Mary Siisip Geniusz has spent more than thirty years working with, living with, and using the Anishinaabe teachings, recipes, and botanical information she shares in Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask. Geniusz gained much of the knowledge she writes about from her years as an oshkaabewis, a traditionally trained apprentice, and as friend to the late Keewaydinoquay, an Anishinaabe medicine woman from the Leelanau Peninsula in Michigan and a scholar, teacher, and practitioner in the field of native ethnobotany. Keewaydinoquay published little in her lifetime, yet Geniusz has carried on her legacy by making this body of knowledge accessible to a broader audience.
Geniusz teaches the ways she was taughtthrough stories. Sharing the traditional stories she learned at Keewaydinoquays side as well as stories from other American Indian traditions and her own experiences, Geniusz brings the plants to life with narratives that explain their uses, meaning, and history. Stories such as Naanabozho and the Squeaky-Voice Plant place the plants in cultural context and illustrate the belief in plants as cognizant beings. Covering a wide range of plants, from conifers to cattails to medicinal uses of yarrow, mullein, and dandelion, she explains how we can work with those beings to create food, simple medicines, and practical botanical tools.
Plants Have So Much to Give Us, All We Have to Do Is Ask makes this botanical information useful to native and nonnative healers and educators and places it in the context of the Anishinaabe culture that developed the knowledge and practice.
Contents
Foreword
Wendy Makoons Geniusz
Introduction
A Note on Botanical Usage
Invocation
1. Traditional Anishinaabe Teaching About Plants
The Year the Roses Died
The Primacy of Plants
How do We Know This, or the Descent of Our Knowledge?
Talking to Plants
Indigenous or Imported?
The Use of Story in Ethnobotany
2. Indinawemaaganag: All of My Relatives
How Cedar Came into the World: The Creation Story of Cedar and Bearberry
Nookomis Giizhik: The Cedar Song
White Cedar, Nokomis Giizhik, Thuja occidentalis
Traditional Anishinaabe Advice to Youth
The Lady of the Red and Black Wigwam
Cedar Medicines
The Birch Tree, the Maple Tree, and Nanaboozhoo
Paper Birch, Nimishoomis Wiigwaas, Betula papyrifera
Nanaboozhoo and the Thunderbirds
The Runner and the Birch Sap
Balsam fir, Nimisenh, Abies balsamea
3. Other Conifers Important to the Anishinaabeg
Why Some Trees Keep Their Leaves When Others do Not
Nanaboozhoo and Paul Bunyan
The Pines, Tacobeshig, Pinus spp.
White Pine, Zhingwaak, Pinus strobus
Red Pine, Apakwanagemag, Pinus resinosa
Jack Pine, Wakikaandag, Pinus banksiana
Scotch Pine, Pinus sylvestris
Medicinal Virtues of the Pines
Foot Baths
Inhalants from Pines
Spruce, Gaawaandag, Picea mariana and Picea glauca
The Virtues of Spruce
The Ancient Warrior
Tamarack, Mashkiigmitig, Larix laricina
The Medicinal Virtues of Tamarack
Eastern Hemlock, Gaagaagiwanzh, Tsuga canadensis
Juniper, Juniperus horizontalis,Juniperus communis, and Juniperus virginiana
4. Three Food Plants that have been Very Useful to the Anishinaabeg
Nanaboozhoo and the Dancing Men
Cattail, Apakweshkway, Typha latifolia and Typha angustifolia
Labrador Tea, Mashkiigobag, Ledum groenlandicum
Jerusalem Artichokes, Giizisoojiibik, Helianthus tuberosus
5. Four Plants that the Anishinaabeg have Used in the Traditional, Material
Culture
The Shut-eye Dance: The Creation of Red Osier, Bittersweet, and Lichens
The Cornus Family
Red Osier, Miskwaabiimizh, Cornus stolonifera
Bunchberry, Odeiminijiibik, Cornus canadensis
Staghorn Sumac, Baakwaanaatig, Rhus typhina
Sphagnum Moss, Aasaakamig, Sphagnum spp.
Nanaboozhoo and the SqueakyVoice Plant
Nanaboozhoos SqueakyVoice Plant: Lycopodium, Lycopodium spp.
6. Major Medicinal Plants that have Shared Their Virtues with the
Anishinaabeg
Yarrow, Waabanoganzh, Achillea millefolium
Mullein, Nookaadiziganzh, Verbascum thapsus
The South Wind and the Maiden of the Golden Hair
Dandelion, Doodooshaaboojiibik, Taraxacum officinale
Plantain, Omakakiibag, Plantago major and Plantago lanceolata
Roses, Oginiiminagaawanzh, Rosa spp.
The Eupatoriums
Joe Pye Weed, Bagizowin, Eupatorium purpureum
Shield and Lance Plant, Boneset, Eupatorium perfoliatum and Eupatorium
rugosum
Jewelweed, Ozaawashkojiibik, Impatiens capensis,Impatiens pallida, and Poison
Ivy, Animikiibag, Toxicodendron radicans
The Monarda Family
Wild Bergamot, Baby Saver Plant, Monarda fistulosa
Bee Balm, Aamoogaawanzh, Monarda didyma
Goldthread, Ozaawijiibik, Coptis groenlandica
Violets, Waawiyebag, Viola spp.
Nanaboozhoo and Name
The
Mary Siisip Geniusz (19482016) was of Cree and Métis descent and a member of the Bear Clan. She worked as an oshkaabewis (a traditional Anishinaabe apprentice) with the late Keewaydinoquay, an Anishinaabe medicine woman and ethnobotanist from Michigan. She taught ethnobotany, American Indian studies, and American multicultural studies at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee, University of WisconsinEau Claire, and Minnesota State University-Moorhead.
Wendy Makoons Geniusz is of Cree and Métis descent. She is assistant professor in the Department of Languages at the University of WisconsinEau Claire, where she teaches Ojibwe language courses.
