Camping the Rattlesnake

Jared, Mariah, and I camped up in the Rattlesnake Wilderness last night. We brought some elk meat, sweet potatoes, dough, onions, and a few other food stuffs for dinner and breakfast. We found that the bears are indeed still moving around. When we arrived at the Rattlesnake creek and got out of the car, we saw a bear cub (probably Black Bear), on the other side of the road. It apparently didn't like us much, because it started to climb a nearby tree.
We used the handrill to make the fire, since my bow drill wasn't working well. I'll be collecting new parts for it soon.
Dinner was excellent, of course, and we all slept well.
The next morning we explored the surroundings a bit, and I gathered some Kinnikinik berries and leaves. I plan to dry the leaves, and use the berries to make pemmican. The berries are very starchy and tend to keep rather well, not unlike a potato. It's also a medicinal plant, used in many places to treat or cure a variety of illnesses. It grows as a groundcover in patches.

Here are the berries, which I gathered using my new elk ear pouch, as well as the branches with leaves.

There are also these green fungi type things? It grows on dead pondarosa pine branches in the rattlesnake and its bright green. If anyone knows what this is, send me an email.

Museum of the American Indian trip

Ashley and I took a trip to DC with our families to visit the White House (Boy Scout's thing), then we headed over to the Museum of the American Indian to check out the exhibits. If you haven't been, I highly recommend going. They cover all aspects of native life (prehistory, historical, and contemporary), and many different tribes and regions. You first enter a circular room with three Native water craft. There is a kayak, an outrigger, and a reed boat made in Peru. I didn't get pictures of the other two but here is the reed boat.
It's quite a well made boat. If only tule or some other usable reed grew near here. I suppose cattail in tight bundles would work..

Anyway you then see a large cedar carving. Its quite a nice piece, carved on both sides.

There is actual alot of cedar carvings. Reminds me of Seattle.

On the second floor there are artifacts from Natives in the Chesapeake area, as well as artifacts found in Washington DC prior to there being a city there. They had a very nice beaver and buckskin bag used t o carry medicine and a few types of medicine used. I thought this would be of particular interest to any readers of this blog.


The caption under the bag and medicine says:
"Beaver Skin and leather medicine bag, 2003. Made by Mark Tayac (Piscataway). Port Tobacco, Maryland
Natural medicines still used by some Chesapeake Native families: a red corn necklace stops a nosebleed, dried eel skin soothes arthritis, calamus root calm stomach upset, and a tobacco twist and wild turkey beard are powerful ceremonial tools."