Please join the Rock River Archaeological Society for their upcoming program:

Ethnobotany (EB) is the study of Native American uses and views of plants. It includes plant names, mythology, medicine, food, technology, and utility. Lee Olsen will present collected wild plants of our area in July to demonstrate their uses by ten Wisconsin-Michigan tribes, emphasizing medicines and foods. He will include the problems & joys of revising the translations of tribal names, revealing rediscoveries of plant uses.
Lee Olsen taught Great Lakes EB at UW-M for 30+ years, and has been compiling the complete ethnobotanies for all tribes for our Great Lakes area for the last 50 years. He especially researches the plant language of Algonquian-speaking tribes: Ojibwa (Chippewa), Ottawa, Potawatomi, Menominee, Meskwaki (Fox)-Sauk, Myaamia (Miami)-Illinois, & Cree.

Lee has an Indian basket collection that comprises 500 baskets & artifacts, including Black Ash Sweetgrass, birchbark with spruce root & porcupine quills. They are from Ottawa, Ojibwa, Hocank, & Oneida-Mohawk artisans. He has already donated the Potawatomi artifacts to the Forest Co. Potawatomi Museum. He has also made each type & works with plant dyes & fibers. Lee classifies & photographs wildflowers wherever he travels in the world.