A natural resources presentation entitled "Ojibwe Naming of Wild Plants" is scheduled for 3 p.m. February 20 at the Bemidji State University Center for Research and Innovation, an off-campus facility located at 3801 Bemidji Avenue North.
The presentation is open to the public and free of charge.
Presenting will be Michael Wassegijig Price, a full-time science faculty member at Leech Lake Tribal College, Cass Lake, and project director of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM). He teaches ethno biology, botany and ecology.
His presentation will focus on the systematic naming of wild plants by the Ojibwe people in accordance with their language and cultural beliefs.
"Just as the early European explorers systematically named the flora of the New World according to morpholology, the Ojibwe people also named plants in accordance with their unique indigenous perspectives," said Price.
The presentation is targeted toward tribal college students from throughout Ojibwe country but may also be of interest to the general public.
Price has spent the last 10 years talking with Ojibwe and Odawa elders and storytellers, learning stories and ecological names in the Anishinabe language. He is Ojibwe and an enrolled member of Wikwemikong First Nations at Manitoulin Island, Ontario, Canada.
The talk is part of an on-going series of monthly presentations from the Bemidji Area Natural Resources Continuing Education Consortium. Groups helping organize the natural resources consortium include the BSU Center for Environmental, Earth and Space Studies; the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources; Norbord Minnesota; the Chippewa National Forest; Beltrami County; Leech Lake Reservation; Ainsworth; and the Red Lake Reservation.
The CRI was developed by BSU to serve as a conduit between the University, business, industry, non-profits and the general public.
Individuals who wish to be added to a mailing list for the series or who have questions should contact the Center for Research and Innovation, Bemidji State University, 1500 Birchmont Dr. NE, Bemidji, MN 56601 (218-755-4900; toll free, 1-888-738-3224) email, cri@bemidjistate.edu.