Friday, July 30, 2021

Native American Green Corn Festival August 15 in Washington Connecticut

 Corn is an integral part of the annual lifecycle of Native American people. Traditionally, corn was an important source of food, as well as a significant element of religious and ceremonial life that brought communities together. For generations, many Native American communities have welcomed the season when corn ripens with a celebration. In recognition of this time-honored tradition, the Institute for American Indian Studies, located in Washington, CT, is holding their 16th annual Green Corn Festival on August 15 from Noon to 4:00 pm at the Riverwalk Pavilion, 11a School Street, in Washington, CT. 

Join Museum Staff and Friends as they welcome the first corn of the summer 2021 season with music, drumming, dancing, children’s activities, stories by a professional Native American Storyteller, the sale of arts and crafts, and much more! Riverwalk Pavilion is an idyllic park just minutes from Washington Depot with plenty of parking, a beautiful park, and tables and chairs in a sheltered wooden pavilion.

A highlight of the Green Corn Festival event is the Native Nations Dance Troupe led by Erin Meeches, from the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation. Each dance performed has an uplifting and unique story or purpose. Some use movements that imitate animals and others represent an aspect of cultural significance. These traditional dances are sure to delight because they evoke the beauty, honor, and tradition of Native People.


A special treat of the Green Corn Festival is the chance to try authentic powwow-styled food such as the perennial favorite, frybread, three sisters rice, butternut squash and corn, chicken tacos and kabob, chicken over rice, fruit cups, and fresh fruit kabobs. There will also be several venison choices including venison over rice, venison cheesesteaks, venison kabobs, and tacos. If you work up a thirst, don’t miss the blueberry and sassafras tea!

 
If you enjoy shopping for handmade Native American arts and crafts, you won’t be disappointed. Vendors will be on hand selling everything from handmade jewelry and flutes to baskets, weavings, and much more.      


About Green Corn
The expression “Green Corn” refers to the first ripened sweet corn that you can eat. The Green Corn Ceremony is marked with dancing, feasting, fasting, and religious observations. In the Eastern Woodland areas, Native people depended on three staples – corn, beans, and squash. These food items were so important that they were called “The Three Sisters.” The Three Sisters were mixed together to make a vegetable dish called succotash that is still popular today.
 
Admission for this event, held rain or shine is $10 for adults; and $ 5 for Members, and free for children under 12. Pre-registration is greatly appreciated for this event by visiting the Institute’s website.


About Institute for American Indian Studies
Located on 15 acres of woodland acres the Institute For American Indian Studies preserves and educates through archeology, research, exhibitions, and programs. They have the 16th c. Algonquian Village, Award-Winning Wigwam Escape, and a museum with temporary and permanent displays of authentic artifacts from prehistory to the present that allows visitors to foster a new understanding of the world and the history and culture of Native Americans. The Institute for American Indian Studies is located on 38 Curtis Road, Washington, CT.
 

Monday, July 26, 2021

Medicinal Monday... An Aquatic Wonder - the Yellow Pond Lily

We have all seen a yellow pond lily floating lazily in the shallow area of a pond or lake...but have you ever wondered how Native Americans used this unique aquatic plant medicinally? The Yellow Pond Lily is native to the Eastern and Western United States, Africa, and temperate Europe. Today, it is naturalized all over the U.S. Native American communities found so many uses for this useful flower from using it as a dermatological aid to treating pain.

About the Yellow Pond Lily

The Yellow Pond Lily is an aquatic perennial that is in the Nymphaeaceae family. The species botanical name is Nuphar lutea. Yellow Pond Lilies emerge about three years after seed germination. New plants or colonies are generated by a spongy tuberous root system. They are usually found in the shallow areas of lakes, ponds, swamps, rivers, and streams. The solitary flower blooms from mid-spring through early autumn above the water and is a hermaphrodite. This lotus-like flower has five or six sepals that help support the inner more delicate yellow petals as it blooms. The flower sits atop a heart-shaped or cordate lilypad leaf that can grow up to a foot across and has a long, stout stem running down into the sediment. The flowers close at night.

It is pollinated by flies that are attracted to its bright color and slightly alcoholic scent. The bottle-shaped fruit of this plant contains many seeds that are dispersed by water currents. A nickname of this plant is spatterdock because of the way the seeds are spattered on the water when the fruit bursts. 

The fruit of the Yellow Water Lily

Culinary and Medicinal Uses

It has been documented that Native American people gathered the thick rootstocks in the winter and spring, roasted and ate them. The roots were also sliced, pounded and dried, and then ground into meal or flour. The seeds were collected and fried in bear fat by some Native American tribes. They also popped the seeds like popcorn. The taste is said to be mildly sweet, sour, and bitter. The Lakota, Cheyenne, Menominee, and Comanche boiled the roots and ate them. The Montana used the seeds to thicken soup and also ate them like popcorn.

First Nation Cultures such as the Nuxalk use rhizomes to treat tuberculosis, rheumatism, heart disease, and gonorrhea. Like the Iroquois and the Bella Coola, the Nuxalk use the infusion of dried roots to treat blood disorders. One of the most common uses of yellow water lilies used by the Iroquois, Menominee, Micmac, Ojibwa, Penobscot, Potawatomi, and Sioux was to use a poultice of the roots and apply them to cuts, bruises, and swellings. The roots were also used in a decoction to treat colds, fever, and internal pain. Some communities like the Thompson would make a poultice out of freshly dried leaves and apply that to wounds, cuts, and sores. The Rappahannock used warm leaves to treat boils and to remove fever and inflammation from sores. A compound of leaves was sometimes used to detect witches and a poultice of roots was used to treat sore areas caused by witchcraft.

Did You Know...

Common names for the Yellow Pond Lily include the North American Pond Lily, Spatterdock, Water Nymph, Water Cabbage, Cow Lily, and Frog Lily.

Yellow Lily's botanical name, Nuphar lutea is derived from the Arabic and Persian ninufar, meaning pond lily and lutea that is Latin for golden, saffron, orange-yellow.

Recent studies have concluded that this plant has astringent compounds.

Recent research developments have found that Nuphar alkaloids can help with diseases like cancer because of the way they induce cell death.

Stonemasons carved the forms of water lilies on the roof bosses of the Bristol Cathedral and Westminster Abbey because they are thought to encourage celibacy.


Monday, July 19, 2021

Artifact ID Day - July 25 Registration is Open

Do you have any stone artifacts or Northeastern Native American cultural items that you would like to have identified? Do you want to know about the who... what, how, and when of your mystery items? If you do, then register to participate in Artifact ID Day at the Institute for American Indian Studies with Dr. Lucianne Lavin on Sunday, July 25 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. This program will be in small groups of people with one-hour time slots. The cost to participate is $15 for adults, $13 for Seniors,  $11 for children, and $5 for members. To register click here and if you have questions please call 860-868-0518.



Dr. Lavin is the author of Connecticut's Indigenous Peoples: "What Archaeology, History, and Oral Traditions Teach Us About Their Communities and Cultures." and, "Dutch and Indigenous Communities in Seventeeth-Century Northeastern North America: What Archaeology, History, and Indigenous Oral Traditions Teach Us About Their Intercultural Relationships." 

This event will allow participants to learn about the objects they have questions about with an expert in this field of archaeological and cultural study. Dr. Lavin will provide interesting insights and commentary on your items but will not appraise or speculate about the value of an object.

To better identify your object, you should have some information available. If a family member gave it to you, ask them for any details they might remember. To better identify your object it is helpful to know the general location of where it was found. For cultural artifacts, it is helpful to know approximately when it was found.

This program features a mix of commentary and the methods of stone and cultural artifact identification in a manner that is useful to newcomers, hobbyists, collectors, the curious, archaeologists, and researchers. 

Medicinal Monday- Virginia Rose

Roses have a long history for their beauty and use in natural medicine used by people from around the world. There are over 20 rose species native to North America. Fast-growing, attractive, and extremely hardy, the Virginia rose can be found in Connecticut. This rose has many medicinal benefits that have been well known to Native American communities for centuries.

About Virginia Rose

Rosa Virginiana is a woody perennial in the rose family that is native to North America. It grows from shoots that grow from buds at the base of this shrub, which can grow up to six feet tall. Like all plants in the rose family, the stems are covered in hooked prickles.  The pink flowers bloom singly or in small clusters amid glossy green, feather-like leaves from June to August. The fruit, known as rose hips, is rich in Vitamin C. The fruit can be eaten, made into jams, or seeped to make rose hip tea. The fall foliage is purple to orange-red to crimson and yellow. 

Medicinal Benefits

Native American communities made tea from the petals and rose hips of this plant to treat colds, sore throats, and flu. They chewed the leaves and applied them as poultices for bee stings and burns. Some communities used rose hips to help women go into labor, and decoctions of bark were used to ease childbirth. The Cherokee made a decoction of the roots that was used as a bath to treat children with worms. The Ojibwa used an infusion of roots to wash out cuts, especially bleeding foot cuts. They also used an infusion of the roots as an eyewash for sore eyes.

Did You Know...

The Virginia Rose won the Award of Garden Merit of Great Britain's Royal Horticultural Society.

The Virginia Rose is attractive to pollinating insects, butterflies, and birds.

The Virginia Rose is also called the common wild rose and the prairie rose.

It is a nectar source for native bees and honeybees.



Monday, July 12, 2021

Medicinal Monday... Rough Horsetail - A Very Ancient Medicinal Plant

The ancient horsetail family was once one of the dominant plants on our planet dating back to the dinosaurs when some varieties grew as large as pine trees. Today's, rough horsetail only grows up to five feet. It is native to North America, Europe, South Africa, and northern Asia. Native American communities have found a variety of medicinal uses for this ancient perennial.

About Rough Horsetail

Equisetum hyemale or rough horsetail is not a rush or a fern. It is a single surviving genus of a class of primitive plants that date back 350+ million years and has its roots as far back as the Devonian Period. Equisetum hyemale, commonly known as rough horsetail is primarily found in wetlands and near rivers, ponds, lakes, and streams as well as in moist forests and woodlands. It has been known to grow in 4 inches of standing water. This is a nonflowering rush -like evergreen that spreads by rhizomes to form colonies in the wild. The stems are rigid, rough, and hollow, vertically ridged and segmented, and are similar to bamboo's dark green stems. Each stem rises up from the rhizomes with tiny toothed leaves that are fused to the stem in an ash grey sheath. Each sheath is set off by thin, stem ringing black bands. The tips of the stems bear pine cone-like fruit heads that contain spores.


Medicinal, Ceremonial & Practical Uses

Many Native American communities including the Cherokee, Flathead, Iroquois, Mahuna, Thompson, and Menominee, made a decoction of various parts of this plant and use it as a diuretic to treat a variety of diseases from constipation to kidney disease; the Crow made a poultice to treat bladder and prostate pain. The Cree, Thompson, and the Quinault use a decoction of the plant to correct menstrual irregularities and the Menominee used a decoction of rushes after childbirth. The Okanagan-Colville use a decoction of the stems to treat children with sores and the Sanpoil used the stems like a straw to give medicine to infants. The Thomason and the Karok make a decoction from the stems to treat sore eyes. A decoction of the plant was also used to treat venereal disease. 

The Karok used this plant to cleanse priests in the First Salmon Ceremony, and the Quileute and Hoh eat roots during medicinal ceremonies. The Blackfoot and the Cheynne treat horses with an infusion of this plant. The Chippewa burn the leaves to disinfect sick areas and bad spirits. Because of the high silica content in the stems of this plant, Native Americans also used this plant for sanding wooden objects and polishing arrowheads. The Costanoan used the roots to make baskets. The children of the Gosiyte and Havasupai use the stems as whistles.

Did You Know...

The stems of this plant contain a lot of silica and were used by early Americans for polishing pots and pans which is how they got another nickname, the scouring rush.

The genus name comes from the Latin words Equus meaning horse and seta meaning bristle.

In South Africa, this plant is known as snake grass.

Today it is used decoratively in water gardens.































































Friday, July 9, 2021

The Art of Flintknapping July 10, 2021 @ IAIS

 



Have you ever wondered how Native Americans survived in the wilderness without any modern tools? If you have, then make sure to attend the flintknapping workshop at the Institute for American Indian Studies on 38 Curtis Road in Washington with Jeff Kalin, a primitive technologist on Saturday, July 10, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Space is limited for this in-person event and pre-registration is required. To register, visit the website, call 860-868-0518, or email events@iaismuseum.org. 



 
Flintknapping is the traditional way that Native Americans created sharp-edged tools and weapons from stone. The use of implements made from flint was widely practiced in New England because survival depended on flint because it could be used to produce sharp tools. The composition of flint when fractured causes it to break into sharp-edged pieces. Native Americans recognized this property of flint and learned how to fashion it into knife blades, spear points, arrowheads, scrapers, axes, drills, and other sharp implements using a method known as flintknapping. 

During this flintknapping workshop participants will discover the fascinating history of Native American flintknapping from primitive technologist expert, Jeff Kalin, of Cherokee ancestry. During the workshop, Kalin will explain the historic importance of flintknapping. Implements made from flint touched every aspect of daily life by providing tools to use in hunting and fishing. Flint needles were used to make clothes, and flint tools were used to make canoes and structures. Participants will learn percussion and flaking techniques from Kalin that will turn an ordinary piece of flint into a useful tool. This workshop is best for adults and children 12 years old and up. 




About Jeff Kalin 
Jeff Kalin, owner of Primitive Technologies has more than 25 years of experience in the field of primitive technologies and is a consultant to museum curators and archaeologists in the analysis of artifacts. He is a recognized expert in Clovis point replication and other types of stone tools. He has constructed prehistoric sets and props for filmmakers and his pottery, handcrafted from river clay is in many public and private collections. Kalin has built nearly 200 aboriginal structures, either free-standing or congregated in villages.

 The Institute for American Indian Studies (IAIS) 

 Located on 15 woodland acres the IAIS preserves and educates through archeology, research, exhibitions, and programs. We have an outdoor replicated 16th c. Algonkian Village, the award-winning Wigwam Escape, and a Museum with temporary and permanent displays of authentic artifacts from prehistory to the present that allows visitors to foster a new understanding of the world and the history and culture of Native Americans. The Institute for American Indian Studies is located on 38 Curtis Road in Washington Connecticut.

Monday, July 5, 2021

Medicinal Monday - Comforting Comfrey

Symphytum officinale also known as comfrey is a flowering perennial that was introduced to North America from Europe. Common comfrey has been cultivated as a healing herb since 400 B.C. in traditional medicine in Asia and Europe. It was brought to North America in the 1600s for medicinal use and Native American communities were quick to adopt this hardy plant to treat a variety of ailments.

About Symphytum officinale

This plant is in the Boranginaceae family or forget-me-not family and, is in a genus of 34 different species. This plant is referred to as common comfrey or true comfrey. It is found in moist grasslands, on riverbanks, and on the shorelines of ponds and lakes. It can grow up to three feet high. It has black, turnip-shaped roots and, large, hairy, lance-shaped leaves with wavy edges. The flowers emerge in coiled clusters and the flowers open in June and July. The flowers can be purple-blue, yellow, white, or red and have a tubular, bell-like shape. They bloom in drooping clusters. The fruit consists of four to five black or brown nutlets that usually appear in August or September.

Medicinal Uses

Many Native American communities considered comfrey a sacred healing plant and drank it as tea as well as using it topically. They made an infusion of the roots for heartburn and dysentery. An infusion was also used to help aid heartburn and nausea in pregnant women. A poultice was made from the roots to treat broken bones, sprains, and bruises. This poultice helped to set bones before plaster of Paris. Syrup was made of comfrey and other herbs to treat coughs. A tea was also made to cure the inflammation of many organs. 

Did You Know...

Other names for true comfrey are Quaker comfrey, boneset, knitbone, bruisewort, and slippery root.

In ancient Rome, comfrey leaves were applied to injuries to stop bleeding during chariot races.

The flowers attract bumblebees.

Historically in the United Kingdom, a poultice was made from the roots to treat sprains, bruises, and broken bones.

Comfrey contains an alkaloid that has the potential to increase the risk of liver toxicity. In 2001, the FDA banned products for internal use.

The genus name comes from the Greek word symphyo meaning to grow together and phyton for plant as in a plant that was believed to heal wounds.