Giizhigaa'aandakaabo, Cedar tea

I just wanted to chime in real quick and just say how amazed I am at how quickly knowledge got out there.. my Facebook is FULL of amazing shares.
Three of the knowledge's that best support us through this and why:
Mshkikiiwaabo (Medicine Tea) We will talk about Cedar, Labrador and Chaga
Pkwenezagan (Smoke medicine)
Chewing different medicines like spruce gum or Wiikeh (sweet flag, ratroot, calamus)
Giizhigaa'aandakaabo, Cedar tea (eastern white cedar, Thuja occidentalis).
The most powerful of the three being good ol cedar tea. This is going to stimulate our lymphatic system which is absolutely crucial! Your lymphatic system is what is responsible for transporting important parts of your immune system. When your lymphatic system is stimulated, it is faster, more efficient and juss. rull. deadleh. lol

See how cedar looks exactly like what it is designed to heal!

Our bodies are a warzone!

What eventually kills the virus that will infect us are these little proteins called antibodies (think, bullets.) Obviously it would be nice to have more of these flyin around.. Antibodies are created and delivered by white blood cells called lymphocytes (think, soldier.) We know what happens when we have more soldiers right?
Someone drinking cedar tea will have, on average, 7X more lymphocytes, that's 7X more soldiers! Consequentially they will have much more antibodies, some studies indicate 300% more, thats 300% more bullets!! This in combination with a stimulated super-fast lymphatic transportation system.. Oh man! This is like going from travelling in Ontario in a rusty '04 subaru to 7 of you all having your own fighter jet! lol.. Our little soldiers are going to be able to travel around and cover so much more area, deliver so much more antibodies and severely increase our chances of and speed at which we dominate the virus.

IMO, Giizhigaa'aadakaabo, cedar tea, is the most powerful intervention our great lakes are able to provide.
Mshkiigobagawaabo, Labrador tea (and chaga)

Labrador tea

Labrador tea is great too, I mean, insulin inhibits, or turns off, so many different aspects of our immune system. Think of it this way, when you have insulin your immune system cant see, like no cell signal in thick fog or snow squall style, when it cant see or communicate but STILL knows you are sick it basically panics and throws out a ton of cytokines attracting neutophils and killer t cells that start killing EVERYthing even normal healthy cells. This is the point where you are so sick your immune system is quite literally killing you. not good. You need to keep things clear, 5 bars of signal and blue skies! Keeping insulin levels low is going to really increase our recovery time and decrease the severity of the infection. You have an insulin response after eating ANYthing, carbs and sugars will spike the highest levels of insulin, proteins and fats will cause a very minute insulin response. Labrador tea helps keep your immune system stay on and active! It gives you the ability to pee out extra sugar (SGL-1&2 inhibitor) gives your muscles the ability to gobble gobble up a ton of sugar, dramatically lowering the requirement of insulin (stimulating GLUT-3&4, AKT pathways) Labrador tea basically does so so soooo so many different things that leave your body in a state where it requires less insulin. Less insulin means your immune system is not sleeping all the time.. Chaga basically encourages the exact same dealio but through different mechanisms..

Processing chaga with the best
people

There are so many other ways to keep insulin levels low though, like you can have all the medicine in the world but if you on the couch still eatin pop, chips and pasta with weiners you gunna be in rough shape. Let me speak from my personal practices for a moment. For my work I have to be travelling and teaching all over the place, if I get sick, I am such a man-flu kinda guy.. I cant work! So what I did was a ton of research learning how to hack the system so I dont get sick, and when I do get sick I get better so fast I don't even feel it, This is how I keep my insulin levels LOW and keep them there: not eating. lol.. but for realz, Fasting, both prolonged and Intermittent fasting, best way to keep insulin levels low and when I do eat its once a day, one small insignificant little insulin spike (not 15) and eating foods that cause the least insulin, either ketogenic or carnivore.

A day In the life of though goes something like this: Black coffee in the morning, stretches and a 20min cold COLD shower, a ton of water filled with electrolytes, teach all day (now its cleaning) till 4 or 5pm break my fast with 45 minutes of intense cardio and a 30minute sauna that has to be 90 degrees Celsius or above have a ketogenic or carnivore meal, sleep 9hrs. Enough about me though..
Mild physical exercise is so important, simply walking and making sure we are moving consistently throughout the day has been keeping us sane, but also really lowering insulin levels keeping our immune system working in tip top shape. FYI our lymphatic system moves when we move, if we do not move our lymphatic system doesn't move. Stay away from intense physical exercise though. Upon infection you are going to want to be partitioning energy and nutrients to your immune system and not tissue repair.. make sense?
So basically just understand your recovery is going to be different if you are eating for health, moving throughout the day, drinking medicine teas. Dont lay around watchin news and netflix all day and slowly eating through a ton of processed apocalypse food.
Smoke medicine and chewing medicines!
Our smoke medicines and chewing medicines are super important as well. They are like CBSA.. barely let anyone through.. lol if there is less enemy in our bodies it is going to be a much easier battle. It is kind of funny how these work as well.. the main mechanism of smoke medicine and chewing medicines like wiikeh and spruce gum is they simply keep your nose, sinuses, throat, mouth and lungs wet! lol.. that is all. Viruses and bacteria have a hard time sticking to (infecting) something when they are wet.. so humidify those houses and mucus membranes.

Chewing Bigiiw
For chewing spruce gum, you gotta know whats up, you can't just go out and slap a big wad in and hope everything will be okay. Chewing bigiiw, spruce gum, spruce resin, is an art. Just like any other art it takes a massive amount of practice. If I could just quickly give a few general rules to follow that will help you get started at least on the right foot I would just say this: only, ONLY chew spruce gum that is crystallized, not soft. When you start chewing the crystallized your first few bites will be bitter spruce dust. Dont panic, or you will be in a world of pain and anger. Listen, if you spit it out now your mouth will be FULL of sticky nastiness that brushing wont take off. Don't spit the dust out. If you have come this far into the world of resin chewing understand that enzymes in your saliva will change certain components and that dust will start connecting back together. Use the spruce gum to grab all the little bits of spruce gum, this is the only way, again, brushing wont help, only trying again will help. After 30 seconds of chewing dust you should, I repeat SHOULD have something that resembles gum that is so satisfyingly hard to chew. Because this virus most effective transmission is via air, this is an amazing strategy to mitigate the potential for the virus to adhere, chewing this stuff you salivate a LOT!

For chewing Wiikeh, chill. You do not need to grab a massive piece of the dried root and just start munching.. chill. You do not need to have a cucumber sized piece in your mouth 24-7.. all you really need is a small piece, after it has rehydrated and is all swollen it should be about the size of a pea. This size you don't need to be actively chewing either, you can simply just let it sit in there throughout the day, i'll keep the same piece in for 4 hours sometimes!

A little fun fact.. if I had a lab approach me and gave me the opportunity to test ONE plant that is most likely to kill the virus it would have to be Gabaa'aagemish, sweet fern, Comptonia peregrina. Time and time again is has proven to us to be the most effective broad-spectrum virucidal! We have so many experiences with HFMD, viral exanthem, Fifths disease, so so many different respiratory infections.. also noteworthy: Impetigo (bacteria I know, juss sayin)

RULES:

Beautiful delicious sweet fern tea

Making mshkikiiwaabo, medicine tea, is simple but just like everything else takes practice, follow these simple rules and you will have the most powerful intervention our great lakes have to offer!

A handful of cedar, labrador tea, goes into a pot of hot water, cover it, remove it from the heat and let it steep all night, let it cool off naturally. Golden rules: NEVER boil, if its too strong, use less, too weak? use more? It should look beautiful and be

absolutely delicious!! I have had an 18qt pot (Thanks auntie Barbara, lol) on my stove on "keep warm" of cedar tea everyday since this began. It usually stays there for around 3 days, generally by then I have drank most of it and it starts to get pretty strong, this is when I will retire the pot into the bathtub and my wife or daughter will have a nice (weak) cedar bath.

Following local harvesting protocols is incredibly valuable and important as well, ie. offerings.

Notes:

What I think deserves less energy are attempts at killing the virus, best to prepare our bodies for the fight. We don't need to be hotboxing our houses so they look like a bingo hall in the 90's.. or be all slobbery chewing cucumber-size pieces of wiikehn.. downing bottles of echinacea, etc.. This is really about enjoying a delicious cup of medicine tea here and there throughout the day, prepping your body for a fight. Eat healthfully, keep insulin and inflammation levels low and stay moving!

A word on saftey:

Pregnancy: is an extremely sensitive time, I cannot and will not comment on any traditions engaged with throughout pregnancy. I will say this though my grandmother told me that throughout my wifes entire pregnancy she can NOT have ANYthing, and she is not to lift anything heavier than a textbook.

Medications: An extremely complex field and largely scientifically unexplored and therefore unsupported, I cannot and will not comment on any traditions engaged with while on medications.

As far as limits, I usually tell everyone to simply enjoy the tea and use your own discretion.. enjoy it! I mean, you will know if you are having a gallon a day for a month.. you know there is a problem, most people do not even drink a gallon of water a day!

But you guys know me, I like to push my boundaries a little, so what I will say though is I would definitely be weighing in on the pros and cons of the situation, again speaking from a personal space, given the lung conditions I live with, i'd rather have 'too much' cedar and possibly let my liver take a hit for this (short) amount of time than let this virus leave my lungs in worse condition that may last the rest of my life. hopefully you all know what I mean lol..

Seed dispersal

We have to be engaged in a reciprocal relationship with plants. One of our main responsibilities as medicine harvesters is to not only take but to give back. What in the world can we give a plant?!

This years big focus is going to be about seed dispersal!

Here is the problem!

Did you know that birds, chipmunks and spiderwebs are actually among the biggest problems when it comes to seed distribution? When they eat the seeds they digest and destroy them, spiderwebs/nests rod entire seed pods!! If we want to help our medicine plants, all we have to do is get there before they do.

If birds and chipmunks do not distribute seeds who does?

Seed dispersal of our medicinal plants is mainly conducted by a delicate balance of relationships between ants, bears and mice.

How can we help these relationships and therefore, our medicines?

This year we are going to be dedicating a ton of time doing exactly that!

Here is how it works:

Step one:

Ants prepare the seed for germination. The seeds have a fleshy outer layer called an elaiosome that is a "perfect food" for ants, when they have eaten all of the elaiosome the seed is ready for germination. The ants have two options; either throw it outside their home or store it within their nest in something called a midden. This whole process is called myremecochory.

Step two:

Bears transport the seeds. When they rip into an anthill to eat the ant larvae they do two things. Number one, as they dig into the ant hill to get at the larvae they literally toss pawfulls of seeds that have accumulating on top of the anthouse for who knows how long. Number two, when they eat the ant larvae they also end up eating a massive amount of seeds that are stored in the underground middens. Bears carry those seeds and poop them out in different areas.

Step three:

Mice. Almost specifically deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). They rummage through bear poop for seeds that they use for food! They then take the seeds and, get this, bury them 5-10mm deep throughout the forest! Isn't this amazing!!!!! They end up eating the fruit tree seeds because they are massive and simply a better source of food. Seeds from our medicinal species of plants, which are smaller, are left around the forest as "emergency caches." For the most part these caches go untouched or forgotten about. So they literally take all the seeds of our medicine plants directly from the bear poop and plant them!

Now imagine sitting in front of a patch of your favorite species of medicine and knowing the steps that it took to make this possible, the complexity of this relationship is absolutely mindblowing! This deserves a powerful acknowledgement.

But you know what? Not just an acknowledgement but a human intervention that can catalyze and foster these relationships. Which brings us back to What can we do to help!?!

Sometimes we help the ants, by taking seed pods to them before they fall prey to birds and chipmunks. Literally feeding ants.

Sometimes we can do a little bit of role-playing, or clan-playing. Play bear and take the seeds the ants tossed out and throw them around. If you look at the base of an anthill, its not just sand, you can clearly see that the anthill is literally a giant pile of medicine seeds! When you pick medicine look around and you will find concentrated patches of medicines are always near a massive ant colony. By resurrecting the ancient practice of trading medicines, transporting medicines from territory to territory we are literally playing bear! And with the connectedness we possess in this day and age, it will be easy to transport medicine seeds to re-diversifying and re-medicinfying our territories.

Linguistic significance of plants - Beech and its friend, Canadian Wild-Ginger

In all of our work we bring everything we can to the table. We teach about what makes these plants significant to Anishnaabe, and about how Our understanding of their significance can change and has changed the way the everyone looks at the world of plants.

Each plant is significant because of its name. Today I want to talk about the importance in understanding the linguistic significance of plants.

I must say first off that I am still learning. I have a long way to go before I would consider myself an expert. I am just beginning! This article is a great example of both of these!

Beech, Azhaawemish.

Beech trees are absolutely beautiful. There are a lot of striking features of this tree, lets look at a few.

They have this super smooth silvery grey bark that have huge frozen-in-time ripples that are throughout. A lot of people love how they look like massive majestic elephant legs. Beech are also quite skilled at holding onto their dead leaves throughout the winter. What is really special though, is how they produce the most amount of fruit compared to other trees native to this continent. Their massive production of fruit is why its scientific name is Fagus grandiflora. The name fagus means fruit.

The scientific names of plants is a system that was created to ensure proper identification. Its simple. What is the best way to make sure you are properly identifying? By looking at the feature of the plant that makes it different from every other plant! Fruit you say? Well oh my goodness! The amount of fruit that beech trees produce is more spectacular then any others! Easy
peasy, one-two-threesy. (Clearly, I have a toddler.)

The system of scientific names is simple and very effective for why it was created! Find the differences and viola, you found the plant. Done.

Azhaawemish is our name for Beech trees. Our language is a verb based language so the name of this tree is describing an action. Every time you see or hear 'Zhaa' In our language it is describing something very specific. It is talking about something being pierced. Check this out!!

Okay so, Zhaawesawin is the art of tattoo making. So we are really saying that beech is a tattoo tree! Which makes perfect sense right? After all, this
tree is thee tree that, on your first date, you carve a
giant heart and carve the initials of you and your lover in. So this is the tree you can give tattoos too and it doesn't die. What a perfect name. There is an immediate way to understand the Anishnaabe name of this tree. The tattoo tree can handle you carving tattoos into it without it dying. Azhaawemish

Lets dig deeper.

I was reminded of the fact that the main historical utilitarian use of this tree also has to do with tattoos by a local friend named Caleb Musgrave, founder of Canadian Bushcraft  http://www.canadianbushcraft.ca/index.php/instructors/caleb-musgrave/  (coolest guy ever.) He mentioned that beech root bark was used to make dye for tattoos! He seriously knows everything. So the root bark is boiled into a strong tea, that has an amber/orange color. When this tea is mixed with blood it turns pitch black. So we use it to coat/clean our needles in the art of traditional tattooing.

Lets dig even deeper!

I was teaching this to a group of botanists and ecologists at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton (or is it Burlington?) They were right into it just loving learning from my language, and one of them said: "Hey, you know what! Beech buds are unique, they are not just a normal bud or duckbill shape!" And a few others piped in and explained that beech buds are long very needle-like. Taking this understanding even further! Wow!

So Azhaawemish, the tattoo tree is the tree whose buds look like needles it is the tree you can give a tattoo too without killing it and use the root bark to make a permanent black dye for actual tattoos!

This tree goes from Fagus, the huge fruit producer. To Azhaawemish the tree that teaches us not to say Azhaawemish, you are beech. Instead say Azhaawemish, you are the tattoo tree, you are a historical example of Traditional Tattoos and you are an outstanding example of the Creators signature in the natural world. You teach us how every plant has been created to show us what they have been created for.

Understanding their names can bring a forest to life!

Canadian Wild-Ginger, Nmepin.

This one is really awkward. This one really forced me and forces everyone to ask questions. 'Nme' is a sturgeon, 'Pin' together we have Nmepin, the sturgeon potato. What?!?!

I want to make something really clear, I believe in challenging tradition, especially oral tradition. An oral tradition survives not only when you listen to it but when you add your voice to it. Even when you disagree with it, especially when you disagree with it. So long as the conversation between our generation and the generations before it remain authentic, oral tradition remains alive and vital. Lets stay authentic.

Every creature has a plant that it is connected to. Growing up hearing knowledge keepers say this, really messed me up. To me what they were doing was simply regurgitating even farfetched information in the name of faith and tradition. "My faith is stronger then yours because when my elder speaks I listen." Right? Look what happens when you say I disagree. Remember, when you say I disagree you are saying, "I want my tradition to remain authentic, alive and vital."

Okay, lets do this!

Every creature has a plant that they are connected to. We all know cat-nip right? Its regarded as a pseudo-narcotic, for cats! Its legit too, go try it! When you give a cat, cat-nip it goes super bonkers, eats then chills for the afternoon.

All you dog owners, can you recall your dog doing a similar thing to grass? Tearing up a patch of grass, eating a ton and then losing its mind in a field, sprinting back and forth, jumping and rolling, Only to end the psycho session by grabbing a bite to eat and chillin for a few hours.

If you read my previous article on water lilys you can understand how water lilys have this same effect on moose! Imagine a moose on ... moose-nip?

I have been finding all kinds of plants that are connected with different animals even horses and bears!

Nmepin, our canadian wild-ginger has a connection, a special relationship with sturgeon! Yes, this idea of plants and creatures extends to the world of fish!

I heard of this ancient practice of washing fish nets with different plant teas to attract different species of fish. At first I thought it was ludicrous. Until it was put to the test. Our knowledge holders talk about Nmepin and how if you wash your nets with the roots you will catch sturgeon. I got to tell this to different research groups conducting research on sturgeon, and we have had truly phenomenal results.

This species of fish faces a huge threat. That is, hydro. Dam's that control the level of the waters is what is mainly responsible for their decline. The species stays too small and vulnerable for too long. The dam raises the water levels and the tiny vulnerable sturgeon are washed out and that's it, that's all. Due to hydro not caring about sturgeon what-so-ever, we have to figure out an alternative. We resort to research to help this species. There is a serious problem to this though, and it is the sad fact that we are just not able to collect enough data to come to any conclusions. We are not catching enough fish to conduct proper research.
If only we can just catch more fish! Lucky for sturgeon we have retained some traditional harvesting practices that might actually be responsible, in the near future, for the saving of their species! Is that ironic or what?! I have worked with a research team who used this method and caught more fish in 2 nets than in the last 4 years! My hope is that the relationship that this fish has with this plant will spread to other research organizations, so make sure you share this!

Need a tad more validation before you start sharing? Okay!

When you talk to elders about this plant, they all seem to be saying the same thing. It is called sturgeon potato because they eat it! "They crawl up on shore and eat that plant!" especially one elderly lady from Birch Island, she spoke of it as though it just happened a few moments ago, like, you just missed it!

After a bit of research I realized that sturgeon are actually a prehistoric fish, they have remained basically unchanged since the dinosaur days. Guess what we understand from fossil records, sturgeon lost their ability to crawl five-hundred-thousand years ago! Guess what else we understand from fossil records, when sturgeon used to be able to crawl, their diet was full of vegetation. That means this lady from Birch Island told me a five-hundred-thousand year old history, as if it just happened, like I just missed it! So I went back to her story immediately and it turns out that I was wrong, it did not just happen moments ago. She did not grow up stepping over sturgeon in the middle of the forest and that in fact, they were just stories her parents told her of, get this, "An older time, a long time ago." Not only did she give a five-hundred-thousand year old history, but she gave me an accurate five-hundred-thousand year old informal history. Meaning, this history was not institutionalized, its not an important history that we made or are making making an actual effort to keep, like say our ceremonial tradition. Imagine what happens when it is a history we do want to retain?

Isn't this idea insane, thank you so much Nmepin, for posing a seriously crazy question and an even more crazy answer.

Let me take a little segway and address an issue.

Have you ever encountered someone who wanted to disprove an oral culture as being a valid way to transmit information? You know, those people who will say things like: "Do you really think that an oral culture is an accurate way to relay information? Have you ever played the telephone game" and they will go on! "You know, where you get a row of 10 people, preferably kindergarten kids and whisper the first people in line a phrase and by the time this phrase gets through the 10 people the message is so skewed that it does not retain the same meaning" as my face reddens with rage, they will continue! "So if that happens with 10 people in one minute, what happens with thousands of people over thousands of years? Oral history has to be acknowledged as inaccurate."

Oh boy did these conversations get me upset! Well guess what, I don't get upset anymore. Do you want to know why? All I have to say is, "Have you met the sturgeons potato?"

Boom.

This is why our language is important and how, for us plant medicine junkies, their linguistic significance is just that, significant! It helps us to take our history and give it a contemporary application.

Water Lily - Kandamo

Water lily's are a food source, and important medicine. The story that water lily's tell is one that traditional subsistence hunters kept and are keeping alive and vital, Chi-miigwetch, thank you.

We observe relationships in creation and those relationships is where the stories are. Plants are showing us why they are here, all we have to do is listen. This plant tells us quite explicitly by its relationship with amphibians, and the majestic moose! Lets listen to Lily pads.

Can you think of anyone who might have a special relationship with lily pads? Yes, of course, the water, sun, wind, waves, dragonflies, but did you think frogs? Mak'kii, is our name for frog.

When we observe a pond we see frogs, and how they have a hard time catching food on the mucky shores, the cool water and in the tall grass. Frogs look out at the water and see tons of food! If they can just get out to the middle of the pond and stay above the cold water, not only would frog be able to warm from the sun so his tongue could move faster but he would literally be inches from a buffet of food flying past! What a dream. Then he notices lily pads, multiple perfect little platforms seemingly made just for his purpose. He thinks, 'Hey, that is a really great place to sit and wait for food to come to me!' and they do just that. 

The ancient hunting term 'kundo' is used to describe the moments when you are hunting and you see lots of tracks, you know that this is a great place to see something so you find a place to sit back and wait for something to come to you. Kando. The word used to describe this hunting-action in my native language Anishnaabemowin.

Now that we have observed frogs relationship with this plant, lets observe one other relationship. Moose! or, Mooz.

We also observe the Moose's relationship with this plant, just before their rut they sit in the ponds every evening and morning and eat boat loads of these roots. They can dedicate 4-7 hours per day to eating these roots, it quickly becomes an obsession. Now lets look at who exactly is in the swamp eating all these roots, is it all moose? No, it is mostly dominate bulls, and also wanna-be-dominate bulls. Why are they doing it? They are doing it to get their muscles ready for fighting and running great distances during mating season. They are smart, they know their medicine.

Now we understand this plants relationship with both Mak'kii the frog and Mooz the moose.

Immediately there is an important use for this plant. We understand moose and their obsession with the roots and we take advantage of it. Miijmaakijigeh, is our word to describe exactly that, it can be translated as baiting, but there is truly much more happening here. We harvest these roots called 'Kandamo,' dry them and find a spot where moose frequent and smolder the root like incense, then 'Kundo,' sit and wait, just like the frogs did. Moose run in so fast looking for this special medicine food that they don't stop to think, "Hey, I smell a rifle, or a Nikon," they just crash right to it, right to you.

These are the types of relationships that we observe and learn from. These are also some obvious linguistic connections that plants help us understand. The plant called Kandamo is called this because frogs use them in that way, kando, but it is actually hunters that have safe-guarded this ancient term. The tradition of smoke medicine or Pkwenezagan is fading quickly, but our elderly who grew up hunting surely remember it. Lily roots was a primary ingredient. The resurrection of this ancient knowledge also also brings light to Miijmaakijigeh or baiting. When its done properly it is unforgettably successful. Remember trilliums and fishing?

There we have it, an important utility use of this amazing plant. Now, using this story, lets see if we can find out what it can be used for medicinally! 

Remember how moose uses it? It uses the roots as medicine for its muscles, to enable this majestic mammal to be able run super far, super fast engaging in horrific battles along the way! So how do we use it? For our muscles!!

“If you don't use it, you will lose it.” This phrase has some amazing truth to it, especially when it comes to your muscles. If you don't use your muscles, never go to the gym, never exercise, your muscles lose their ability to use glucose, to use sugar! The energy provided to them to be able to work, can become useless! When you exercise your liver gives your muscles all the sugar they need to perform. The liver stores a ton of sugar, this is one of its main functions. Now what happens when you have all this sugar in your blood that your muscles didn't use? 

For instance, someone who has been confined to an office job for 30 years and was unable to exercise their entire life (perhaps, due to injury) and this person gets pulled over by the police. We are all able to relate to this situation right? What happens is their liver shoots out all the sugar this person needs to be able to run from the police or fight them. The fight or flight response right? The amount of sugar in your blood is overflowing and your body begins to shake uncontrollably, maybe even convulsing (at least, that's how it feels). There is so much sugar in your blood your emotions get involved and you start bawling. Yet, how many of us run from the police? Or fight them? We don't, we simply drive away completely exaggerating our obedience to road laws through a wall of tears. What happened to all that sugar? As you begin to do breathing exercises you realize your calming down, it breathing using the sugar? No, that is insulin. Insulin is bringing that sugar down to normal. 

The problem here is insulin is a hormone that tells your body to store adipose (fat.) So whenever insulin is present, your body is in fat storage mode. The problem here is that fat is a recognized endocrine organ that dampens insulin and its ability to regulate blood sugar. So with insulin dampened, your body panics and simply makes more insulin, which will make more fat, which will force you to require more insulin. More fat, more insulin, more fat. The cycle your body ends by creating a new organ designed to consume the access sugar, designed to break that cycle. So to not rely heavily on insulin. This organ is called cancer. Ever hear of a PET scan? You drink 500mls of syrup and they watch the cancer go into a feeding frenzy and your body lights up like a christmas tree. It is an effective scan designed to locate cancer. 

Now that I demonized insulin, let us realize that the first dose, 90g of lily roots, as medicine increases our glucose uptake by 60%. Our muscles our now 60% more effective at using sugar our livers provide, so bye bye insulin and consequently, diabetes, Alzheimers and cancer. Also our livers are storing 60% more glycogen, so hello exercise, speaking of exercise, these roots push your bodies ability to stay in aerobic exercise. So muscle fatigue or failure is a longer ways away. 

Your muscles only heal themselves in the fourth and fifth stages of sleep.This is because in these stages your body is somewhat sedated. Your muscles receive a chemical that removes anxiety from the tissue. When we hold anxiety in different parts of our body they don't get the opportunity to heal, like in our jaws (grinding our teeth) in our calves (calf cramps when you stretch in the morning, or swimming in the summer.) What this plant does is chemically remove anxiety from muscle tissue so they are in a healing position twenty-four hours a day. This plant changes those priorities and places muscles so high up on this prioritized set list, your body is able to heal muscle tissue all day long, while they are being worked. 

When you take these roots you are communicating with your body, you are telling your body to focus on muscles because I have a marathon to run and I can't afford to be sore the next day!

I was listening to Lawrence Kelemen who was talking about success. He said that you can turn any human being into a successful one. Every successful person has one thing in common, the drive to keep going even when they are so tired they fall flat on their faces, they still keep going. If you want to be successful you should run marathons. Every wildly successful person he knew ran marathons. The reason for this is simple. Every marathon runner is familiar with 'the wall' its when all the glycogen stores of your liver run out. It occurs, on average, between 21 and 22 miles. This is why marathons are 25 miles. Every marathon runner knows what it feels like to push past 'the wall' when you have zero energy stores left in your body and you have to keep going for about 3 more miles! Successful people know what its like to push your body past its physiological limits. 

Look at this plant that we have been calling muscle medicine for thousands of years. Look at the cross section of those roots, the pattern that is within. I have been harvesting this root for a few years now and I know that this plant invests so much energy into its anchor rootlets. It takes hours to harvest because you have to break/cut the anchor rootlets individually how strong they are. Its no wonder speedboats can cruise next to them and they don't get uprooted. Knowing this plant spends so much energy anchoring itself, and that its an aquatic plant, why would there be all these air tunnels throughout? Why would this plant anchor itself and fill itself with flotation devices? It is completely counter-intuitive!!! The only way that we can make sense of this is that this root has been created to show you that it is muscle medicine by being an exact reflection of our muscles under an electron microscope, one muscle fiber.

It would have been enough that this plant tells you a story of relationships with frogs and moose. It would have been enough that this plants intensely dedicated history of use has been as a muscle medicine. It would have been enough given all the linguistic connections between this plant with its uses, but in addition to all of this it has been created to exactly reflect one muscle fiber. A signature to confirm beyond a shadow of a doubt that this plant has is here for our muscles. 

Labrador Tea, Mshkiigabag

When I first started learning about medicine, I always heard about labrador tea but never really pursued it because I figured this is such a redundant medicine, everyone always talks about it so it will never be lost, I'll learn about this one later.

Elders would even make remarks like: “Oh, that tea is what we would get when we cannot afford red rose, because it tastes really good”

So, all this sort of lead me to believe or 'realize' that it is not a really significant medicine. In short, it gave me dandelion vibes.

Big mistake.

Labrador tea is unreal.

Lets start with the utility uses.

Remember, in our traditional wisdom we teach that every plant is showing you what its good for; “the forest is our greatest teacher.” “Everything we need is outside.” All you have to do is learn how to watch the earth and you will learn everything you need to know about life. Which plants are medicine, what it is medicine for, when to pick it, how to pick it, if it has a utility use, if you can eat it, etc.

We have so much to learn.

With labrador tea, one of our teachers is Naanokshkaahns, the hummingbird. Not too long ago their population was declining rapidly. An unusual 50% mortality rate sparked some research, what made it unusual was of the 50% that died, both babies died in the nest. There was no “only the stronger of the two survived” The culprit of all these deaths and the rapid decline was a devastating mite. These mites would devour both the babies. Their next question was how and why were the other 50% were surviving, these hummingbirds must be making their nest with a deterrent.

Hummingbirds make the same nest they grew up in. Whatever smells they remember from their infancy, however soft it was, all the materials their parents used, they remember. Then they make exact replicas. They survivors of this mite attack were using the rusty colored fuzz from under the labrador tea leaf for padding. This fuzz had some anti-mite qualities that would help keep the environment safe for both babies in the nest to live. They would then grow up having to make their nest with this fuzz, this would continue to happen until hummingbirds conquered the mites

completely.

When I would ask about labrador tea, everyone always said the same things; 'it tastes great, and it has brown fuzzy under the leaf, rust colored fuzz' only a few mentioned that it grows in moss.

What can we learn from this?

Just like hummingbirds use labrador to keep small arthropods (mites) and perhaps large arthropods (spiders) away, we can use labrador tea to keep all small (or maybe large) arthropods away. These include mites, ticks, dust mites, etc.

What else can it 'keep away'

Inuit people have a name for us woodlands people, they like to call us lice. Hahaha. We had one for them, we called them Eskimo (raw meat eaters). We do not like to be called lice, they do not like to be called raw meat eaters, we still got along and had a great relationship. I have yet to find out why we call the Haudenasaunee people The Naadwe (rattlesnakes), maybe they made boots with them? But it was probably more due to the demand of the fur trade which temporarily shattered an amazing tribal relationship by creating a contest for trapping grounds leading us to start warring each other and creating derogatory terms to call one another. Maybe. Anyways a modern term for labrador tea is naadwe tea. A lot of our people know this as Naadwe tea. The reason for this is because labrador tea is a northern plant and our Haudenasaunee brothers and sisters are our southern relatives who are an agricultural society. We used to bring them, literally, boatloads of labrador tea from the north for their grain stores. Why? If you put a handful of labrador tea in your grains it keeps mice away!

'Ojiihns' is a word that means a little pest. It is used for all sorts of bugs/flies, its in pesky animal names like 'Waabaganoojiihns', which is a mouse. I love my language, want to hear something fun: 'mskwa'waabagan' is red clay 'Waabagan' is clay, 'Ojiihns' is pest, 'waabaganojiihns' is that clay colored pest.

So pepper labrador tea around your camp and be wowed by the lack of little mouse poops everywhere. Or in your grains to keep them from eating your food!

The older name for labrador tea is Mshkiigabag. Which literally means swamp/bog leaf. Swamp/bog is 'Mshkiig-aki', leaf is 'bag' (pronounced 'buck'), Mshkiigabag is the swamp/bog leaf. This leaf smells fantastic, citrusy, evergreeny, fruity goodness. Its a wonder how such a delicious smelling leaf can come out of such stinky places.

The colloquial name for this plant in inuit is Kayaksi. Which means little kayak leaf (please correct me if I am wrong, this is by memory, all I remember is it means kayak-leaf.. which is super cool). When the leaves of labrador tea are dried up the edges curl and it looks just like a little kayak. This is by-far, the cutest name for a plant I have ever heard.

What I really find fascinating is how

the significance of different plants and animals change as you travel north. This is evident even in the creation stories, where down here we have the muskrat being the animal that is able to dive and get the handful of earth for the turtles back, as you go north is changes to geese.

There are different plants we refer to as 'Gaagigebag' or, 'the leaf that is forever the same' Down here our Gaagigebag is Princes Pine (Chimaphila umbellata). We call princes pine this because this plant in the middle of winter is still dark green in color, you can dig it out of 2 meters of snow and ice and its still green. When you travel up north their Gaagigebag or 'leaf that is always the same' is labrador tea. They have the bogs that do not freeze, and labrador tea is able to stay in these bogs year round without changing. I think it is so interesting to observe the changes in significance.

Now lets talk for a bit about the medicinal significance of labrador tea.

Another thing I find super interesting is the fact that fasting is incorporated into ever calendar year of every ancient culture around the world. Some fasting practices, funnily enough, defy modern scientific models that show how long a human can survive without food or water. 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food. A lot of fasting practice has people consistently fasting water for 4-7 days, even in the middle of winter!

One of the largest physiological gains from fasting is the stimulation of your immune system. Fasting cycles almost always coincide with changes of season. Changes of season always get us. In these parts the fasting occurs in the spring and fall. You normally fast just before the seasons change. This is not a coincidence either. These are in the calendar so you go into the change of seasons with an immune system that is fully stimulated and ready to quickly obliterate any invader. Labrador tea stimulates your immune system just as much as fasting does. If you want a psychotic immune system, an immune system that tears anything apart before you even actually feel sick, you need to slam some labrador tea.

Labrador tea also has some severely outstanding effects on mercury.

Okay, so the fact is, we do not know the long term neurotoxicity effects of mercury. What we do know is that mercury can be eliminated from all parts of your body except your brain. It gets a little clogged in your kidneys, takes some extra time to get eliminated but your brain is a different story. Organic mercury is methylmercury. Imagine it like this. Mercury is slippery, like soap in the bathwater its hard to get a hold of, but methylmercury is like soap in the bathtub but with a perfect grippy handle attached to it, easy to grab and move about. Your body is able to grab mercury by the methyl. The problem is as soon as methylmercury crosses the blood brain barrier your brain snatches the methyl, that big beautiful grippy handle and BAM, we cant move mercury, so in your brain, mercury only accumulates. This is the problem, if only we can change the brain from stealing all the methyl to giving it, then we can eliminate mercury from the brain!  

Labrador tea has been in the 'culturally relevant complimentary treatment' spotlight for over a decade now. Its ability to take mercury our of your body and brain are what created this spotlight.

All of the dumping of mercury into the great lakes by the industry is to blame for mercury issues in the north. All the mercury we dump gets lifted into the air and literally rains mercury all over the north. Sorry my northern friends, its our fault.

In the north you find a huge dichotomy of people with extremely high levels of mercury and people with considerably low levels. Considerably low based on their exposure, of course. This dichotomy is precisely paralleled by the individuals level of traditional behavior. Meaning those who were regathering tradition and drinking the teas-of-old like labrador tea, had low levels. Those who still neglected tradition and these remarkable teas had absurdly high levels of mercury.

Our beautiful Akwasasne brothers and sisters are suffering a terribly unjust and overwhelming amount of mercury. It sounds like that old trade of labrador tea from the north needs to be resurrected.

Remember that 'culturally relevant complimentary treatment' spotlight I mentioned earlier. Researchers of the north wanted to find out if labrador tea can be good for anything else? Wouldn't it be nice if labrador tea can solve the epidemic of diabetes, obesity, arthritis, etc.

Labrador tea at concentration levels that of a cup a mild tasting tea improves insulin sensitivity by reducing blood glucose levels by 13%, reduced the response to oral glucose tolerance test by 18.2% and reduced plasma insulin by 65%. Also induces a 42% reduction in hepatic triglyceride levels, Stimulates glucose metabolism (akt pathway) by 55% and increases GLUT4 (skeletal muscle glucose transporter) expression by 54%. All while improving renal function and lowering adipogenesis.

Another stellar note is that labrador tea, tea, kills lung cancers only 9.7X slower than conventional chemotherapy with an IC50 of 43 (cisplatin+array IC50 is 4.4), kills colon cancer cells 4.3X slower than conventional chemotherapy (4-fu IC50 is 15), all without side effects. What is important to note though, is labrador tea can be administered at higher doses and it can be taken more frequently making it a much closer battle against the conventional chemotherapies, especially since it has no side effects.

Mshkiki, medicine, literally means “strength of the earth.” The areas needed for medicine (Mshkiki) are 'Mshkiig Aki', wetlands or swamps, wetlands are the strength of the earth. This is the wetland plant, Mshkiigabag.

This plant occurs in everywhere in Canada and even stays available all year. What is the interpretation? It should be a part of everyday life, in everyone's cupboards all of the time. Especially the tea cupboard (sorry RedRose). Chi-Miigwetch Mshkiigabagwaabo!