Weed wome

317 Pages·2015·1.24 MB·English

by  Claudia Ford

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Department of Environmental Studies
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE PAGE
The undersigned have examined the dissertation titled:
Weed women, all night vigils, and the secret life of plants: negotiated epistemologies of
ethnogynecological plant knowledge in American history
presented by Claudia Jeanne Ford, candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and hereby
certify that it is accepted.*

Alesia Maltz, Ph.D., Committee Chair (Core Faculty, Department of Environmental Studies,
Antioch University New England)

James W. Jordan, Ph.D. (Core Faculty, Department of Environmental Studies, Antioch
University New England)

Yuriko Saito, Ph.D. (Professor of Philosophy, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence,
Rhode Island)

Herman H. Shugart, Jr., Ph.D. (W.W. Corcoran Professor of Environmental Sciences, University
of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia)

Defense Date:

Date Approved by all committee members:

Date Submitted to the Registrar’s Office:

*Signatures are on file with the Registrar’s Office at Antioch University New England.
Weed women, all night vigils, and the secret life of plants:
Negotiated epistemologies of ethnogynecological plant knowledge in American history

by

Claudia Jeanne Ford

A dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy
(Environmental Studies)

at

Antioch University New England

2015
© copyright by Claudia J. Ford 2015

All Rights Reserved
I humbly dedicate this dissertation to the life, work, and memory of
Dr. Vivian Marie Ford.
I am eternally grateful that my mother paved the way before me by earning her doctorate as a
young grandmother, and that her passion for education and lifelong learning is my legacy and
my delight.
i
Therefore, always carry an observant eye and an analytic mind. You may
suddenly stumble upon some truth for which your world is waiting.
--Marcus Garvey, 1937

ii
CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vi

ABBREVIATIONS xii

GLOSSARY xiii

ABSTRACT xvii

Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Falling Woman’s Herbs 1
Weed Women, All Night Vigils, and The Secret Life of Plants 7
Organization of the Dissertation 16

Chapter 2: Integrative Review 19
TEK: Plants, Animals, and People 19
TEK: Place and Culture 37
Atlantic Encounters 44

Chapter 3: Conceptual Approach 51
Research Framework 51
Silences in the Archives 64

Chapter 4: Research Findings and Stories 81
Ethnobotany and the Secret Life of Plants 81
An Ethnogynecology Index: Plants and Practices 87
Materia Medica: Ethnogynecology and Herbal Medicine 164
Books

Chapter 5: Interpretation and Analysis 176
Negotiated Epistemologies: A Thought Experiment 176
Negotiating Ecological Knowledge Across Boundaries 187

Chapter 6: Conclusion 230
Weed Women of All Races 231
Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Stories 240
Growing Forward 250

APPENDIX 253

BIBLIOGRAPHY 269
iii
FIGURES

5.1. Negotiated epistemologies of traditional ecological knowledge 177

TABLES

4.1. Archives consulted in-person 253

4.2. Online archives consulted 254

4.3. Summary of documents and plant species in Ethnogynecology Index 255

4.4. Ethnogynecology Index source information by date of publication 256

4.5. North American Native tribes, bands, and groups discussed in Index studies 257

4.6. Ethnogynecological (RH) categories and recorded uses of plants for women 258

4.7. Ethnogynecological (RH) sub-categories and recorded uses of plants for infants 259

4.8. Ethnogynecologically significant plants frequently recorded for infant use 260

4.9. Ethnogynecologically significant plant frequently recorded for use in childbirth 261

4.10. Botanical online databases consulted 262

4.11. The twenty most frequently recorded ethnogynecologically significant plant genera 263

4.12. Plant remedies, parts, and preparations 264

4.13. Recorded unique preparations of plant remedies 265

4.14. Recorded uses for Caulophyllum thalictroides from 4 documents 266

4.15. Recorded uses for Caulophyllum thalictroides from Huron H. Smith manuscripts 267

4.16. Recorded uses for Gossypium sp. from 5 documents 268

iv
STORIES

In a Garden on Turtle’s Back 2

Lichens, Caribou, and Dams 20

Nanny Mother 78

The Secret Life of Squaw Root 149

The Passenger, January 1859 227

A Praise Poem: Spirit and Form 249

The Grandmothers 251

v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation was made possible by an extraordinary amount of support and
encouragement during my studies, research, and writing. I have many people to acknowledge
and thank. First I must thank the staff of the libraries, archives, and rare book collections that
enabled me to complete this research. It was an honor to be able to use the resources of The
Mohegan Tribal Nation. I would like to thank Chief Malerba, Chairman Bozsum, Mohegan
Tribal Nonner Stephanie Fielding, Mohegan Tribal Nonner Marie Pineault, and Mohegan
Medicine Woman and Tribal Historian Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel for according me the
privilege of accessing such special resources. I humbly thank Elder Fielding for a fascinating
personal tour of the government offices, I sincerely thank Ms. Zobel for her time, patience,
generosity, and wisdom, and I am eternally grateful to archivist David Freeburg and librarian
Rachel Sayet for their research assistance, for kindly sharing their office and time, and for so
generously retrieving and photocopying important documents.
I was privileged to spend 18 months researching and reading in the archives and
collections of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. I want to thank the tribal
council, staff, and administration for granting me unfettered access to these collections and for
allowing me to present my research in its developing stages. The archivists and librarians went
out of their way to support me in my investigations, and I thank Phyllis Ladd, Gabriella Kaye,
and Betsy Peterson for their expertise and cheerful aid. I thank Museum administrators Kim
Hatcher White and Jean Little, and researchers Dr. Kevin Mc Bride and Dr. Jason Mancini for
their generosity and encouragement.
The Mashantucket Pequot Library and Research Center is a beautiful, inspiring place for
academic work, and I felt fortunate indeed to spend so much time in a sacred space, delightfully
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observing the weekly passing of the seasons in the surrounding forest. The biggest blessing of
this time and this place, however, was the consistent, quiet, supportive, encouraging, and
gracious presence of Native Elder Trudie Lamb-Richmond (Schaghticoke). I am honored and
humbled by Ms. Trudie’s bountiful generosity, and her guidance and advice as a storyteller, a
scholar, an activist, a mentor, and a friend. Thank you Ms. Trudie.
I would like it to be understood that I cannot and would not pretend to be a biographer,
historian, or anthropologist of the Mohegan, Mashantucket, Pequot Nations or any of the tribes
and communities whose archives I have had the privilege of accessing. None of my research is
meant in any way to be a biographical study, a tribal history, or an anthropological study. I am
humbly aware that my access to sacred tribal resources remains a special privilege, and my
gratitude is profound. Any errors in interpretation of these materials should reflect only on my
limitations as an individual researcher, and should not be ascribed to the Native communities, the
materials, or their provenance.
I was very appreciative of the opportunity to present a preliminary stage of this research
with the enthusiastic encouragement of the scholars from the Five Colleges Native American
Indian Studies Program, especially Ron Welburn, Kathleen A. Brown-Pérez, Lisa Brooks, Alice
Nash, and Nancy Rich. Thank you Dr. Nash for sharing a precious family document with me at a
critical moment in my research. I would also like to thank the librarians and archivists of the
Providence Athenaeum and the Brown University John Carter Brown Library for assistance with
archival materials, and for unfailing words of support and encouragement at critical points in my
research.
In the early stages of this work I was greatly assisted by the following artists, designers,
and scholars from Rhode Island School of Design, who generously shared information and ideas
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