
plate 58, figure 2, they used an old file end for an awl. The writer
lived in this new wigwam all the time he was among the Pillager Ojibwe
and scarcely a night passed without a group of them visiting him and
sitting around the campfire, telling old time stories.
TYPHACEAE (CAT-TAIL FAMILY)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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