On Pollination & Perseverance

For the past four years, Lower Phalen Creek Project has hosted an Annual Pollinator Festival at Wakan Tipi/ Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary to educate, inspire, and engage our urban community members about pollinators and the importance of protecting them! This event - showered in music, food, dance, and pollinator activities - has brought together a wide range of organizations and community groups involved in protecting pollinators and pollinator habitats throughout the Twin Cities. In the past, we have hosted groups like the Monarch Joint Venture, UMN Bee Lab, DNR, Dragon Fly Society, Urban Birding Collective, St.Paul Parks & Rec and more! However, due to the ongoing threat of COVID-19, we had to cancel this year’s Pollinator Festival — but fear not! We’re taking space in this month’s blog to showcase the great work being done across the metro to protect pollinators and create large swaths of attractive and functional pollinator-friendly habitats. 

Culturally Important Pollinator Plants and Beings

Pollinators and pollinator habitats are something that we are deeply passionate about, however, it might not be for the same reason as most. When we enter conversations around pollinators we usually hear the same buzzwords (pun intended!) like “Save the Bees,” “Plant Native Wildflowers,” or “Restore our ecosystems.” These are all incredibly important conversations, but they come with questions: Why do the bees need saving? Who or what destroyed our ecosystems? Who were the original caretakers of these Native plants and how can we learn from their relationships? And when we do restoration work, who is included? Which perspectives do we revere, and which ones do we ignore?

At each Pollinator festival, we talk about these relatives — pollinators and pollinator plants — through a uniquely Dakota perspective. Knowledge passed down to us for centuries tells us that these plants and pollinators each have their own important role in our societies. The bees, monarchs, coneflowers and more are all their own nation — their own community - all with responsibilities to play within in our circle of life. The birds and the plants were among the first nations to teach us humans how to walk and survive in this world. They showed us their medicines and how to use them. They nurture us. And we, in turn, nurture them by never depleting their nations and spreading their seeds, just like our pollinator friends taught us.

As Dakota people we can never really talk about pollinators without talking about how they are medicine. Just like the coneflower is one of our favorite medicines and healers, the dragonfly is like the eagle of the insect nation who brings medicine wherever he goes.

Our relationship to these nations are interwoven with who we are as Dakota people. Our relationship to these plants and pollinator beings are deeply rooted in storytelling, ceremony, medicine, art, and community. The following pictures and descriptions are just some of the ways we relate to these pollinating plants.

Wahíŋheya íphiye

Swamp Milkweed

Our community uses the young seed pods for cooking. An infusion of the roots is used to treat asthma, rheumatism, syphilis, and a weak heart.

A beautiful host plant for monarchs and great nectar sources for bees and beneficials 

Asáŋpi iyátke

Yellow Coneflower

It is said that the cone was sometimes used as a pacifier for babies. A decoction of the whole plant is used as a wash for snakebites. Tea is used to treat chest pains and stomach aches.

A wonderful host plant for bees including sweat bees, digger bees, cuckoo bees, small and large carpenter bees, and bumble bees.

Waȟpe yathápi

Anise Hyssop (agastache foeniculum)

Our community will chew the leaves for their great licorice flavor which can also be added to other foods like cooked meats and fruits. A beautiful tea of the leaves is used to treat colds and fevers, and to strengthen the heart.

A beautiful host plant for honey bee, bumblebee, native bees, hummingbirds, butterflies, skippers and moths.

Thatéte Čhaŋnúŋǧa

Prairie Blazing Star (Liatris Pycnostachya)

During times of famine Dakota people pulverize and eat the roots to improve appetite. The roots are best collected in the early spring when they are still tender, as they get very woody later in the year.

This wonderful plant relative supports bees as well as many butterflies including monarchs, swallowtails, skippers, and sulfurs

Pté Ičhiyuha

Curlycup Gumweed (Grindelia squarrosa)

For community members with severe sicknesses like asthma and/or bronchial symptoms, an infusion of the tops of the plants is used to relieve constricted airways and even help to dry phlegm. (not for those with heart or kidney disorders).

The name “gumweed” refers to the sticky, resinous material that is secreted from the flowers before they open. This species is highly attractive to over 40 species of Native bees.

Ičhápe hú

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea angustifolia)

One of our favorite medicines - the chewed root and its juices are applied to venomous bites and are also applied to burns. The dried, prickly head is used to brush hair. A tea from the root is used to boost the immune system and relieve flu and cold symptoms. Echinacea is also being investigated as a treatment for cancer.

This amazing plant relative is attractive to a wide range of pollinators, and a key nectar source for skippers.

** While we love sharing this knowledge with everyone and anyone who might stumble across our small blog, we want to highlight that these uses and ways of relating to these plant nations come from generations of traditional ecological knowledge followed by the proper spiritual and cultural protocol of our peoples. Please do not go rip up the roots of any native flower that is helping our pollinator relatives - especially if this is not the ways of your people (try to avoid ever pulling up any roots). **

Pollinator Efforts to Follow

Dream of Wild Health

Dream of Wild Health has set out to find out which Native pollinators are doing the "heavy-lifting" by pollinating the crops at our farm.  We are working with entomologist Julia Brokaw from the University of Minnesota to identify them. We have put out sticky traps, and through observation with our teenage Garden Warriors, we are attempting to track the pollinator species.  We are maintaining native pollinators by providing food, habitat--including wintering stems, and water.  We have included a pollinator meadow and native orchard at our farm to encourage native pollinators.  We attempted to sustain bee hives  in the past, and we are thankful that we do not need to "hire" pollinators to support our food production.

Urban Roots

This summer Urban Roots has kept busy while staying safe, employing 10 teen interns to help in restoration efforts at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary along with work at Trout Brook Nature Sanctuary and Pig's Eye Regional Park. There has been a strong focus towards pollinators, with youth helping to manage 3 honey bee hives kept at one of their urban farm sites, participating in a bumblebee survey at Trout Brook, and designing five different pollinator gardens to be installed at the parks they work at in the fall. For an example of a large pollinator garden the youth installed in the past, check out the Sunray Library, where there is a large garden with over 40 different native species on display. Urban Roots staff are also working with an additional 50 teens in an online program where they received activity kits and direction to engage in a mix of activities, with one week focusing on pollinators and encouraging the teens to visit a nearby park and count the number of pollinators in action they see. 

How to Get Involved

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Bee Lab are conducting studies like the one currently underway at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary -- look for the fenced-in bee hives on the western edge of the oak savanna! But you don’t need to be an expert to help protect pollinators in your area. One of the best tools we have for studying pollinators is citizen science. That means you -- yes, you! -- can help identify which pollinators are present throughout a given area, which plants they pollinate, and how commonly they can be found. 

There are many resources and tools to help you simultaneously learn more about pollinators and contribute to important research. One option is the easy-to-use Bumble Bee Watch app, which operates similar to iNaturalist, allowing you to upload photos of bumble bees to a national database, get your photos verified by experts, and view entries from other users across the county. 

The Xerces Society offers a more in-depth program for citizens who want a long-term observation project. The Citizen Science Monitoring Guide for Native Bees is an extensive introduction to observing native bees and other pollinators in a specific area over a period of time. In observing activity in the same site over time, citizen science observations help researchers better understand the dynamics of pollinator habitats. Keep an eye out for opportunities to get trained in this work!

Healing as Environmental Justice

This month, we are feeling scattered. In the midst of a pandemic, as we see our communities’ needs grow day by day, as we see the continued energy and anger at violent systems of oppression, it is difficult to think of our work in compartmentalized ways We feel so fortunate to manage green spaces across the Eastside, and we want our community members to find value and healing in their interactions with these spaces. What follows is a collection of our thoughts and emotions during this time. 

It is no coincidence that the East Side with its high population of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) neighbors have experienced a long history of environmental racism and injustice. It is no coincidence that the railways blasted and destroyed a Dakota sacred site then further contaminated the soil with asbestos and mercury. It is no coincidence that where there are higher pollution levels there are more BIPOC. 

These green spaces that we aim to restore and protect have roots in land theft, dispossession, and anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism. A critical part of restoring ecosystems involves making these spaces accessible, safe, and meaningful for communities who have been historically and currently deprived of their connections to land, water, and wildlife.

The majority of green spaces in this country are curated and managed with white community members in mind. From common recreation activities, to signage, to the notion of who “belongs” in green spaces, communities of color are often made to feel unwelcome or even unsafe.

 Beyond the issue of basic safety or belonging, we recognize that communities of color, and particularly Black community members, are at a high risk of state violence. Green spaces should not be sites of violence or surveillance for people of color.

As a Native-led environmental non-profit, we want to encourage all of our community members to be in relation with our green spaces; to find the rest, joy, and healing that comes with being outdoors; to be able to sit and hear the wind rustle through the leaves of the cottonwoods; to feel the cool and loving embrace of our waterways; to bask in all of the colors and beauty that emerge from our Native plants and flowers. 

Our Uŋči Makha, Grandmother Earth, is here for us at all times, and especially during this time. She nurtures every part of our being, from providing food and water, to holding space for our spirits, in all of their grief, anxiety, joy, and love. It is critical that we are actively anti-racist so that this connection—this relationship—is available to all of our BIPOC community members in a way that provides safety, nurturing, and joy.

Taking care of our environment—and ourselves, and each other—are not separate or exclusive activities. When we fight for our collective liberation, our Uŋči Makha and all of Her non-human kin are included in that fight. Anti-racist work has to be inherently intertwined with environmental justice for our collective liberation to be imagined and realized. We have a beautiful opportunity for this on the Eastside, and we are deeply dedicated to that fight. 

We recognize that this work is about the communities we choose to work with and uplift. To that end, we want to share what others are doing to connect communities of color to green space and our environment in meaningful ways:

• BIPOC Outdoors Twin Cities is a Facebook group created by and for BIPOC community members. The group coordinates events in metro area parks, shares opportunities and resources, and works to build a broader network of BIPOC community members involved in environmental work.

• Free Plants for BIPOC is a community effort to increase access to houseplants for communities of color. Caring for plants indoors is a great way to learn a new hobby, connect to the environment in your own home, and find a small dose of beauty and calm.

On Healing and Sacred Spaces

[Artists Xena Goldman, Greta McLain, and Cadex Herrera painted this mural on the 38th street wall of Cup Foods. The mural shows George Floyd surrounded by the names of other Black men, women, and children killed by police.]

It has been just over three weeks since the Minneapolis Police Department murdered George Floyd. In this short time, our community has proven itself to be powerful, compassionate, and resilient. We have seen countless examples of neighbors working together to provide for each other. The institutions responsible for police brutality and mass incarceration are failing our society, and we are now tasked with reimagining our concepts of justice and community safety. If the food drives, medic stations, neighborhood watches, community conversations, and widespread protests are any indication, we may one day inhabit a world that is truly safe for all of us.

Of all the ongoing community efforts to repair and heal, the creation of a memorial at the very site of George Floyd’s murder is perhaps the most striking. There is often a great deal of trauma and emotional intensity associated with physical sites of violence and dispossession. But to label the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue a sacred space is not to deny the pain and trauma associated with it. Sacred spaces allow communities to name and reclaim what has been stolen from them, and to protect what remains, in the present moment and into the future.

[A resource tent (one of many located around a two-block perimeter of the 38th Street & Chicago Avenue intersection) includes a sign which reads: “This is a sacred healing space for the black and african american community. It is being served by their ally communities and is a holy ground.”]

It is in this way that the declaration of George Floyd’s memorial as a sacred site for the Black community rings true to us. To hear it – the impassioned speeches, the calls to prayer, the jingle dress dancers and drumming – is to know the sounds of a community in mourning. To witness it – the murals flowing across storefronts and fences, the words and artworks covering the pavement, the flowers, candles, and poems laid in tribute – is to see the full force of grief and love and collective memory playing out in real time. 

For many Indigenous communities, sacred sites are one of the few ways to protect cultures that have suffered under colonialist violence and industrialization. In our work at Lower Phalen Creek Project, that means protecting Wakaŋ Tipi, a spring-fed cave sacred to Dakota people which was severely damaged by waves of American industrialization. But we do not merely seek to protect Wakaŋ Tipi from further destruction. To celebrate this place as sacred, it is critical that we restore the surrounding ecosystem and prioritize the relationship between the Dakota people and this place. In this way, we work to address the injustices against land and people and heal them both.

At 38th & Chicago, as is common with sacred sites, there are many visible attempts to make the space beautiful, to make it new, to reclaim the site of violence as one of community. And, of course, the site is contested – visitors come from all over to pay their respects, and community members have recently developed resources and infrastructure to protect the sanctity of the space. A document distributed to many white visitors to the site reads: “This is a space community members want to decentralize white feelings and prioritize Black pain. We ask that you honor the space.” Other efforts highlight the symbolic and restorative power of the space. A garden on Chicago Avenue, built into the curb and lined with a low brick wall, sports orange and yellow flowers, with more plants soon to grow.

[A garden has been installed off of a west-facing curb on Chicago Avenue. Bricks box in orange and yellow flowers with a chrome “BLM” spray-painted on plywood in the background.]

The street sign for Chicago Avenue is covered over with a new name, chosen by the community: George Floyd Avenue. As a Native-led non-profit actively working to protect and restore our own sacred site, we understand the gravity and importance of supporting our Black community members in their efforts to reclaim this site as 38th Street and George Floyd Avenue. And just as it pertains to our sacred spaces, we must remember that although beauty and joy have been birthed out of these spaces, the pain and the grief remains. As such, guests in these spaces should always hold themselves with the utmost humility and respect.

George Floyd’s murder is yet more proof of the brokenness of a world and a society which can never be put back quite right. But the efforts to find healing and power at the site of his death have shown the importance of sacred spaces to communities that have lost so much for so long.

Creating Pollinator-Friendly Gardens

While we aren’t able to enjoy it in all the ways we normally might, spring is in full swing! And here at Lower Phalen Creek Project, we have been finding new ways to connect with each other and with our East Side natural spaces. One of the many great lessons shared by our panelists during our Pezuta Wóiyaksape: Plant Medicine Teachings webinar was the reminder that our plant relatives offer food and medicine to more than just humans. Take dandelions, for example. Every part of the plant is edible and clinical trials have shown numerous health benefits to brewed dandelion root tea. Dandelions are also very pollinator-friendly! Dandelions — and many other wildflowers, shrubs, and trees — provide food and habitat for pollinators like bees, butterflies, and flies, who return the favor by fertilizing the seeds of the plants that feed them.

Did you know that this gorgeous Karner blue butterfly is on the endangered species list, and the only known food source for their larvae is wild lupine (Lupinus perennis)?

Just as plants and pollinators need each other to survive, humans need pollinators and pollinator-friendly plants for our own survival. Over one third of global crop species, and close to 80% of all flowering plants, rely on pollinators. This is one of the reasons why bees were just declared to be the most important species on earth! But right now, pollinators are in danger. Agricultural and urban development, chemical input from pesticides, and other man-made landscape changes have caused widespread habitat loss for pollinators.

In Minnesota (where the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee is our state bee), we have over 450 native bee species! But almost all of these pollinators are at risk of being pushed out of their habitat and going extinct unless we take action. Pollinators need our help, and one of the simplest things we can do is provide them with plants for food and habitat! If you have a lawn, garden, or even a small alley or boulevard strip, you can create an urban refuge that will support pollinators year-round! (Check the rules in your city — boulevard gardens are allowed in the City of Saint Paul.) From early-blooming hawthorn trees, to mid-season shrubs like false indigo, to late summer bloomers like sunflowers, there are many options for creating pollinator-friendly habitats.

Need some resources to get started?

Through June 2nd, the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources is offering $350 in cost-sharing grants to individuals who commit to converting their yards into pollinator-friendly habitats. You can apply for these funds by visiting the Lawns to Legumes website and following the instructions.

For projects that involve larger landscape changes, increase the amount of green space on your property, or require additional planning and assistance, consider applying for a Stewardship Grant from the Capitol Region or Ramsey-Washington Watershed Districts. (Not sure which watershed you’re in? Check each website’s watershed map to find out!)

To help get you started, we are offering free Pollinator Mix seed packs! These seed packs cover 5 square feet and include native grasses like little bluestem and sideoats grama, and wildflowers like butterfly weed, bergamot, sky-blue asters and more! Sign up here to get yours, and thank you for creating critical habitat for pollinators!

Below, check out these blooming chokecherry bushes outside of Powwow Grounds in Minneapolis for a great example of how you can pack beautiful pollinator-friendly plants on a small patch of curbside grass!