Leader
for today’s Ramble: John Schelhas, recently retired Research Forester with the U.S. Forest Service, whose expertise is the social and cultural dimensions of forest use and conservation, most recently with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
 |
| John discussing Cherokee River Cane basketry |
Authors
of today’s Ramble report: John and Linda. Comments, edits, and
suggestions for the report can be sent to Linda at Lchafin@uga.edu.
Link to Don’s Facebook album for this Ramble. All
the photos that appear in this report, unless otherwise credited, were taken by
Don Hunter. Photos may be enlarged by clicking them with a mouse or tapping on
your screen.
Number
of Ramblers today: 40
Today’s
emphasis: Cultural uses of forest plants of Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the importance of indigenous plant use in forest management.
 |
| Mask carved from a Yellow Buckeye Tree by William Crowe Photo credit: John Schelhas |
Today’s reading:
John read from the preface (page xvi) of M.
Kat Anderson’s book “Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and
the Management of California’s Natural Resources.
University of California Press, 2005. The full text of his reading is found at the end of this report.
Announcements:
Susie Criswell has an exhibit of her paintings entitled “Walking through a Radiant World” at the Tiny ATH Gallery, 174 Cleveland Ave, Athens, on Thursday evening, May 18, 6-9pm. Susie is married to John Schelhas, today’s ramble leader.
Beloved Georgia nature writer and environmental activist, Janisse Ray, will speak at Sandy
Creek Nature Center in honor of the center’s 50-year anniversary. Author of works such as
“Ecology of a Cracker Childhood” and “Wild Spectacle: Seeking Wonders in
a World Beyond Humans,” Janisse will speak outside at the picnic pavilion, so bring a blanket
or lawn chairs. Her talk will be followed
by a reception and an opportunity to speak to her and purchase her books.
Sean
Cameron joined us today to say good-bye. Sean
is leaving next week to take a job as Manager of Data Systems with the Central Park Conservancy, in New York City.
Many of us know Sean from his role as Education Coordinator at the Botanical Garden for the last six
years and also from joining us on rambles. We will all miss him terribly while
at the same time sharing his excitement about this new adventure and wishing him the best in the big city.
Today’s
Route: We
left the arbor next to the Children’s Garden, and took the White Trail spur down to the
power line right-of-way. We walked down the
ADA walkway to the river and took a left on the Orange Trail. Just before the beaver pond, we took a left
on the Purple Trail and walked up to the Herb and Physic Garden, where the
group gradually dispersed.
OBSERVATIONS:
 |
| Yellow Buckeye trees can reach 100 feet in height and 3+ feet in diameter. Photo credit: Jim Lawrence |
We first stopped at a Painted Buckeye shrub. Buckeyes are a genus with five tree and shrub species in the Southern Appalachians. The Athens area, like the rest of Georgia’s Piedmont, has only shrubby buckeyes.The Cherokee use Yellow Buckeye, a Southern Appalachian endemic and the largest of all buckeye species, for carving a variety of items, especially masks. Masks are often colored with natural dyes, paint, clay, or charcoal and may depict horned animals, bear heads, human skulls, heads bearing rattlesnakes, etc. Yellow Buckeye wood is soft with a straight grain that lends itself to carving. They also frequently have spalting (wood discoloration often caused by fungi), which adds character to the wood.
 |
| Although White Oaks make magnificent old trees such as this one, those that are selected by Cherokee basket makers are young trees, usually less than 10 inches in diameter with a straight trunk and no knots. |
We stopped at a White Oak where John explained the importance of White Oak basketry to the Eastern Band, some of whose members are experts in selecting young trees for basket making and have great skill with weaving intricate, hand-dyed patterns. White Oak is the preferred wood for Cherokee and other basket makers in the Southern Appalachians. It splits cleanly along its growth rings, making for thin but strong and flexible strips. Cherokee basket makers dye the wood with a variety of plants, including the black roots of Butternut (a type of walnut) and Black Walnut in the photo below. Basket-making continues to be a very profitable venture for the Eastern Band.
 |
| White Oak purse basket by Betty Maney, with Butternut and Black Walnut dye. Photo credit: John Schelhas |
We next stopped at the edge of the power line right-of-way, where there are several hickories. Hickory wood is used to make sticks for stickball and handles for baskets (along with White Oak); bean bread and chestnut bread (traditional Cherokee foods) are cooked wrapped in hickory leaves.
Stickball
is a popular game and social event among the Cherokee. Once serving as a
way to settle judicial or diplomatic issues, it was called a “medicine
game” and “The Little Brother of War.” It
may still be played to resolve personal disputes. Stickball competitions are an important part of the Cherokee Indian Fair in October. Each player holds one
or two sticks typically made from hickory, the hardest of North
American hardwoods, with a net at one end woven of leather or sinew
strips. “Stickball sticks are made from a single long piece of hickory, without
the bark, that has been split and carved, sometimes up to six feet long.
The stave is soaked in a creek where it softens for several days, and
then bent into shape for the stick. It usually takes 10-15 years for the
hickory trees to grow tall and wide enough for the branches to be
suitable Stickball sticks.“ More information about how the game was played is here.
 |
| Hickory stickball sticks Photo credit: Roger Graham, Cherokee Phoenix |
Our next stop was the River Cane patch along the river in the powerline right of way. Cherokee have used River Cane for baskets and mats for millennia. Baskets were used for gathering wild foods and crops, food preparation, winnowing, storage, and to serve food. River Cane was also used to make blowguns for hunting small game. Darts were made of hardwood or cane. Gary discussed the current state of the River Cane patch along the river, which may need fire or cutting for rejuvenation.
Once
widespread and abundant along southern watercourses, River Cane thickets
called canebrakes have nearly disappeared due to clearing for agriculture and
development, and to invasion by Chinese Privet.There is interest among many tribes and natural resource agencies in restoring this plant community.
 |
| Double-weave River Cane basket dyed with Bloodroot and Butternut by Ramona Lossiah. Photo by John Schelhas |
 |
| Single-weave River Cane basket by Lottie Queen Stamper Photo credit: Western Carolina University photo collections |
This basket was made by
Lottie Queen Stamper (1907-1987), a widely known and respected Cherokee basket maker.
The brown color was derived from Black Walnuts. The design is known as the
Chief’s Daughters or Star on the Mountain. You can see more baskets and images
of Ms. Stamper here.
 |
| River Cane baskets by Eva Wolfe Photo credit: Cherokee Traditions |
These
baskets were made by master basket weaver Eva Wolfe (1922-2004), an
award-winning basket maker. The basket on the right is a double-weave basket; these are
especially useful for storage and, in some cases, are watertight. Bloodroot
rhizome sap was used to create the reddish-brown color and the roots of Butternut
trees the dark brown color. You can see more baskets and images of Ms. Wolfe here.
 |
| Tulip Trees are known for their tall, straight trunks. |
We walked downstream along the Middle Oconee and stopped briefly to look at a Tulip Tree (also known as Tulip Poplar or Yellow Poplar). Tulip trees were felled
by the Cherokee and the trunks hollowed out to make canoes. Their tall, straight trunks and relatively soft wood made
this an easy task. Dragging Canoe was an important and esteemed Cherokee leader in the late 1700s.
 |
| Cut-leaf Coneflower is known to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians as Sochan. It is sometimes called Green-headed Coneflower or Green-eyed Susan because it has green disk flowers and is in the same genus as Black-eyed Susan. It is common in low, wet places and along streambanks. |
Sochan is an important wild food plant to the Cherokee who use it as a spring green. The tips of young leaves are gathered and cooked. Notably, Sochan plants respond to harvest with increased growth and vigor. A recent program allows Cherokee to gather sochan with Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The
leaves and stems of Sochan are
especially nutritious when it comes to minerals, supplying five times more manganese,
twice the zinc, and more phosphorus and copper than kale, and about an equal
amount of magnesium, iron, calcium and potassium. Sochan is usually gathered
from the wild but is easy to grow in moist shady areas. Here is information on harvesting, growing, and cooking
Sochan.
 |
| Sochan in flower photo credit: John Schelhas |
 |
| American Chestnuts Photo credit: American Chestnut Foundation |
Chestnut bread made with the nuts of American Chestnuts was a staple of Cherokee cuisine for centuries. After the American Chestnut was obliterated by the Chestnut Blight, chestnut bread was made from planted Chinese chestnuts. Ground nuts and corn meal are mixed, shaped, and wrapped
in hickory or corn leaves and simmered for an hour, similar to tamales (one recipe here).
 |
| Plate of Cherokee traditional food with chestnut bread in center, mountain salad, ramps, and potatoes at bottom, sochan on right, and bison meatloaf and deer stew at top. Meal prepared by Tyson Simpson, photo by John Schelhas |
Mountain
Salad, a Cherokee cooked salad, is made with three herbs:
Waneeget (Lovage, Ligusticum canadense), leaves,
which have a strong celery-like flavor; Carrot Family.
Uganast (Solomon’s Seal, Polygonatum biflorum),
both rhizomes and stems; Ruscus Family.
Johistky (Yellow Fairy Bells, Yellow Mandarin, Prosartes lanuginosa), young shoots;
Lily Family.
 |
| Mountain Salad plants (left to right): Waneeget, Uganast, and Johitsky. All photos by Janie K. Marlow, Name That Plant.net |
 |
| Ramps is a native onion that grows primarily in the mountains. Its wide leaves emerge in the early spring and wither before the flowers appear in June or later. Photo credit: Janie K. Marlow, Name That Plant.net |
Ramps have long been a staple
food and medicinal herb for the Eastern Band of Cherokees. Traditional Cherokee
harvesting methods calls for removing only leaves and leaving
one leaf per plant and the bulb in the ground to produce more leaves next spring.
 |
|
Wild |
Traditional and updated Cherokee recipes can be found here.
 |
| A short walk uphill from the intersection of the Purple Trail and the Orange Trail, an old, partially toppled Sourwood leans alongside the trail. |
Sourwood is known for its curving, light-seeking
trunks but young branches and root sprouts are arrow-straight. The Cherokees
used the straight stems for arrows and pipe stems.
 |
| Young Sourwood sprout Photo credit: John Schelhas |
Sharp-eyed ramblers spotted some interesting animals today.
 |
| Broadhead Skink |
 |
| Ruby-throated Hummingbird perched at the top of a Purple Smoke Tree |
 |
| Common White Wave Moth |
SUMMARY
OF DISCUSSED AND OBSERVED SPECIES:
Painted Buckeye Aesculus sylvatica
Yellow
Buckeye Aesculus flava
White
Oak Quercus alba
Tulip
Tree, Tulip Poplar Liriodendron
tulipifera
Hickory Carya
spp.
Sourwood Oxydendron arboreum
River
Cane Arundinaria gigantea
Annual
Ryegrass Lolium multiflorum
Southern Crownbeard Verbesina occidentalis
Sochan,
Cut-leaf Coneflower Rudbeckia laciniata
Waneeget, Lovage Ligusticum canadensis
Uganast, Solomon’s Seal Polygonatum biflorum
Johitsky, Yellow Fairy Bells Prosartes lanuginosa
Honewort Cryptotaenia canadensis
Ramps Allium tricoccum
Wild
Onion Allium canadensis
Broadhead Skink Eumeces
[Plestiodon] laticeps
Ruby-throated Hummingbird Archilochus colubris
Common
White Wave Moth Cabera pusaria
Today’s reading: “Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and
the Management of California’s Natural Resources.
University of California Press, 2005.
“The fieldwork involved capturing elders’ memories, their
stories of how the land used to look and feel and how it differed from what one
sees today. I was excited to hear their descriptions of the Old Ways of
relating to nature—especially the management techniques (e.g., burning,
pruning, tilling, weeding, and selective harvesting) that they had learned from
their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents and that they were still
practicing today.
Several important insights were revealed to me as I
talked with elders and accompanied them on plant gathering walks. The first of these
was that one gains respect for nature by using it judiciously. By using
a plant or an animal, interacting with it where it lives, and tying your
well-being to its existence, you can be intimate with it and understand it. The
elders challenged the notion I had grown up with—that one should respect nature
by leaving it alone—by showing me that we learn respect through the demands put
on us by the great responsibility of using a plant or an animal.
Many elders I interviewed said that plants do better when
they gather them. At first this was a jarring idea—I had been taught that
native plants were here long before humans and did best on their own without
human interference—but it soon became clear to me that my native teachers were
giving me another crucial gift of insight. California Indians had established a
middle ground between the extremes of overexploiting nature and leaving it
alone, seeing themselves as having the complementary roles of user, protector,
and steward of the natural world.
I had been reading about how various animals’
interactions with plant populations actually benefited those plants—how grizzly
bears scattered the bulblets of Erythronium lilies in the process of
rooting up and eating the mature bulbs, how California scrub jays helped oaks
reproduce by losing track of some of the acorns they buried—and it seemed
plausible that the many generations of humans in California’s past had played a
similar role. If it was true that native plants did better with our help, it
meant that there was a place for us in nature.
About
halfway into the years of fieldwork, I began to ask native elders, “Why are
many plants and animals disappearing?” Their answers, which always pinned the
blame on the absence of human interaction with a plant or an animal, began to
add up to a third major insight: not only do plants benefit from human use, but
some may actually depend on humans using them.”