A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
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On my birthday, a few weeks ago, there was one thing I wanted to do and that was to go fishing. It was a really beautiful sunny morning and not too hot. I found a nice spot on the St. Regis River off Cook Rd., and I tried out a few lures. It took a while for me to finally catch a pretty good size bluegill, and shortly after that, I got the surprise of a lifetime! I took off the lure and decided to use a worm. I cast the worm out and after a while I felt something hit my line. As I started to r...
The smallest common, but rarely seen, (arthropod) spider relative found in our homes here in Akwesasne is the pseudoscorpion. They are also known as false scorpions or book scorpions. I remember the first time I saw one I thought it was something I surely didn’t want to share my living space with. It turns out though that the pseudoscorpion is very beneficial to humans because they prey on clothes moth larvae, carpet beetles, booklice, ants, mites, and small flies. They are not always easy to...
When I was a child and lived in Cold Spring, NY, I remember my mother did not like spiders. Then one day she witnessed something that changed her mind about them. The place we lived in was constantly infested with tiny reddish colored ants. No matter what she did they kept coming into the house by the thousands. My mom could not do dishes without some of those ants climbing up her legs and biting her. They even bit her while she sat on the couch and even when she was in her bed. She is allergic...
The Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberus) is a species of sunflower. It is native to North America from the Northeast west to North Dakota and south to Florida and Texas. It is also called sunroot, sunchoke, or topinambur. The sunroot is an herbaceous plant meaning it is a plant with leaves and stems that die off to the soil level at the end of the growing season. Herbaceous plants can be annual (a plant that germinates, flowers, and dies in one year), biennial (a plant that takes two years...
Bullfrogs are one of the “true frogs”. They are usually green to greenish brown, and on average they grow to be about three to six and a half inches in body length. They can weigh up to 1.65 pounds. There are record size bullfrogs that have been as big as eight inches long. With their legs stretched out you can add another seven to ten inches to the above length. They have a broad flat head, and their eyes are gold colored or brown. You can tell the females from the males by their (ty...
There are more than 3,500 species of wild bees in North America. Honeybees are herbivores - meaning they eat only plant materials. Many Native American Indians used honey and other bee by-products as medicine and food long before Europeans brought their honeybee “Apis Mellifera,” to America in the seventeenth century. Many still use honey and beeswax. Dictionaries have the spelling of honeybee as one word; however, entomologists use the two-word name, honey bee. You can safely use either one,...
I remember when I was a youngster; my brother and I would run under and around our maple trees and chase after polypodys. As the wind blew, they flew like helicopters from the trees around our home. I looked up polypodys on the Internet, but what I found was nothing like the things we called polypodys. I found they are actually called samaras or maple keys. Some people call them helicopters or whirligigs while others call them polynoses. Perhaps that is why I called them polypodys. A samara is...
Can you imagine what it would be like to emit a chemical that would make a house grow around you? Well, insects can do just that! The houses the insects build are called galls. Galls are growths on leaves, stems, and the twigs of many different plants that are caused by irritation, damage or a chemical secretion that comes from insects while they are laying their eggs. Aphids and sawflies are the main insects that cause galls, but some moths, beetles, nematodes, psyllids, and true bugs als...
Springtime is such a glorious time of the year. Spring’s arrival brings with it such things as beautiful flowers, singing birds, and delicate butterflies for each of us to watch and enjoy. The first butterfly you see, however, may not be a butterfly. The small white flitting butterfly like one you see in early spring is not a butterfly at all. It is a White Cabbage moth. They are not, as one may think, a pest. They actually are more interested in the nectars they can find. Cabbage root mag...
Spring is such a wonderful time. There are flowers just about everywhere. I took a morning walk on Mother’s Day with my Mom in a local moist wooded area, and what we saw was beyond words to describe. The flowers were absolutely breathtakingly beautiful, as are all of the flowers coming up around many of the homes here in Akwesasne. Watching plants has a long tradition in world history. In 1750, a Swedish scientist and artist Linnaeus began the system of plant phenology. Plants were assigned b...
I love all birds, but I have to say the Winter Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) is at the top of my favorites list. It is the smallest wren in North America. It measures 3.25 inches from the tip of its thin, pointed bill to the tip of its tail., and has a 5 to 6 inch wingspan. There is a dull band over its eye, but it is a light brown and does not stand out like a white band would. The rest of its body goes from gray-brown to browns with black bars on its wings, back, and tail. The sexes l...
The word fungus comes from the Latin word, fungus, which means mushroom. Fungi occur in every environment in the world. Fungi’s major role in the environment is as a decomposer. They play an important and critical role. Along with bacteria, fungi play an indispensable role in nutrient cycling. It is believed that there are at least 1.5 million species, yet, to date, taxonomists have formally identified only 70,000 fungal species. Each has its unique purpose. Every thing on Mother Earth...
The origin of English bird names is quite interesting. Early naturalists and scientists who came to America named birds in North America. Most of the birds they saw here looked like but were not the same as the birds from their homelands. Although we, Haudenosaunee, have names of our own for the many species of birds, for Europeans coming to Turtle Island in the first half of the century, these same birds were being discovered by them for the very first time. At that time naturalis...
By Barbara Gray Did you know that dogs are related to wolves? Even your tiny miniature poodle, the dachshund, and the pug had wolf ancestors. The Inuit have a story about an elder who had to try to survive alone in extreme cold weather, so she turned into a wolf. Other tribes in the west honor the wolf as a spiritual animal. The medicine societies of the Makah and Quilete Indians perform wolf dances to heal the sick. There are two main species of wolves: The Grey Wolf (Canis Lupus) k...
As human beings, we have a responsibility to live according to our original instructions given to us by the Creator. We were given ways to live in balance with the entire Natural World, which include many things such as ceremonies and ways to conduct our daily lives. As we walk upon Mother Earth, we need to always keep in mind our duties and live our lives the best we can, while trying to make the world a better place for the next generations to come. Each one of us can work towards mak...
My most memorable experience with birds happened when I was 10 years old. My mother heard about a woman who lived on top of East Mountain next to our house. This woman was known as the Bird Lady of Cold Spring, N.Y. When we arrived, the house was like a storybook cottage. There was every kind a bird feeder everywhere you looked. One tree had oranges and apples attached to it as treats for the birds, while another held suet, and yet another held hummingbird feeders. Wooden feeders with mi...
Gathering maple syrup is an ancient and still practiced Haudenosaunee tradition. There is a special ceremony, prior to sap collection, it is a tobacco burning that gives thanks and asks that the people be protected from falling branches as they walk beneath the tree. Maple is the leader of trees and plays an important role in our culture. The maple tree’s sap is a medicine, a spring tonic. The process and timing of tapping for maple syrup depends solely on Mother Nature. The best time t...
Our local radio airwaves are playing public service announcements bringing awareness to the difference between our sacred Oionkweonweh (tobacco) (Nicotiana rustica) and tobacco such as (Nicotiana tabacum), which is grown commercially. Tobacco grown for cigarettes and chew, Nicotiana tabacum, commonly known in the south as Bright Leaf or Burly tobacco is a different species than our native tobacco. Nicotiana tabacum has white tubular flowers tipped with pink. The leaves are big and long. Oio...
The Ruffed Grouse is a bird of the northern woodlands. It lives in 38 states and 13 Canadian provinces. It measures about 12 inches in length and weighs between 1 to 1 3/4 pounds. It is well known for its courtship drumming and explosive take-off when it hears someone or something approaching. Their name comes from the male’s concealed neck ruff that is displayed during courtship. The name of our territory, Akwesasne, is named after this bird’s drumming courtship ritual. Akwesasne trans...
If you like to snowshoe or if you have always wanted to try, this is the winter to enjoy this experience. I remember the first time I put on my first pair of snowshoes. They were bear paw snowshoes. When I first put them on, I felt so awkward in them. I wondered how anyone could enjoy snowshoeing. I sure was wrong. A friend, who had “made tracks on the snow” many times, gave me some pointers. As soon as my snowshoes hit the snow, it was an enjoyable and exhilarating experience. It is hard to explain, but it felt really good to be walkin...
Passing on Knowledge through traditional ecological knowledge is the way our native ancestors have kept alive the Original Instructions given to us by the Creator. I remember my Tota telling me when I was really very young that when you could see the white undersides of a tree’s leaves, it was going to rain within several hours. When I see the whitish undersides of leaves, I think of the rain my Tota predicted, and it has never to this day failed to happen. Before the technology to predict weather was developed, people had to rely on obser...
I can remember looking at the frost on the windows when I was very young. Sometimes I would etch my own designs into the ice on the windows with my fingernails, but nothing I did was as intricate as those beautiful ice designs on the window. All I got was scratchy lines and a very cold fingertip. My mother, when she saw the frost on the window, would say, “Jack Frost was here again.” I think Jack Frost painted the windows is something we have all heard of at one time or another. So, who is Jack Frost? Jack Frost is a figure from folklo...
The following are some facts about snowflakes. You will see the words snowflake and snow crystal mentioned in the facts below. In actuality a snow crystal has six sides and is small, and a snowflake is made from several six-sided crystals stuck together. Often though, a snow crystal is called a snowflake and a snowflake is called a snow crystal. 1. We have all heard the saying, “there are no two snowflakes that are alike”. Most of us, however, do not know that the saying is attributed to Wilson A. Bentley (1865-1931). Bentley lived in...
There is a rare phenomenon that occurs in the winter, and if you are lucky, you may get to see “snow rollers”. Snow rollers are so rare many professional meteorologists may never, for their entire life, see them. Snow rollers occur when strong winds blow across flat, snow crusted covered fields where the new snow cannot stick. The just right temperature for this phenomenon is near 32 degrees. At this time, snow is easily compacted. About an inch or so of loose, wet snow must accumulate, an...
Occasionally when one looks up into the night sky here at Akwesasne, they may capture a glimpse of shimmering curtains of lights dancing in the sky. I remember one late August some 30 or more years ago when I first saw these lights here at Akwesasne. It was a most beautiful sight, and it is very hard to find words to explain this most amazing celestial phenomenon. What I saw was varying shades of red curtain-like wispy shapes flickering ever so brilliantly in the sky. My tota told me that what I was seeing was where our ancestors enter...
