(Kahbe nagwi wens – Old Wrinkled Meat)
Died February 6, 1922 at 137 Years Old.
The health and well-being of the community was of prime importance to the Chippewa (Ojibwe, Ojibway), and a number of techniques and uses of plants were used to prevent and cure various illnesses.
By the mid 1920s many of the pre-reservation era elders of the tribes with plant usage and traditional knowledge were nearing the end of their lives. Due to the culturally oppressive reservation system, the forced drafting of Chippewa men into U.S. Military Service, and the mass removal of Chippewa children into Boarding Schools the Elders were not passing traditional knowledge to younger members.
Realizing the culture of the Chippewa may disappear due to U.S. Governmental Policy, Botanist Huron Herbert Smith completed fieldwork among the Indian tribes of the Chippewa. He recorded the native name and use for the 1,600 plants he collected.
Read: Ethnobotany of the Chippewa