Day 11

 July 18th

Location: Tribal Native Plant Nursery and Tamástslikt Cultural Institute

 

We met Gail at the nursery today. The Nursery was opened in 1994 and was originally for non-profit… but due to personnel changes had become a “for-profit” and was not very successful, so they are working on making it only for restoration work once again. The organization has been partnered with the Wildlife Program since 2004. A lot of the information being given to us during this trip I already knew of or had learned from my parents but there were some things that they do that I had not heard of. She mentioned using snow cover for insulating plants which I thought was interesting. My mom in her garden insulates her plants for the winter but we would cover them in fallen leaves or other natural plant debris so they would make it through the winter. I also learned that some seeds require rough treatment in order to mimic nature by grinding them up against sandpaper. One of the plants they grow there is called Cascara. It grows a natural laxative in its roots and is still used today for pharmaceutical companies as they have not been able to find a synthetic one that work as well. We helped today doing trimmings and planting of 9-bark. Lastly, we visited the Tamástslikt Cultural Institute which was interesting but I would also like to learn about my own cultural background. The information at the museum I had learned about previously in different settings but seeing the collection of items they had was new to me as I had never actually seen traditional clothing and tools in person before. They also had a section in the museum where they temporarily display items for around three months, if I remember correctly.