The Cheboiganing Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Inc

Izhi-Minoging Mashkikiwan – Place Where Medicines Grow Well

A healing garden and landscape for their headquarters

Izhi-Minoging Mashkikiwan, translated in English to “Place Where Medicines Grow Well”, is a healing garden stewarded by the Cheboiganing Burt Lake Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, located at their headquarters in Brutus, MI. This garden is the main feature of a landscape design proposal created in on-going collaboration with the Burt Lake Band and landscape designer, Eva Roos, through her graduate work at University of Michigan. The healing garden tells the story of traditional Anishinaabeg principles and teachings encoded in the Ojibwe Medicine Wheel and symbolized through plant choices and placement. The garden features over 40 different perennial plant species, all native to the Great Lakes. The planting design is inspired by traditional Ojibwe floral beadwork, with each plant considered as a bead in a beading pattern. Learn more about the history of the Cheboiganing Band, and the historic events that inspired the idea of a healing garden. You can also see the Band featured at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in an exhibit, Future Cache, by Andrea Carlson.

This page contains a word list for every plant who lives in Izhi-Minoging Mashkikiwan. Four names are given – their Anishinaabemowin name, its direct translation to English, the common English name, and its Latin genus and species. Metal name plaques accompany plants within the garden for those who visit.

Thoughtful design ensures low maintenance, four-seasons of visual and sensory interest, and creates a space to support physical, mental, and cultural healing. Studying relationships between plant species determined how to create the plant communities associated with each direction on the Medicine Wheel. Four handmade cedar benches look towards a fire pit in the garden’s center. Izhi-Minoging Mashkikiwan is a gathering place for the community, for learning, to host traditional ceremonies, and to collectively remember experiences — all encircled by a protective and vibrant family of Great Lakes native plants.

The Burt Lake Band and Eva Roos worked together in the summer of 2021 to begin installation of the garden. Through multiple community planting days and gifts of plants, labor, artistry, time, and love, the garden came to life. The Burt Lake Band headquarters now also features additional elements of the original landscape design proposal:

• Enji-Baashkaabigwaniing, translated as ‘Flowering Meadow’ is a small-scale seeded prairie, hosting native plants which thrive in full sun and sandy soils.
• Wiingashkojiimaanan, or ‘Sweetgrass Canoes’, are canoes sunken into the soil, creating a naturally wetter environment, home to lush families of sweetgrass.
• Giizhikikaaning, or ‘Cedar Grove’, features young cedars with plaques memorializing beloved members of the Burt Lake Band who’ve recently walked on.
• Anamikikaag Gitigaaning, or ‘Welcoming Garden, is a humble garden which greets visitors on their way to Izhi-Minoging Mashkikiwan, introducing many of the upcoming plants.

The Cheboiganing Burt Lake Band and Eva Roos continue to update and care for the garden! In summer of 2023, Ojibwe artist, Andrea Carlson, will work with the Band on interpretive signage in Anishinaabemowin to guide visitors through the garden. In the meanwhile, the plants are growing beautifully with amazing vigor. The garden is ever-changing as the plants teach us about their preferences, needs, and nuances of their community. It’s wonderful to watch them grow, and we’re so grateful for how they heal us already. It’s clear they’re happy to be home.

Note: The Healing Garden is not currently open to the public as it is a healing space specifically for the Burt Lake Band. Please engage with it online. You may contact the Band’s executive director, Nola Parkey, if you would like special permission to visit. The Band would appreciate any support in continuing to build their garden.

If you would like to visit the site of the actual burnout you can visit the Chaboiganing Nature Preserve. You could also connect with the Burt Lake Band’s Facebook page to learn when their annual Memorial Walk takes place.

This garden includes plants that support one another. If you want to learn more about those relationships and how it might reflect your own life connections and relationships, download our Relationship Garden Worksheet.

Gichimiigwechiwigo Michael Zimmerman Jr. gii-naadamawiyangid. We thank him for his help as we worked to find the most common or most logical name for every plant. Please note that some of these names are not currently used often but all of them are based on the use or characteristics of the plant. We welcome any feedback you may have or information about alternate names used by speakers of Anishinaabemowin in your community.

Waabanong

Garden-Giiwedinong

Garden-Zhaawanong

Garden-Ningaabiianong