Our People, Our Journey by James McClurken

The research has implications for the environmental policy of the Northern Great Lakes region. The conclusions contributed to the discussions in political ecology and symbolism in ethnoecology. The medicine wheel plants were used by the inhabitants of the Great Lakes region dating back at least into the Middle Woodland period (200 B.C-400 A.D). The use values of the medicine wheel plants: sweet grass (93.5%), cultivated tobacco (90.3%), white cedar (83.9%), and prairie sage (61.3%). The largest use category for the 90 species discussed by the 31 informants was medicinal plants (57.8%), followed by utility plants (41.1%) and food plants (41.1%), and finally ceremonial plants (27.8%). The plant families that were most utilized according to folk species: Rosaceae (10%), Ericaceae (6.7%), Asteraceae (5.6%), Pinaceae (5.6%), Solanaceae (4.4%), and Salicaceae (4.4%). ii I identified modifications of plant use, as well as retained practices in one of the largest North American Indian cultures.

The botanical and cultural data was interpreted through the framework of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and ethnoecology. Using ethnographic methods, I compared the retention of knowledge among the seven American Indian communities, and assessed the overall status of traditional plant knowledge of the Anishinaabek Indians through the historical periods.

The sample population consisted of 31 male and female elders and middle aged ceremonial leaders of both reservation and non-reservation communities of Anishinaabek living in Michigan, Wisconsin, and southern Ontario. I assessed the current status (post WWII) of traditional plant use within seven communities and compared that to the most recent research (1910-1933). Here I examined a broad range of plant usage, including medicinal plants, utility plants, ceremonial plants, and food plants.

The Ojibway, Odawa, and Potawatomi tribes all consider themselves Anishinaabek, “the good people,” in their own language dialects and were known as the “People of the Three Fires”.

Today’s traditional plant uses of the Anishinaabek (A’-nish-enaa-beck’) American Indian culture of the Northern Great Lakes region were documented and interpreted through botanical and cultural frameworks.

Our People, Our Journey by James McClurken