A Gift to Akwesasne-a Herbarium Cabinet

On Saturday, August 2, community members and visitors to Ahkwesahsne witnessed the delivery of a Herbarium Cabinet. It will be housed at the Akwesasne Library and Cultural Museum for the public to utilize.

The herbarium cabinet was purchased by Dale Bellisfield and Nancy Slowick as a result of a proposal written to the “Seventh Generation”. The Seventh Generation is an environmental organization from Vermont. On their behalf, the cabinet was donated to the Tree of Peace Society Learning Center.

Over the years, Dale and Nancy have been collecting plant specimens. This has been a huge and unselfish endeavor on their part. They began working on this in 1998 and together they have compiled all the specimens along with their common and family names. It also contains their scientific names and medicinal uses. Eventually someone from the Akwesasne community can label the plants in Kanien’ké:ha (Mohawk).

The herbarium cabinet is now filled with 142 specimen samples from 56 different families. They are being preserved in sleeves and each has their I.D. on it. This cabinet can safely store the samples for 100 years. This is one of the ways in which our culture and language can be kept alive.

Having all this information about plants being useful for medicinal purposes is very valuable to our community. It can also be very useful for students of any age who want to learn more about the gifts of Creation.

With much thanks to the Seventh Generation and to Dale and Nancy who have helped our community with this wonderful gift. You can be assured that the cabinet and contents will be very useful to many