Boozhoo/hello to all our relatives! We have not updated you all in a while, because we have been slowly making connections with various people and organizations, listening carefully to our human, plant, animal and Manidog (Spirit) relatives, and working pretty hard on the land, even doing forestry management in the dead of winter. We had this report ready months ago, but had issues updating the website (our fault) that are finally resolved.
First, we’ll talk about what we’ve done on the 20 acres currently under our care. The last part of this post is all about the education and outreach we’ve done, including some pretty exciting work supporting local Native American education programs!
Forestry Diversity Planning & Invasive Species Control
We invited representatives from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resource’s Metro Forestry Division out to take a look at our woods and discuss what they think we should be doing in two main areas: fighting invasive species and planting trees that will be more resistant to climate change. We had some good news and some bad news.
The good news is that the white pine, aspen, diamond willow, maple and burr oaks within our care are doing fabulously. The DNR provided us with a great plan for fighting invasives, thinning out overcrowded areas, and education on the kinds of tree species to replant to ensure healthy, diverse forests for generations to come.
The bad news is that we have identified a few more species of invasive shrubs and trees that we are tagging for removal. Siberian Pea Shrub is a new one, and we found new areas where an Asian variety Bittersweet has taken hold. Why anyone would ever plant that (apparently the yellow berries and vines are for crafting?) is beyond me, when we have a perfectly lovely species of bittersweet native to Turtle Island.
Mountain Pine Beetle Infestation
The really, really bad news is that we have a Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) infestation in most of the red pines. Learn more about them here. We had already learned that the red pines will not survive warming temperatures, so we were looking for advice on what else to plant as we thinned them out. During her visit, the DNR forestry expert discovered the MPBs. Heat and drought stress is probably why the red pines were more susceptible to this infestation. Also, MPBs have certainly taken advantage of our warmer temperatures this far north, to expand their range.
For each tree infested with MBP, the beetles will emerge in the spring and infest 2-3 other trees. So it’s vital we get as many down during the winter as possible. We are reaching out to the DNR, the Washington County Conservation District, the City of Grant, and various non-profit organizations to see if we can get help covering the costs of arborists for the large trees that are near power lines and buildings. The majority of our physical labor for the winter was put towards taking down and disposing of trees within our abilities to safely cull. We can’t keep anything here with bark on it (because the beetles will emerge and infest other trees) so we have taken trailer loads of logs to the county incinerator site, and burnt all the smaller wood.
Last year, we had a pair of nesting gyrfalcons in one stand of the red pines, since they are very mature and border an open meadow (hunting ground) next to the sand hill area. Thankfully, these raptors decided to nest in the white pines far enough away from their previous home, so that cutting down the infested trees will not disturb them.
This past week, we fixed up a friend’s old saw mill and reclaimed a whole lot of lumber from the unaffected heartwood. The bark-carrying planks are all that goes to the incinerator from the trunks–a HUGE improvement on the waste involved. We plan on milling the lumber needed for a few restoration and construction projects, and to stockpile replacement boards for the 1867 buildings (in which a 2×4 is really two inches by four inches).
The slake (branches and needles) from all downed trees is burned right in the clearings we’ve made. Fire hasn’t touched this land in over 100 years, so this is an unexpected bonus to all the panic logging. Once all the slake and the build-up of fuel over the years has burnt, we rake out the ash. We’ve invested in a mixture of seeds appropriate for pine forests and put that out in early April, so the temperatures are still low enough for cold stratification to happen. Almost all native perennials need to get good and cold, and then cold and wet, for their seeds to germinate.
We would also like to thank the Washington County Conservation District for adding extra saplings to our annual order of indigenous tree and shrubs when they heard about our MPB fight. We will be offering most of the saplings to our neighbors, who were wonderfully accepting of the bad news, understood the urgency, and got their infected trees down quickly.
Ongoing Planting/Restoration Work
Other interesting developments in the effort to increase the biodiversity of Migiziwazison: we planted some new fragrant sumacs in the higher side of the wet meadow, several highbush cranberries along the edge of the high-water mark of our marshy pond, re-introduced wild ginger into the swamp zone, replaced a cedar that we had planted two years ago but was munched to death by the (fence-moving) deer, and started a hazelnut hedge. We also purchased some native species of blueberries and created a special spot for them near the old dairy building. The plan is to propagate blueberries for food, but also introduce some offspring of these plants to the meadows or provide them to schools for Indigenous food and medicine education. In Ojibwe, the word for blueberry is miinan and I can’t wait to harvest enough to make miini-baashkiminasigani-biitoosijigani-bakwezhigan (blueberry pie–and yes, it’s one of our longest Ojibwe words).
As usual, we collected hundreds of thousands of seeds from the nursery area and the places where native species are doing really well. Some have been sown in areas where we have cleared invasives, and many have been kept to be given away to those traditional medicine garden projects we’re supporting. We also purchased millions of seeds that have been reintroduced here or nearby, given away, or will be planted elsewhere soon. Since we liberated some mature chokecherries from a thicket of buckthorn, they produced a huge amount of fruit. I collected bags of mature berries and relocated them to places where I hope some of them will become new chokecherries. If not, the mice and small birds ate well (which means the raptors, snakes, and other predators had a good time, too).
Dry Meadow Restoration Work
We reached the one-year mark of the eradication project in the part of the dry meadow that was host to invasive Asian Bittersweet. Upon the advice of our friends at Washington County Conservation District, we burned off the biggest plants, and attempted a smothering operation on the younger ones. I’m pleased to report that in the area where the fire we built (using some dried brush to reach higher temperatures) no bittersweet has returned. However, the younger plants managed to survive all but the areas where we put down a thick layer of newspapers under two layers of dense cardboard. None of these younger plants managed to produce berries, thankfully. We saw bare roots on the surface in spots where the smothering material wasn’t quite so thick. So, we mowed everything as short as possible, kept all the mulched vegetation in a thick layer over the worst of it, and deployed the BAT (Big Area Tarp).
We are hoping that the lack of sunlight and water, plus the higher temperatures generated in summer by trapping the heat of decomposition, will kill off the rest of it in a year or two. We’re talking a 40-foot diameter circle of bittersweet, so this was never going to be a simple endeavor. However, the longer-range plan for replanting the dry meadow involves plowing every week after we burn off the non-native cow & horse grasses. So, we need to make sure everything is good and dead; otherwise, we could simply spread active bittersweet roots over a larger area.
We are still contemplating different options for what to replant in the dry meadow after the burn and “mess up the soil biome real good” summer of plowing any hint of green under. This is the method for really killing the existing plants that we decided upon, having rejected using Roundup or any other herbicide (as is commonly done by commercial prairie restoration companies).
We have not had any chemicals on this land for 30 years, our well is still producing fabulously clean water, so we’re not going to do anything to change our current habits in the interest of having less labor or expense in order to achieve results.
Ending Mosquito Control Resulted in Higher Dragonfly Population & Diversity
Another interesting experiment is in its third year: we had the DNR stop aerial mosquito control on these 20 acres. The result is a huge increase in the local dragonfly population, and the appearance of two species this year that we hadn’t seen before. Dragonflies prey on mosquitoes, so we think the increase in their food source has supported the population increase & drawn other species into our area. And since birds eat dragonflies, we are noticing an increase in small bird nests, as well.
Utilizing Chickens Instead of Goats for Restoration Prep
Our experiment with using chickens to clear the land met with mixed success. We built a chicken tractor–which is a fancy term for a small coop incorporated into a fenced-in zone, with an open bottom and wheels on the back end so we can pull it to a new spot. If pulled slowly, the chickens just walk along during the trip. The roof keeps them shaded and dry, and their nesting boxes and roosting bar protected. With all 22 hens surviving from the batch we received, having somewhere to put the ones more interested in fighting than getting along was great. On vegetation shorter than 2 feet, the girls were able to clear everything to the ground in a day or two.
However, once the grass became taller, the chicken tractor simply pushed it over. The hens didn’t really go after eating this compressed horizontal grass, and it was quickly soiled to the point they should not view it as food. So we learned we must high-mow an area first, then move the tractor onto it to let them get it to bare dirt in a day or two (they have organic pellet food, water, and calcium-rich grit available as well, of course). Any red osier dogwood or other plants that chickens will not eat, we simply pulled by hand–made easy by how much the chickens loosened up the soil with their constant scratching. We were also very careful to pull anything harmful, such as deadly nightshade, before putting the chickens in a new spot. Chickens typically will not eat anything harmful to them, but if bored they might ingest something they otherwise wouldn’t touch.
In areas that the chickens cleared and we subsequently planted native seeds, we saw that the density of new growth was much higher than areas cleared by hand. We think the churning of the top inch of soil and the chicken poop fertilization made for ideal conditions for the new grass and flower seeds to take off.
A big bonus: chickens are far easier to contain, and far cheaper to feed, than goats. Plus, the eggs are incredible–bright orange, rich yolks! What our family does not eat, we donate to a nearby Common Bound housing facility that serves low-income elderly and disabled folks. The residents support us in turn, by collecting their egg cartons for our use.
Outreach and Education
Since human beings are the biggest threat to undoing all the work we’ve put into Migiziwazison land, we constantly work to broaden our circle, connect with more individuals and groups, and improve our community-building skills.
Supporting Robbinsdale School District Native Education Programs (Medicine Garden)
Quite a while ago, we met another Anishinaabe in line at a taco truck. In sharing some basic information, we discovered that our new taco-loving friend also recently received a grant to put in a Native American medicine garden at one or more Robbinsdale School District sites. So of course we immediately offered any help they might need!
So far, we’re still very much in the planning and organizational phase, with just a few plant relatives transferred from Migiziwazison. Who knew that just getting permission to dig some holes would involve coordinating with several departments and key administrators, and making exceptions to standard procedures for groundskeeping? We know now! But it definitely slowed down our initial timeline.
The most wonderful event with the Robbinsdale community involved planting four inaanatig (sugar maple) saplings that were donated by Dream of Wild Health and kept alive at Migiziwazison all summer while we sorted out their new home. What a wonderful experience, to have a water ceremony with elders and children, and then get our hands dirty placing these relatives in the ground together. Check out the local news reporting on this event!
Right before the snow fell, we were able to secure a permanent home for the bulk of the medicine plants in front of FAIR Crystal school. Unfortunately, decades of using herbicides in that spot made it necessary to take out 12 inches from the top and bring in fresh soil. A deeper replacement would have been ideal, but the money for that wasn’t available. We are still not certain the new plants won’t die when their roots go deeper. To test this out, we brought several plants we dug up at Migiziwazison that will begin to grow as soon as the weather gets warmer: red osier dogwood and sunchoke. Then the Native Education team, some elders from the American Indian Parent Advisory Council (AIPAC) worked some aged chicken litter from the Migiziwazison flock into the new soil, put these first plants into the ground, and spread hay over the site to add nutrients and help the soil warm up as early in the spring as possible.
I don’t care how many generations Native people have lived in the Twin Cities. Give them some tools and a patch of earth, and they all just dig right on in, work together well, and get good and dirty while getting the job done super fast. We are constantly moved by how deeply all the students and staff feel about having a good-size area in which to create real hands-on relationships with our plant relatives.
In January, we brought seeds and soil to the schools. The students planted seeds in egg cartons (donated by the elders who receive our extra eggs). Anakwad then shared a story of the first treaty made between the plants, animals, and Ajiijak (Crane, as an emissary from the Great Spirit). This story is one we only tell in the winter, at night, when the earth is sleeping. It teaches us that we humans have only been able to survive here on Earth because of the generosity of the plants and animals who agreed to support us, even though they’d never met a human being before. After storytelling we took the cartons home and put them in a freezer–the same conditions the seeds would be in if they were outside. Hopefully these seedlings will sprout when we bring them inside in late April or early May, and we will have many small plant relatives to get into the ground at FAIR Crystal as soon as the danger of frost has passed.
Indigenous Expertise Compensation
Early in the year, Migiziwazison supported the efforts of several environmental quality & preservation groups to compensate Indigenous elders for providing their expertise on the impact of proposed developments. The elders conveyed knowledge about current and proposed projects that have or will result in damage to the soil, air and water quality, specific to their tribally-controlled territories and places to which they have treaty-guaranteed usury rights. The information provided by ten tribal consultants proved highly useful to our own work. More importantly, several groups have provided this invaluable knowledge of these delicate ecosystems to regulatory bodies, and included it in legal filings designed to alter or halt damaging development projects.
Too often, the people who have the most intimate knowledge of how a specific ecosystem works (and what havoc changes to that environment could unleash) are expected to freely provide their time and valuable information to non-Indigenous groups. Migiziwazison was honored to provide the logistical labor to obtain a grant from Rainforest Action Network, distribute funds, and complete all the required reporting.
Attended “Hands Across the Hills” Training
Are you comfortable with conflicting viewpoints and agendas? Do you know how to build connections with people who normally would never speak to one another? We struggle with that, too. So we sought out a unique approach to facilitating real connections between folks, even when they have wildly different backgrounds and perspectives on life. Hands Across the Hills (HAH) was created by a group of people in New Hampshire who sought out a real connection to the impoverished Appalachian coal mine communities of eastern Kentucky. Their goal was to build real relationships so that any assistance provided by the well-off New Englanders was exactly the type of help the Appalachian community members believed would be the most effective. Over the years, the HAH group developed a training course to help others ‘communicate meaningfully across divides.’ Anakwad attended, and Migiziwazison also provided travel and fee assistance for a midwest environmental action organizer, Eoin Small of Seekjoy Collective, to go to a weeklong training session. Mr. Small has been active in ensuring effective communication between Indigenous tribes and organizations, and the multiple NGO’s working to protect the same lands and watersheds across the upper Midwest. He is currently organizing across multiple environmental protection groups, tribal governments and Indigenous-led organizations to pass important legislation currently proposed in Minnesota.
Since this training, we have been reaching out more to our neighbors, local organizations, and governmental agencies. Using the techniques taught us, we are developing strong relationships that can sustain the kinds of difficult conversations needed in order to truly build connection and commitment to future endeavors.
Traditional Native Medicine Distribution
While not our main mission, with so much land under our care, we could not resist creating areas with far more traditional medicinal plants than our family could ever use. And so much is abundant all on its own because this piece of land has every kind of soil type and moisture level possible in just 20 acres. We have connections to relatives on the Citizen Nation Potawatami Reservation near Seminole, Oklahoma. Many of our sacred medicines do not grow that far south, but the people there still need them for their ceremonies. FedEx isn’t a traditional way to transport medicine, but it gets the job done!
We have also provided mishkiikii to area Indigenous organizations, Native Education teams working at area schools, cultural camps, camps of our unhoused relatives, and any authentic Native healer who asks according to proper protocols.
Other fantastic organizations–like our neighbor to the north, Dream of Wild Health, that provide even more of this kind of support to the local Indigenous community. If we hear of a need, we will do our best to meet it and will put the call out to others if we cannot. No Indigenous person should ever have to pay for these gifts from our mother, the medicines necessary for our physical and spiritual health. We always follow proper protocols, as taught by Anishinaabe elders, for harvesting and processing mishkiikii. That includes never putting money on the sacred.
2024 Plans
We are going to be very busy replanting trees on Migiziwazison land and assisting our neighbors with their newly-bare areas, after removal of the red pines infested with mountain pine beetles. Since our co-director is now officially retired, we have more hours available for work that requires another set of hands or the ability to coax our ancient Ford tractor into helping us out.
We are in discussions with the Nature Conservancy about how to design a small fruit orchard area where we will also raise saplings for their use (they have a huge reforestation program but not enough land available to grow baby trees). Orchards require mowing/discouragement of competition and irrigation, as do tree saplings. So it makes perfect sense to have a dual use of an area between the wet and dry meadows, where we have begun planting with human-consumable nut trees. Check out the ENORMOUS project for reforestation and forest climate change resilience that we hope to be part of via this Smithsonian Magazine article. Anakwad really wants to invite Paw Paw trees to live here. Paw Paws are the only tropical fruit that grows in northern climates, but most people don’t know about them because they don’t keep well enough for commercial use. Anakwad grew up in Michigan and craves that fruit (it tastes like a cross between citrus and banana with a soft pudding texture). Even though we are unhappy about our increasing annual temperatures, now that we are Zone 5 and cold-hardy specimens are available, it’s possible to have that very special plant relative be part of the family here in Minnesota.
Since many people ask about how Anishinaabe-style gardening helps reduce labor, because they are interested in growing food for themselves (instead of useless lawns). But we are not purists and have been messing around with combining gardening techniques from all over the place to increase yields, decrease water use, and keep pests away naturally. We are busy and know that hitting on inexpensive solutions allows us to provide the best assistance to novice gardeners. We will be running two pretty radical garden vegetable experiments this summer. And hopefully one or more of these experiments will mitigate the extreme mole problem that decimated our vegetable garden last season.
And most importantly–we are continuing to build a diverse community around this work. As always, we have multiple outreach efforts to ensure that people from the Dakota nation who are called to do this kind of work have a seat at the table, with the power to bring their visions for this land into fruition. We hope to make some official announcements soon.
Whew! Perhaps the solution to big annual reports is to blog more often. We will try to make time for that, and to take more pictures!