Nocotiana Quadrivalvis Star
color pencil on 10 x 10 wood panel
Referenced from an Aspsaalooke (Crow) Creation Story as told by the late Grant Bull Tail that can be viewed at NativeMemoryProject.org and an oral story shared about certain petroglyph carvings being markers for where specific plants would grow. In the spring time, when the snow melted, the cross carvings would be revealed and signal where these important plants were located. The crosses were related to the ‘star’ shape of the seed pods and the story of their origin from sacred beings who came from the stars.
Faith is considered an ingredient for survival. Sacred tobacco was given as a gift and came with instructions for the tribal family structure. “Many people, but one family, like a tree.” A ceremony was also enlisted with this plant.
In addition to the plant gift, it is told that names were given to the landscapes.
A deep, intrinsic relationship to nature is always mentioned, but how sincere does the average person consider that story?
There are a wide variety of plants in the Nicototiana family that have various uses and grow in specific geographical regions.
To proceed with successful genocides of Indigenous peoples, you cut off their access to the plants, to their cultural hearts. You demean the practice and exploit it. You dominate a relationship with empirical mindsets. During the 19th century, the fur trade introduced processed, commercial tobacco, which rapidly replaced the traditional and ceremonial tobacco plant for the Apsaalooke. The confinement to reservations and loss of wild habitats following the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868 meant that the tribes were no longer able to steward or have access to specific environmental conditions necessary for this plant to thrive.