Join us Wednesday September 17, at 7pm for our Rock River Archeology Society Meeting. All programs are free and open to the public.  The meeting is open to the public and is held at the Horicon Marsh Education and Visitor Center located at N7725 Highway 28, Horicon, WI.

Introducing upcoming presenter Lee Olsen who will be presenting on Native American Ethnobotany in basketry, birch-quillwork, & fibers.

Lee will be brining examples of baskets & porcupine quillwork of Upper Great Lakes Tribes (Ojibwa, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Mohawk-Oneida, Dakota, & Ho-Chunk). Lee will demonstrate the different styles & uses of ash baskets & quill boxes, and the wonderful plant materials that are used. He will demonstrate the intricate preparations and designs that add to the beauty of these artistic creations.

Lee Olsen taught Great Lakes Indian Ethnobotany at UW-Milwaukee since 1977. His Anthropology MS degree in archaeology emphasized Paleoethnobotany (early agriculture and plant use in Wisconsin). Lee is presently compiling the complete Ethnobotanies (EB) of twelve tribes of our area. His specialty is interviewing native elders to explore meanings of plant names.

Lee has collected Native American baskets of our area for 40 years. His collections comprise about 500 artifacts of Black Ash, Ash with Sweetgrass, coiled Sweetgrass, and Birchbark with Spruce root. The collection also includes 100s of porcupine quillwork boxes on birchbark. Most baskets are from Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Ho-Chunk artisans. Lee has also made each type & has worked with natural dyes & fibers.