Zaagkii Wings & Seeds Project
Butterfly homes were built by local youth.
Seeds project gives local youth an opportunity to accomplish critical botany tasks.
Pollinators are declining in numbers and even disappearing in some areas - and they are very important to life on earth as we know it. The contents on our dinner table lead us to the conclusion that, "All flesh is grass" (Isaiah 40.6-8). Indeed, with the exception of grasses, 80 percent of the earth's plants are reliant on insect pollination to get seed or produce fruits.
Zaagkii is an Ojibwa word meaning "the earth's gift of plants" according to Rev. Jon Magnuson, the Executive Director of the Cedar Tree Institute. The Zaagkii Wings & Seeds Project is in the first phase of a three-year project sponsored by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community; Cedar Tree Institute, the Marquette County Juvenile Court, and the Eastern Region.
Local youth have learned, accomplished, and contributed much during this first year: construction of 18 butterfly houses; learning visits to a local beekeeper; hand harvest of locally native seed resulting in 26,000 native plant plugs grown and outplanted to several acres at the KBIC's Sand Point Trail. (This section of Lake Superior shoreline was the first tribal Brownfield cleanup site in the Midwest.) Their combined efforts totaled 720 volunteer hours.
Youth were recognized for their fine work in pollinator awareness and protection at the 30th annual Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Maawanji'iding Pow- wow this past July. They were also honored in July at the Cedar Tree Institute annual barbecue. The group raised a six-foot monarch butterfly above the pavilion to represent the effort.
Indian Country Today, the largest Native American newspaper in the country, ran a two-part series on the Zaagkii Wings & Seeds Project.