GRAND FORKS – It was chilly for an August morning, and a few raindrops fell lazily from the overcast sky and carved divots in the soil, but the grade school students crouched in the dirt around the Winship Elementary sign paid little mind. Watched over and assisted by a handful of teachers and parents, the kids dug holes in the soil and filled them with black-eyed Susans; a clump of lean stems that sprouted purple flowers at their tips; a patch of tall grass; a set of leafy stalks with baby sunflowers blooming at the ends. Megan Baker, a Winship teacher, coaxed students over and supplied them with gardening gloves and tools.
ADVERTISEMENT “Anytime you can get hands-on learning like this, they’re excited,” said Baker. Winship teachers including Baker plan to use the garden, which has been replanted entirely with plants indigenous to North Dakota, in their curriculum this academic year. It’s one of several efforts to reintroduce residents to the native flora that grew freely on the prairie generations ago – and to the medical and holistic purposes these plants have and continue to serve among Native Americans.
The Ojibwe people boiled the tall grass in the Winship garden – little bluestem – to address stomach aches and gas. The Omahas used it in a wash to relieve fever. Black-eyed Susans, known scientifically as rudbeckia hirta, could be used as an immune stimulant, and was made into teas and washes for a broad array of ailments, while sunflower was made into a .