Volume XII Winter 2000 Issue #2
Of science and spirit: Leech Lake combines culture, inquiry in the lab
by Michael Wassegijig Price
As students gathered for general ecology class at Leech Lake Tribal College, a pipecarrier from the Leech Lake community entered the front of the room. In a classroom lined with microscopes, computers, and digital measuring devices, he began to tell the Anishinaabe Creation Story. He talked about Sky Woman and the Great Flood, the muskrat, and the tiny morsel of soil that would become the North American continent. He talked about the sacred four directions and the spirit world.The students, eager to delve into the study of environmental science, were a little surprised to hear tribal stories in a college science class. Afterwards, however, they realized that all Anishinaabe stories are related to science and the natural world.
Albert Einstein said, "Science is about the business of reality." It is about knowing and understanding. Over the centuries, humans have developed ways of understanding and describing natural phenomena. Western science is one way. The foundation of Western science is measurement, using numbers and empirical equations to describe and predict natural phenomena. At one time in the distant past, the goal of Western science was seeking universal truths. But, today, perverted by the industrial revolution and capitalism, the goal of Western science is about what sells in the marketplace. But, that is another story. Indigenous knowledge is another way of understanding reality.
Indigenous knowledge is not based on measurement or quantification but rather on relationship and observation. Medicinal plant knowledge is acquired by observing what animals eat during sickness. Knowledge of weather patterns or seasonal trends is acquired by watching the characteristics of the sky or the behavior of animals. The Anishinaabe (otherwise known as Ojibwe or Chippewa) have their own distinct field of knowledge. As one Anishinaabe elder from Wikwemikong First Nations stated, "There are 19 different types of thunder, and each type tells something different about what's going to happen."
Birchbark canoe builders know that when the wild raspberries are beginning to ripen in the forest, it is the optimum time to harvest durable birchbark. Harvesting the bark earlier or later than this specific time, canoe builders run the risk of using bark that has prematurely dried and cracked, undesirable for canoes! From these observations comes an intricate and complex knowledge of cycles, migrations, and interactions in the natural world.
Knowledge and spirituality
Indigenous knowledge, unlike Western science and technology, has tenets of sacredness and spirituality. These ideas directly affect our relationship to and interaction with nature and one another. Thus we are not just invisible, objective observers but actual and accountable participants in the complex web of life.Learning that plants have spirits and have been endowed by the Creator with the responsibility to provide all living things with food, clothing, and shelter may not mean much to a research scientist or technophile. It will, however, have an effect on the way we, as Anishinaabe, interact with plants. This interaction will maintain and protect the long coexistence between the Anishinaabe and the natural world.
Examination of the Anishinaabe language reveals that spirituality is the foundation of the Anishinaabe worldview. Unlike English, there are four versions of each verb in the Anishinaabe language: animate, inanimate, transitive, intransitive. Certain verb forms are used when referring to animate or inanimate things. For example, rocks are considered to be living; therefore, animate verb forms are used when referring to rocks. Cars are considered to be non-living; therefore, inanimate verb forms are used when referring to automobiles. Thus, the Anishinaabe language automatically identifies and acknowledges whether something has a spirit.
From this philosophical standpoint, the goals of the Science Department at Leech Lake Tribal College are to 1) provide a dualistic understanding, both cultural and Western, of the natural world; 2) reinforce Anishinaabe culture, traditions, and knowledge at the academic level; 3) provide a fully transferable Associates of Arts degree in Natural Science; and 4) increase student enrollment in natural sciences by presenting science as applicable to Anishinaabe society.
Cultural laboratory protocols
Before students venture out into the field to gather specimens or make observations, elders or knowledgeable community members teach them the specific cultural protocols and taboos regarding how to interact with the natural world. These cultural protocols are time-honored Anishinaabe traditions that have deep, spiritual significance and, therefore, must be maintained and acknowledged, even in the laboratory.- Gathering. Students only take what they actually need to complete the learning process. Students do not gather excessively. Once the students bring the specimens into the laboratory, they treat any living organism, whether an insect or plant, with dignity and respect as a spiritual being. Disposal of living organisms in the garbage or down the sink is absolutely not allowed. Those living things utilized in the learning process will be returned to the place where they were gathered. Through this process, students learn the importance and sacredness of all living things, as well as the importance of the connection to place.
- Use of Tobacco. Local elders are requested each semester to teach the importance of ceremonially using asemaa (tobacco) when gathering things from the land. The ceremonial use of tobacco is generally unknown to most of American society. From a cultural standpoint, it is imperative that tobacco be given to ask pardon and to give thanks for the things that we take. For example, a small offering of tobacco is placed on the ground near the study site. There is a place to hang tobacco pouches in the laboratory, but in respect for each individual's spiritual beliefs, students will not be required to participate in this ceremony.<.li>
- Dissections. Because of strict, cultural taboos on handling dead organisms, dissections are not allowed in the laboratory. Teachings accompany this protocol so that students understand why dissections are not allowed. Even though the anatomical knowledge may not be as indepth as standard dissection exercises, cultural values will be strengthened and acknowledged. Jim Dumont, Shawanaga First Nations and professor at Laurentian University, suggests that an appropriate time to study actual dissections and internal anatomy would be during hunting season when hunters butcher their deer, caribou, moose, etc, so long as it is done in a proper and respectful way. The laboratory at Leech Lake Tribal College is equipped with plastic dissection models of fish, frog, wasp, flower, and human for anatomical study in the classroom.
Michael Wassegijig Price is an enrolled member of Wikwemikong First Nations and serves as the chairman of the Leech Lake Tribal College Department of Science & Mathematics.
The science of building a birchbark canoe
One of the icons that signifies indigenous science and technology is wiigwaasi-jiimaan (the birchbark canoe). The ecological knowledge required to build a canoe is extensive and intricate. The canoe builder has to have an immense knowledge of plant materials, seasonal variations within the forest, and the physics of buoyancy. If made in a proper way, a canoe can be constructed with practically no impact to the forest and traditionally could provide the utility for a family to survive for years to come. Fur trade canoes, the largest of birchbark canoes, were on average 36 feet long and had a carrying capacity of four tons (8,000 pounds!). Birchbark canoes were vital for the harvest of manomin (wild rice) on the lakes and rivers of the Great Lakes basin.The materials used for the construction of the canoe are birchbark, spruce roots, basswood, and cedar. Knowing the characteristics of each tree and how these materials correlated to form this remarkable, lightweight watercraft exemplifies Anishinaabe cultural knowledge.
Birchbark (wiigwaas) serves as the hull or outside covering of the canoe. The canoe builder has to know the right time of the year to harvest the bark. Harvesting the bark at the wrong time of the season can render the bark less durable over time. The canoe builder has to find the trees with the least amount of blemishes and largest diameters. When removing the bark, the canoe builder knows that cutting the tree too deeply can kill the tree. According to birchbark craftsman Melvin Losh of Leech Lake, it takes approximately three years for a birch tree to die from a careless cutting. Special techniques are developed to remove bark from a tree.
Spruce roots (wadabiig) are used to bind the canoe together. The canoe builder knows to look for spruce trees that grew in solitude. Groves of spruce trees yield twisted and entangled roots, but the solitary spruce trees yields long, straight roots just under the soil surface. The roots are trimmed, peeled, split, and stored in water to preserve their flexibility. After stitching onto the canoe, the spruce root bindings harden with drying.
The inner bark of basswood (wiigob) is used to bind the sheets of birchbark together. The inner bark can be peeled off into thin, wide strips, which are exceptionally strong. These strips also are stored in water until usage.
Cedar (giizhik) is used to make the ribs and frame of the canoe. Cedar is the choice for the frame because of its pliability when soaked and hardness when dry. The cedar is boiled until pliable and then bent to the contours of the canoe hull. When the cedar is dry, it becomes extremely hard and durable.
To make the canoe watertight traditionally required a mixture of spruce pitch, charcoal, and animal fat that was applied at all of the seams where sheets of birchbark were stitched together. The sealant was painstakingly difficult and time consuming to make, but all of the ingredients worked together to produce a long lasting, watertight seal. Today's canoe builders usually use tar as a sealant.
To ensure that burrowing insects or weathering will not destroy a canoe requires specific knowledge of the nature of the birchbark. In constructing the canoe, the inside skin of the bark is used as the outer covering and the papery, white, outer bark is turned inward. This is done because the inner bark is resistant to water damage, sun exposure, and insect predation.
In the late fall, just before the first snowfall, the Anishinaabe traditionally would sink the canoes, weighting them down with rocks and storing them underneath the ice throughout the winter. Water soaking throughout the wood materials actually preserved the canoe, thus preventing drying and cracking over the following summer. -- MWP