Guest Blogger: Arthur Haines - How Being Healthy Protects Drinking Water

Once again I have the honour of welcoming my good friend Arthur's words onto this blog. In the near future I will be interviewing Arthur on the Living the Thirteen Moons Podcast. If you wish to know more about him, check out the Delta Institute of Natural History, or his Youtube Channel.  The reason I wanted this on my blog is three-fold. The first and foremost reason is because I care about water quality, for both us and the environment itself. This reason is enough for me to want this sort of knowledge on here. However I also work at a wonderful program called TRACKS Youth Outreach, which focuses on teaching Native and non-Native youth about science, especially environmental science. You can find us on Facebook here. We have been teaching a lot about water health and what our people in Western culture can do to protect the water that is on this big, beautiful planet. This is another good reason to pass on this information regarding water health. Finally, with the recent proceedings here in Canada, we have lost a lot of fundamental protection for our lakes, rivers and streams. It is up to us now as citizens to do our part to take care of our waterways. This again is a fundamental reason as to why this article is vital for our continuing survival, not to mention our current environment's. So a big big miigwetch to Arthur Haines, and without further adieu...

How Being Healthy Protects Drinking Water

First, let’s build awareness of the issue: pharmaceutical drugs (among other chemicals) are routinely detected in public drinking water supplies here in the United States. One of the primary sources of these drugs is people--specifically, those who use pharmaceutical drugs. When you use a drug (prescription or over-the-counter) some of that drug passes un-metabolized through your body and is excreted into the septic system. Those drugs then enter the ground water or sewer systems (depending on where you live) and ultimately end up in the bodies of wild animals or in the bodies of people (especially if you live in an area with waste water treatment facilities that recycle water for drinking). So, to summarize this paragraph, many people in metropolitan areas (and some people in rural areas) are being exposed to low, constant doses of antibiotic, antifertility, pain-relieving, and mood-altering medications. Even aquifers have been found to be contaminated by synthetic medicines.

The amount of these drugs in the public water system is low (it would be described as trace). That has led many water suppliers to claim there is no harm caused by the presence of these compounds. However, no test has shown that exposure is safe (especially in the long run) and some recent research finds that harm is being caused. Remember that most medicine is to be taken for a short time and then discontinued. But when you get low doses in your drinking water, you are constantly exposed to a myriad of chemicals--in one review, 63 drugs were found during testing in watersheds around cities and 56 of those were in the public water supply. These low dose medicines in the water have been shown to slow growth of human embryonic kidney cells, speed cancer cell proliferation, and alter blood cell activity. Further, there is evidence that adding chlorine, a common component of urban drinking water, makes the pharmaceutical drugs more toxic. There is no doubt that some wildlife species are being affected. For example, male fish in some areas are being feminized.

So, what do you do about this? Well, you may decide to drink only spring water. That would protect you and your family (note: your home filtration system was likely not designed to remove trace amounts of pharmaceutical drugs). But what about those people who can’t afford bottled water? And what about the other-than-human-persons we share this world with? This is a case where we need to be unselfish. Drugs in the water supply are going to come back to harm us. What if your child lives or one day moves to a metropolitan area and becomes exposed to these compounds? The solution for this dilemma is that we need to be healthier. We need to ingest fewer drugs, wash and adorn ourselves with more eco-friendly products (because those end up in the water as well), and even consider what our toilet paper is doing to the world (recycled paper contains Bisphenol-A, an endocrine disruptor, which also ends up in the water supply).

Regardless of your diet and lifestyle, most people will become ill and be in need of medicine at some point in their life. This is where I encourage people to turn to natural products, even better, those medicines that they gather from the landscapes around their homes. These plants and fungi are ever present in the ecosystem. They are eaten by animals (who excrete them into the environment). They decay in the fall, releasing minerals and various natural compounds. They are all around us, in the leaf litter and in the ground water, and anyone who spends time in the outdoors is constantly exposed to them. Based on what we know, constant exposure to wild plant phytochemicals has a role in generating health (so long as toxins are avoided). Hypothetically, if I were to ingest staghorn sumac for an infection, I would ultimately be excreting chemicals that are already found in the watershed (where I gathered them in the first place). There is no introduction of new or synthetic compounds. No need to gain resistance to novel drugs. No need to worry about the secondary impacts.

Being healthy is the primary way we protect our water supplies from pharmaceutical drugs. Using natural medicine is the second line of defense. Of course, the over-arching principle here is that we need to be aware of what our actions do to the world (and the many ways that poor health hurts everyone, not just the person afflicted with the ailment). Remember: humans did not weave the web of life, they are merely a strand in it. Whatever humans do to the web, they do to themselves (adapted from Chief Seattle).

Wild Rice, the superfood of the Ojibway

Now in my last blog, I discussed the importance of wild rice in the seasonal aspect. However in this blog, I want to break down the nutrition and value you can get from Zizania/wild rice/manomiin.

But first, I suggest you watch this video, done by Daniel Vitalis and my good friend Arthur Haines!

 

The next few links are from the USDA regarding the full reports on both raw and cooked wild rice, and the nutrition you can receive from this grain, that is gluten free and has such a dense amount of beneficial nutrience!

The Raw Wild Rice Report

The Cooked Wild Rice Report

This should really give you some good insight as to why Manomin is so valuable!

Alright, that's all for now folks. I will have a new blog out soon with some wild rice recipes!!

 Hope you enjoy my personal experiment. If you feel like joining along, let me know your results, research or anything else in the comments section. Please feel free to subscribe!

Baamaapii,

Caleb Wazhusk

The Ricing Moon, a small slice of history, plus other available resources.

As I stood in awe after watching a flock of nearly one hundred Canada geese fly over me on my way to the university today, I realized it was a new moon. They reminded me it was their time now. Time of the Ricing Moon!

August in my language is called Manominiika Giizoonh, and in other dialects Manoomiiniikaa Giizis, and in others it simply is called Manomin Giizis. The shorter one translates into The Wild Rice Moon. However the other titles refer to the action of harvesting the wild rice. Simply translated, August is the Ricing Moon. Wild rice (Manomin, Zizania aquatica, etc) was and still is an extremely imporant food staple for the Anishnaubeg, and really for all humans. Being very rich in protein, dietary fibre and even lysine. For those of us trying to avoid glutens, rest easy as manomin has none. Along with thiamin, iron, riboflavin, niacin, manganese and countless other important dietary resources, manomin is also very low in fat. It was/is for the Anishnaubeg what the Three Sisters (Maize, Beans and Squash) were/are for the Haudenasaunae (Iroquois, Six Nations). 

Manomin actually comes from two root words that do not actually translate into "Wild Rice". "Min" usually is the word used to describe a fruit, seed or other foodsource from a plant. "Mano", comes from "Manoo", which in turn originated as "Mnidoo", which many people call "Manitou" or "Spirit". So translated, Manomin actually means Spirit Fruit, or in more poetic terms, "Seed/Fruit the Spirits gave us". In the Seven Fires Prophecy, the Anishnaube were told that the third stopping place (Third Fire) would be identified by food growing on the water. When the Anishnaube arrived in this part of the country, they found acres upon acres of wild rice sticking out of the mud and up into the waters of the shallow lakes and large marshes. Food grew upon the water and the Anishnaube prospered for millenia.

We would spend several weeks, to a month in the ricing fields. First the people would divide up the wild rice areas between the families equally. These families would often stake out their respected areas with family markers to help make sure no one made a mistake and gathered more than others. In a canoe, the person in the bow (the front for you land-lubbers) would sit reverse and using two cedar rods would bend over a patch of the rice with one rod and then tap that rod with the other rod. This way the wild rice stalks would not be damaged from direct percussion. As well, several seeds would often cling tenaciously to the stalks from this technique. Rather than try to shake those ones loose, the harvester would merely let go of the stalks, which would often end up catapulting these remaining seeds off into the water, to be seeded for next year. This is the most efficient form of aquaponic farming I have ever seen, and its' thousands of years old!

Often my people, the Mississauga Anishnaube would take our surplus and trade to the Haudenasaunae on the southernmost shore of Rice Lake. We would trade our surplus for their surplus parched maize, dried beans and fresh squash. This was a varied diet for both nations, and through this friendship, we continued the ancient rites of the One Spoon, One Dish Wampum Belt- a very very old contractual treaty between all Nations in Ontario and beyond regarding the using of resources and food supplies which was honoured by all Nations up until the French Indian Wars.

However this moon -like many others- is called by several names within the Anishnaubeg. The other common title is Basikwa'o Giizoonh, or Flying Moon, or Moon with much Flight. This refers to what I mentioned at the beginning of this blog; birds taking flight all over the land. The Canada geese, mallard ducks, swans, herons and cranes are all warming up and getting their young ready for the long migration. By the middle of the month, many of the northern birds will have arrived in our part of the country. By Gashkanido Giizoonh (November, Freezing Moon) very few will remain, and by Mnidoo Giizoonh (Spirit Moon, December) only the winter birds will remain.

This shows a very important feature of the Ricing Moon. The people would all be spending their days in the marshes and shallow lakes, gathering hundreds of pounds of manomin, and watching the birds fly by. This was the time of year the goose and duck hunts would begin. Large nets, bolas, and even arrows with Flu-flu fletching would be cast out to capture the birds. Snares placed along the shores of the islands would entrap the birds as they waded to shore for a night's rest, or returned to the waters in the morning. The feathers would be removed (down used to warm bodies, flight feathers ued as fletching on arrows), and the meat would be smoked and preserved. Fat would collected and used in cooking/basting.

This was a time of great feasting, but it was also a time to prepare for the long haul through the winter. The ricing camps represented life. Warfare would cease during the French Indian Wars, just so the Anishnaube could go home and harvest enough manomin to provide for their families. Life was found in ricing and goose hunting. This was a time of great living for the Anishnaubeg. Everything was shared. The people would survive another winter.

Other foods available right now?

-Mayapples are now ripe in many parts of Ontario and beyond
-Wild Grapes are ripening all over the place
-Wild grass and sedge seeds are getting ready, as are the seeds of the Broadleaf plantain
-Walnuts are dropping left-right-and-center. The husks are in my opinion more useful than the nutmeat, as it can be used as a dye, a source of tanning leather, a fish poison, a remedy for poison ivy and bug bites, and even in some forms as an anti-parasitic compound to dispell worms and other bugs from the digestive system.
-Many more that I will be going over as the month progresses!

I will be harvesting wild rice later this month, and as September rolls around, I will be preparing for mornings of hunting down goose and duck.

On August 18th-19th I will be at the Lang Pioneer Village War of 1812 Re-enactment, participating in the re-enactment as one of my ancestors. The Missisaugas of Rice Lake were involved in a great skirmish, and this year we are being honoured for the first time in over 200 years for our contribution to that war. Come on out and see the show!

Hope you enjoy my personal experiment. If you feel like joining along, let me know your results, research or anything else in the comments section. Please feel free to subscribe!

Baamaapii,

Caleb Wazhusk

Guest Blogger: Arthur Haines, on the science of Jewelweed.

When I was growing up and learning traditional wilderness skills, I kept being told I had to check out MPSS, or Maine Primitive Skills School. When I finally figured out Google, I typed in those four words, and suddenly I was seeing people doing the skills that I loved to do, and making a living at it. These guys weren't just talking about living with traditional skills in their lives, but they were doing it. It was really the inspiration that started my career as an instructor.

Over the years I have followed along with their videos on Youtube, and other subjects, and two people kept coming to light. The first was Mike Douglas, the founder of the school, and the other was a gentleman named Arthur Haines. I have gotten to know both of them over the internet, and I can tell you, these guys deserve a great deal of respect for what they have preserved for future generations. whose runs the Delta Institute of Natural History, where he works diligently to reverse Human Domestication. On his very cool Youtube channel I have watched Arthur discuss exactly what I said earlier in my Introductions blog regarding the Paleo-Diet and the inaccuracies. To be honest, Arthur's clear and educated explanations were one of the main reasons I decided to return to the Thirteen Moons Calendar as a diet guide. Arthur came upon my blog, and was interested in helping shed some light into the subject I discussed in my blog about the Seasonal Food of the Raspberry Moon, regarding Jewelweed's use against poison ivy. So, without further adieu, here is a very interesting, eye-opening article regarding the science behind how Jewelweed can be used to combat poison ivy, by Arthur D. Haines.

"Species of poison-ivy, poison-sumac, and poison-oak are members of the genus Toxicodendron, which means “poison tree”. These woody plants have received this name because they contain an irritating organic compound called urishiol. Urishiol causes the familiar, itchy rash after contact with the leaves and stems of these plants. It is believed to bind to specific receptor sites on the skin. Of note is that urishiol is alcohol soluble (i.e., it is difficult to wash it off the skin with water alone; soap or some kind of soap-like substance is needed).

Enter touch-me-not (Impatiens spp.). These plants with showy, bee-pollinated flowers are also called jewelweed because the leaves take on a silvery sheen when placed underwater. Touch-me-nots are also well-known for their fruits—a capsule that explosively dehisces when touched to project its seeds some distance from the parent plant. This trait has given rise to the Passamaquoddy name apuckolotukkuwewossok, which means “little one that flips upside-down”, a reference to the fruit.

Touch-me-nots contain a red pigment in their vegetation called lawsone. Lawsone is particularly effective at helping to treat recent contact with poison-ivy, because this phytochemical binds to the same receptor sites as urishiol. Beneficially for us, lawsone is more aggressive at binding to these sites on our skin and doesn’t cause an allergic reaction. Therefore, if the crushed stems (which yield the sap) of touch-me-not are applied to areas that have had recent contact with poison-ivy, the lawsone protects us from getting the rash. Two items to note: (1) touch-me-not is best used to prevent the rash from ever occurring, as it has a protective effect for our skin and (2) the most potent parts of the plants are those with obvious red coloration (these are usually near the base of the plants and along the stem where leaves and branches are produced).

Once you have a rash caused by poison-ivy, the effectiveness of touch-me-not is reduced, because it is best used to protect us from ever getting the rash (I’ve been hours after contact with poison-ivy and still prevented the rash from occurring using touch-me-not). It may be best at this point to switch to some type of astringent remedy. Astringents are plants that contain compounds that cause contraction of tissue, which is useful for alleviating inflammation. By reducing the swelling caused by the rash, the itchiness is reduced. Plants containing astringent compounds include sweet-fern (Comptonia peregrina), northern red oak (Quercus rubra), and staghorn sumac (Rhus hirta). By making a strong tea from the inner bark and/or branchlets and applying a cloth soaked with this tea, one can help reduce the discomfort caused by the rash."