Gear - Up for 2023 Summer Camp @ Institute for American Indian Studies

This summer the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, Connecticut is offering six weeks of summer camp where Native American history will come alive through fun activities offered by the Educational Department of the Institute. Hiking in the woods, mock archaeological digs, educational games, listening to traditional Native American stories, learning new crafts, and working together to complete a group project are just some of the highlights. This year’s summer camp program encourages children to connect with nature, and appreciate a culture more than 10,000 years old while enhancing their teambuilding skills and, making new friends. For more information https://www.iaismuseum.org/summer-camp

Six weekly camps with different themes are offered from June 26 - August 11, for children six–twelve, Monday – Friday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Registration is available online. For questions call 868-0518 ext. 453 or email gbenjamin@iaismuseum.org 

Children that love archeology and wonder what tools archaeologists use to uncover clues will enjoy Puzzles of the Past: Putting it All Together, from June 26- June 30. Mock archaeological digs and learning how to use a variety of tools are part of the discovery in solving riddles from the past! If your child is curious about how to survive in the great outdoors, Take Shelter! One of Your Five Basic Needs, runs from July 10 – July 14 and promises to be as fun as it is informative. This week’s programs show campers how important it is to understand the environment and how to construct shelters from it, just as Indigenous inhabitants of the Americas did centuries ago. 

For children that think technology is just a modern concept, the July 17-21 session, Learning the ABCs of Traditional Tech, might change their minds! This week, campers will learn about ancient technologies that were critical to survival and had nothing to do with computers or cell phones. Perfect to encourage the budding ecologist and children that love the environment, Stories of Survival: Native Lifeway’s in the Eastern Woodlands, from July 24-28, shows children how Native cultures have used their understanding and knowledge of the natural world to thrive for thousands of years. 

Ideal for curious campers, Being Resourceful: Gifts of the Natural World, from July 31 – August 4, shares the ecological lessons from Native cultures that are inspiring and timely. Highlights this week include learning animal tracking skills, how to identify plants and much more. If your child is creative and inquisitive don’t miss the final camp, August 7 – August 11, Etuaptmumk: A Different Way of Thinking. Through traditional Native American stories, mock archeological digs, and group projects, campers will learn the benefits of looking at things from two different perspectives - traditional Indigenous knowledge and Western Scientific thought. 

 

Medicinal Monday - the Beauty of Beach Peas

 In the spring, beach peas emerge in salt marshes and along the Connecticut shoreline. Walking along the coastline, look for them amid driftwood, dunes, or mixed in with seagrass. This strictly maritime plant has a long and interesting culinary and medicinal history. 

About Beach Pea

Beach Peas or Lathyrus japonicus are trailing herbaceous perennial vines, usually no taller than 18 inches that grow in sandy soil in patches. The hairless compound leaves grow in three to five pairs of ovate waxy leaflets that are smooth and light green to bluish green on the surface and whitish green on their underside.  The terminal leaflet is replaced by a twining tendril. The flowers grow on a long hairless stem in loose clusters of up to twelve showy pink or purple flowers. The fruits lend this plant its name because they look like small dark pea-pods. Because the seeds can stay viable in water for up to five years, this plant has spread throughout much of the world on ocean waves. Germination occurs when the outer seed husk is abraded by waves on the sand.  It flowers in July and August in the Northern Hemisphere and in January and February in the Southern Hemisphere.

Uses of Beach Pea

There is not much documentation on the medicinal uses of the beach pea plant. It has been recorded that the Iroquois cooked the stalks and used this liquid to treat rheumatism. The Ojibwa used this plant to treat stomach trouble. The Eskimos roasted seeds and used them to make coffee. 

The Ojibwa fed a pony or horse that they were about to race the leaves and roots to put spirit into the animal. The plant was also fed to a sick pony or horse to make him or her fat. The Meskwaki used the root as bait to trap a beaver or other game animals. 

One of the most common uses by Native American communities was to eat the young stalks in the spring and to eat the immature seeds as peas. Although the pods can be eaten, like many members of this genus, Lathyrus, they contain an acid that can cause paralysis called lathyrism.

Did You Know...

The seed of this plant contains a toxic amino acid which in large quantities can cause, lathyrism, a disease of the nervous system.

Lathyrus is from the Greek word thouros meaning "something exciting" from the belief that the seed had medicinal value.

Another name for this plant is circumpolar pea or sea vetchling.

The peas are eaten by deer, mice, and birds. The flowers are a source of food for bees and butterflies.

The leaves of this plant are used in Chinese medicine.

Medicinal Monday...Crinkleroot

This delicate woodland wildflower emerges in mid-April and is a member of the mustard family that can be found in Connecticut and throughout most of the East Coast of the United States. Native American communities found both culinary and medicinal uses for this plant whose rhizomes have a spicey taste giving it one of its many nicknames, pepper root.

About Crinkle Root

Cardamine diphylla is also known as Crinkleroot. It is a native perennial in the U.S. and typically grows in the rich, moist, and slightly acidic soils of the woodlands or in shaded meadows. In the spring the plant emerges upright from the ground and can grow up to 16 inches. The basal foliage emerges from the stem and is comprised of two leaves divided into three coarsely toothed lobes. The white or pink flowers emerge from mid-April to mid-May and grow in loose clusters at the end of the stem. Pods appear four to five weeks after the flowers bloom. As the pods mature they split open dispersing seeds. The seeds may take up to three years to bloom.

Medicinal and Culinary Uses

The leaves and the roots of this plant are eaten by Native American communities both raw or cooked. Specifically, the Abnaki used the leaves and roots in sauces and made it into a relish. The Algonquin ground the root and mixed it with vinegar and used it as a condiment. The Cherokee use the leaves in salads, they also parboiled the leaves and stems and then added them to hot grease and sauteed them. The Iroquois ate the roots salted and boiled and Ojibwa ground the roots and mixed them with salt and sugar and used this concoction as a condiment.

Medicinally, the roots of this plant were chewed raw, boiled, or made into a tonic to treat sore throats, colds, or hoarseness by the Micmac, Malecite, and Cherokee. The Cherokee made a poultice of the roots and applied it to the forehead to treat headaches. The Algonquin, Iroquois, and Malecite made an infusion of the plant to treat children's fevers. The Algonquin made an infusion of this plant along with sweet flag root and took it to treat heart disease, and the Iroquois made a compound to treat chest pains. The Delaware Oklahoma and the Iroquois made an infusion of the plant to treat Tuberculosis, and the Micmac chewed the root as a sedative. The Iroquois made an infusion of roots and drank it when love medicine was too strong.

Did You Know...

Other names for this plant are broad-leaved toothwort, tooth root, pepper root, and two-leaf toothwort.

The West Virginia white butterfly uses part of this plant to lay its eggs.

Flea beetles feed on the foliage of Crinkle Root.

The name, Cardamine is derived from the Greek word Kardamon, which refers to cress in the Mustard family. 

The species name, diphylla is Greek for two-leaved.

Traditional Native American Fishing Technologies & More - April 30 @ 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

 The end of a long winter signals the first in a stream of returning opportunities. It is the time of year when rivers and streams come back to life with the opening of the fishing season. If you have ever wondered what resources Native peoples had access to local waterways, then join Institute for American Indian Studies Educator and Traditional Skills expert, Griffin Kalin, on April 30, at either 11 a.m. or 1 p.m., for a program along the Shepaug River, which boasts a 10,000 plus year history of Native American communities living along its banks. This event will begin at the Institute for American Indian Studies located at 38 Curtis Road in Washington, Connecticut.

Learn about the challenges of hand fishing

The programs at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. include an informative hike to the banks of the Shepaug River that borders the Institute’s grounds and runs through Steep Rock Reservation.  Through hands-on experiences and engaging demonstrations, participants will get their feet wet with traditional fishing methods including learning how to make and maintain a fish house, and how to make a fish trap from the surrounding environment. Participants will also learn about the production and function of fishing weirs, a technology used by Native American communities that is still widely used today.

Participants will also wade into discussions about the role that turtles, crayfish, freshwater mussels, edible and useful aquatic plants played in Native American communities that lived along rivers and streams.

Space is limited and pre-registration is required. Visit the website to register, call 860-868-0518, or email events@iaismuseum.org. Tickets are $15 for non-members and $5 for IAIS Members.

About The 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 a 16^th c. Algonquian Village, Award-Winning Wigwam Escape, and a museum with temporary and permanent displays of authentic artifacts from prehistory to the present 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 at 38 Curtis Road, Washington, CT.

Medicinal Monday - Watercress

Watercress or Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum was introduced to North America from Europe, where it was planted as a vegetable. According to the Smithsonian, the earliest verified specimens of this plant were collected from Niagara Falls in 1847 and, by the 1900s, this plant became widespread across the United States. Native American communities used this plant as a source of food and found medicinal uses for it. 

About Watercress

Watercress is in the mustard family (Brassicaceae) and is native to Eurasia. It is naturalized throughout North America including Connecticut. Watercress thrives in cool flowing streams where it grows submerged, floating on water, or spread out over mud surfaces. The plants often form bushy colonies and root freely from the stems. The stems are hollow and float on water. The feather-like leaf structure is composed of three to nine leaflets. Small white and green flowers that grow in clusters bloom on the plant.

Medicinal Uses

Many Native American communities including the Diegueno, Gosiute, Havasupai, Karok, Kawaiisu, Luiseno, Tubatulabai, Okanagan-Colville, Saanich, and others used this plant as a source of food. The Algonquin used watercress as a salad plant, the Iroquois ate this plant raw with salt, the Cahuilla cooked this plant like spinach, and the Cherokee boiled the leaves and ate them with bacon grease. The Mendocino made a relish out of the leaves. 

Medicinally, the Costanoan and the Mahuna made a decoction of this plant to treat liver ailments and the  Okanagan-Colville made a poultice of fresh leaves and applied it to the forehead to treat dizziness and headaches.

Did You Know...

Ancient Romans thought eating watercress would cure mental illness. 

Watercress has been known to block the flow of streams.

In the United States, Huntsville, Alabama calls itself the watercress capital of the world.

The town of Alresford, near Winchester, in the U.K. holds a watercress festival each year and has a preserved steam railway line that has been named after this plant.

If collecting this plant in the wild, caution should be used because of parasites such as giardia. 

Watercress is really good for you! Serving for serving contains more iron than spinach, more calcium than milk, and three times the vitamin E as lettuce. 

Medicinal Monday - Broom Moss

Mosses are thought to be one of the first plants to emerge from the "primordial swamp," to establish a terrestrial presence.  They are among the oldest plants found throughout the world and are thought to date to the Upper Devonian Period, which happened about 400 million years ago. There are more than 25,000 types of moss, and one of the most interesting and common is called Broom Moss. Native Americans used this moss in many clever ways both medicinally and in ways that enhanced their lifestyle.

About Broom Moss

Dicranum scoparium, or broom moss is the most common species of dicranid moss that can be found in the northern hemisphere including Connecticut. This moss grows far afield and grows as far away as  Mexico, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Broom Moss grows in tufts or mats on the soil and is usually found in dry to moist forested areas. This moss grows on woolly stems and can be identified by its lance-shaped robust and coarse shiny leaves that are folded and curved to one side.  The leaf margins along the outer one-third of their length are usually serrated, while their margins along the lower two-thirds of their length are toothless. 

Like all moss, they produce a spore-bearing capsule on a long slender stalk that is yellowish to reddish brown when it reaches maturity.  These capsules taper like long beaks and when they fall to the ground, a ring of 16 teeth is revealed that release the spores through these openings.  Individual plants are anchored to the ground by their buried stems and coarse rhizoids.

Medicinal and Practical Uses

Mosses have been widely used by Native American communities to treat wounds for infection because of their antiseptic qualities. Due to their bulk and softness, they have also been used for centuries to dress wounds. Because they are absorbent, moss has been used for personal hygiene for women and as diapers for babies.

Mosses were also used inside Native American dwellings for added insulation. They were often used for bedding and carpeting. Broom Moss was even used as a preservative and placed around food stores.

Did You Know...

Another name for broom moss is broom fork moss and wind-blown moss.

The scientific name, Dicranum scoparium refers to the structure of the spores. Scopa is Latin for broom, it refers to the fact the leaves have been swept to one side.

Moss may be one of the earliest words in the Germanic languages. The word meos in Old World English stems from High German mos which means swamp.

Colonies of this moss provide hiding places for many small invertebrate animals.

Lace bugs feed on this moss.