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Stories and Spaces: Exploring Kainai Plants and Culture

The first thunderclap of spring tells us that the Thunder Medicine Bundle may be opened. Sipatsimo (or sweetgrass) and aakiika'ksimii (or sage), our most sacred healing herbs of mind and spirit, grow here at the Belly Buttes, our sacred Sundance site. It is all here: the land, the plants, our ancestors and our future. One is held within the other. You cannot know the land without knowing the plants placed here by the creator. You cannot know the creator without knowing the plants. You cannot know the plants and their healing powers without hearing the stories. It is one and the same.

To learn more about the healing power of plants, visit Nitsitapiisinni - Stories and Spaces: Exploring Kainai Plants and Culture. This interactive online resource allows users to enter a partially immersive area that presents the plants in the context of the sights and sounds of the land. Plant descriptions are provided in Blackfoot, French, and English. As you explore the web site you will find links to audio and video with elders, student photography, music, and artwork, an interpretive video, and teacher planning resources for an ethnobotany inquiry.