Wabanaki Stewardship of Ash

“For many Wabanaki people, basket making signifies a process of decolonization, as the production of baskets is inseparable from assertions of tribal/band sovereignty, land use rights, and indigenous identities in twenty-first-century America and Canada”

Jennifer Neptune and Lisa Neuman, in their 2015 article

Wabanaki people have been living in Waponahkik since time immemorial, and their relationship with brown ash trees is just as long. According to one Wabanaki creation story, Gluskabe fired an arrow into a brown ash tree, and women and children emerged from its bark singing and dancing (Hudson Museum). Ash is therefore woven into the cultural identity of Wabanaki people.

Brown ash is used as a primary material in Wabanaki basketry, which is currently practiced by about 200 Wabanaki artisans in Maine alone (Neptune and Neuman 2015). Some basketmakers also use green ash for making splints and white ash for making handles. The growth rings of brown and green ash trees have unique structural qualities that make them suitable for pounding, splitting, and weaving. Wabanaki people pass on intergenerational knowledge of brown ash trees which informs how they select trees for basket making (Greenlaw, 2023; Frey et al., 2019). Among brown ash populations, not all are basket quality: only 5-20% of brown ash trees are selected for harvest (Benedict & Frelich, 2008).

“They Carry Us With Them” follows Richard Silliboy, a tribal elder of Mi’kmaq Nation and a brown ash basketmaker, as he weaves a potato basket at his home in Littleton, Maine, and contemplates the arrival of the emerald ash borer and the tenuous future of this art.

Watch “they carry us with them” here

Access Opportunities for Wabanaki basketmakers

  • The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) owns 114,000 acres in what is now Maine, and recognizes the importance of providing access to the Wabanaki for the collection of culturally important plant materials.  Their Cultural Collection Permits also permit free access for the harvester through the KI – Jo Mary gate system.  For any questions please contact Lands Planner, Kristin Peet at 207-991-1470 or kpeet@outdoors.org.
  • We Commit conservation lands available for cultural access
  • Contact apcaw-group@maine.edu for more opportunities and to be added to the list of Wabanaki ash harvesters where we regularly share access opportunities

    Special note about moving ash across quarantine zones: For basket makers needing to move a limited number of brown ash logs outside of Maine’s EAB quarantine area, a limited use permit can be issued by the Maine Forest Service on a case-by-case basis following a visual inspection. Please contact michael.parisio@maine.com to request a visual inspection and apply for a limited use permit for transport of regulated ash articles outside of quarantine boundaries.  

How you can support Wabanaki stewardship of ash

If you are a landowner or land steward with a known brown or green ash stand on your property of 3 or more trees, and you would like to offer them to a Wabanaki basketmaker for harvest, please send us pictures of the trees to apcaw-group@maine.edu and fill out the form below and APCAW will share your information with our network of basketmakers. We ask for the submission of photos because not all brown ash is basket quality ash, and Wabanaki harvesters look for very specific characteristics of harvestable ash. Sharing photos allows harvesters to review tree quality before visiting the site.

To report a stand of brown or green ash you’d like to share with Wabanaki ash harvesters, please fill out this form.

If you’re interested in formalizing Wabanaki access on your property, there are a number of tools that already exist that protect Indigenous relationships to plant relatives and their ability to harvest culturally significant species. Existing tools should be adapted for the unique ecologies and significance of each location, as each is imperfect and comes with strengths and limitations. To learn we recommend reviewing First Light’s collection of resources on access invitations, cultural easements, cultural use agreements, and permits.

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