(Left to right) Pat Collins, Wilbert Fish, and Sally Fish show off the products of the Blackfeet Community College greenhouse. Photo by Joe Fisher

When Wilbert Fish started fighting wild land forest fires 27 years ago, his father Louis Fish gave him a black root that he called “snakeroot” and said, “Take this and put it on your boots. It will keep rattlesnakes from biting you. Also rub it around the place that you sleep, and you will not have any visitors in the night.”  He told him that if he was starting to develop a cold or flu on the fire line, to chew on the plant. It would make him feel better. His father was giving him Echinacea.

Blackfeet Indians have used Echinacea for treating ailments ranging from colds to cancer for generations. While antibiotics combat bacteria directly, this traditional medicine improves our bodies’ ability to ward off infections by making our immune system more proficient in fighting bacteria and abnormal cells. So when Fish helped initiate the Greenhouse Project at Blackfeet Community College, he considered Echinacea propagation essential in the list of medicinal, ceremonial, and nutritional plants he wanted to propagate.

Initiated in 1998, the Greenhouse Project results from a joint endeavor of Montana State University Extension Service, the Blackfeet Tribe, the National Park Service, and Montana State University. The geodesic dome measures 42 feet in diameter with the potential for 150,000 plants. The project also includes an adjacent 30’ x 50’ shade house designed for preparing plants and mixing soils and an outdoor classroom on a 20-acre plot of wetland. Many of the plants grown in the wetland are for ceremonial purposes, such as sweet grass, horsetail, mint, wild strawberry, dogwood, and rabbit willow.

Overall, Fish has been successful at propagating and distributing Echinacea to individuals for small plot cultivation and personal medicinal purposes, despite one serious setback. Students and staff planted 5,000 seedlings at a tribal ranch, which then fell prey to the Canadian Ground Squirrel. Even so, Fish is determined to reintroduce this valuable medicinal plant to the Blackfeet Reservation. “I can recall my mother and Cecile Horn picking Echinacea on Two Medicine up until the 1970s, so I know that it is native to this area.”

The large greenhouse is essential on the frigid Blackfeet Reservation, adjacent to the Canadian border in Montana. In the controlled environment, many different medicinal plants grow, including comfrey, mint, silver sagebrush, gum weed, sweet clover, yellow dock, buffalo grass, Indian blanket flower, yarrow, dandelion, fire weed, fleabane, wild strawberry, and huckleberry. Fish and his crew of staff and students also produce some 5,000 species of native plants for restoration projects in nearby Glacier National Park, along with 25,000 trees for Bureau of Land Management projects.

Fish’s efforts have attracted the attention of Historically Black Colleges, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and educational leaders interested in the economic potential of native medicinal plants. Several recently visited the tribal college to meet with Fish and discuss the research and economic potential of the tribal college greenhouse project’s work. Echinacea is one of the most highly demanded medicinal plants on the market, according to one of the recent visitors, Rao S. Mentreddy, PhD., an agronomist with the Agricultural Research Station at Fort Valley State University (Georgia). His institution is interested in researching the number of days needed for planting, seed germination, and growing; fertilizer requirements; and how to best harvest and package medicinal plants.

Dr. Samuel L. Donald is the regional research director for 18 of the Historically Black Land Grant Universities. He envisions collaboration between his organization and 1994 (tribal college) land grant institutions. “In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks, it has become evident that as a country we are no stronger than our weakest link, and I see relationships such as this as a perfect way to strengthen the country through our educational and agricultural arm,” he said.

Dr. Earl Old Person has great respect for Fish and what he is attempting to accomplish. A spiritual leader and chief of the Blackfeet Tribe, Old Person has been a member of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council for most of the past 50 years. In the opening address he presented to the 2001 Montana State Legislature, he called upon the state and the Indian people “to bring back the things that made us prosper.”

He describes how Native people were enticed away from traditional healing. “I recall when I was a translator for the older people in the 1940s and ‘50s. The Indian people were still using the old ways of doctoring,” he said. “We didn’t have the kind of facilities we do now, so people were doctoring themselves. The Indian Health Service employed Community Aides, similar to the Community Health Representative (CHR) we have today, to go out and check people and encourage them to try the services. Very reluctantly they did since they were very proud of the way they healed. This ended our way!” Now that the Indian people are dependent upon such services, Old Person said they are often told that the services are not available; there have been cutbacks.

Old Person notes that Fish’s father (Louis Fish) and grandfather (Fish Wolf Robe) were healers of the Blackfeet with many methods of healing. In addition to the healing properties of herbs and roots, Old Person also alludes to healers’ supernatural powers. “I see Wilbert’s efforts at the community college as a continuation of a line of healers. By identifying individuals with a family history in this area and working to nurture those abilities, he is bringing back those things that made us prosper.”

Lester R. Johnson, III, M.Ed. (Blackfeet) is a doctoral student in educational leadership/technology at the University of Montana. He serves as a consultant for Blackfeet Community College and other community colleges, universities, public schools, community and tribal development efforts.