ROSACEAE (ROSE FAMILY)
Hawthorn (Crataegus sp.), “mîneˈsagaˈwûnj”. The Flambeau Ojibwe women use the sharp thorns for sewing awls on finer work such as buckskin sewing with sinew.
SALICACEAE (WILLOW FAMILY)
Shining Willow (Salix lucida Muhl.), “azisiˈgobmîc” [its name]. The Flambeau Ojibwe use this bark for their kinnikinnik or native smoking mixture. It is peeled and toasted over a fire and reduced to flakes.
SPHAGNACEAE (SPHAGNUM MOSS FAMILY)
Sphagnum (Sphagnum dusenii C. Jens.), “asaˈgûmîg” [moss]. The Flambeau and Pillager Ojibwe find Sphagnum Moss, shown in [plate 66], fig. 1, readily available. They gather and dry it to make mattresses.
TILIACEAE (BASSWOOD FAMILY)
Basswood (Tilia americana L.), “wigub” [its name]. The tough fibrous bark of young basswood trees furnishes all Ojibwe with ready cordage and string in the woods, but it is also prepared by the women for future use. They strip the bark and peel the outer edge from the inner fiber with their teeth. The rolls are then kept in coils or are boiled and kept as coils until needed, being soaked again when used, to make them pliable. While they have countless uses for this cordage perhaps the most important is in tying the poles together for the framework of the wigwam or medicine lodge, as shown in [plate 46], figure 2. When these crossings of poles are lashed together with wet bark fiber, it is easy to get a tight knot which shrinks when dry and makes an even tighter joint. The bark of an elm or a balsam, cut into broad strips is then sewed into place on the framework with basswood string. In olden times, an oak wood awl was used to punch holes in the bark, but at Leech Lake when they made the writer’s wigwam, as shown in [plate 58], figure 2, they used an old file end for an awl. The writer lived in this new wigwam all the time he was among the Pillager Ojibwe and scarcely a night passed without a group of them visiting him and sitting around the campfire, telling old time stories.