I have observed many zigzag stone borders around many riparian
zones over many years, considered how they may have been Indigenous made fuel
breaks that kept a green cover over streams and around swamps, even considered
them as containing a fire that burned over those riparian zones sometimes,
maybe, all things being possible. There’s also been cases where a linear row
travels through a swampy area, the stonework looking less like the bricks and
blocks of post contact constructions and more like the style I suspect to be
Indigenous in nature, containing possible effigies and strikingly beautiful
stones.
I have wondered many times just what could have been happening
in these places, what was possibly or most likely gathered or collected or
better yet what was tended in those wet and boggy places 300 and 400 years ago
by Indigenous People. I’ve looked many times to see if I could find perhaps
cranberries growing among the sphagnum moss as I’ve read it does, but I’ve
never found one since…
Since this little tributary stream flows into a place called
Cranberry Swamp and Cranberry Pond, I’ve begun to wonder if this stonework was
somehow used to control the flow of water into the Swamp to encourage the
growth of this food resource at some time or other that could include the
pre-contact.
I can find a metric ton or two of information about modern
methods used to grow and harvest cranberries, but no hint of a possible method
used by Indigenous Peoples everywhere an Indigenous word for cranberry exists. It
is simply stated that the cranberry was gathered in the wild by Native
Americans.
Cranberry references and links:
"The cranberry, along with the blueberry and Concord grape,
is one of North America's three native fruits that are commercially grown.
Cranberries were first used by Native Americans, who discovered the wild
berry's versatility as a food, fabric dye and healing agent. Today, cranberries
are commercially grown throughout the northern part of the United States and
are available in both fresh and processed forms.
The name "cranberry" derives from the Pilgrim name
for the fruit, "craneberry", so called because the small, pink
blossoms that appear in the spring resemble the head and bill of a Sandhill
crane. European settlers adopted the Native American uses for the fruit and
found the berry a valuable bartering tool..."
How Cranberries Grow: "Cranberries 101" - Water
Use
The Massachusetts Growing Season...
The old rule-of-thumb states that cranberry vines need
approximately an inch of water a week to grow. Growers use water to protect
cranberries from frost and hot weather in summer. As a general rule, each acre
of cranberries will use seven to ten feet of water to meet all production,
harvesting and flooding needs. There are two main ways cranberry growers bring
water onto the bogs – through sprinkler systems and through flooding…
Flooding
The other practice when cranberry growers use water on the bog
is flooding. Flooding is so important in cranberry cultivation that bogs where
flooding is not possible are no longer considered profitable. Cranberry growers
use flooding as a management tool to protect the plants from the cold, drying
winds of winter, to harvest and remove fallen leaves and to control pests.
Winter Flood
Cranberry vines may be injured or killed by severe winter
weather. This injury, winterkill, is prevented by protecting the vines with a
winter flood. The winter flood may be applied as early as December 1 and
remains on the bog as long as winterkill conditions are present or forecasted.
Generally, growers hold the flood no later than March 15.
Late Water
Another flooding technique cranberry growers use is known as
late water. Late water floods have been used since the 1940’s and have been
used to protect the bog from spring frost and to provide some pest control. In
modern cranberry production, holding late water refers to the practice of
withdrawing the winter flood in March then re-flooding the bog in later April
for one month.
The Freetown Swamp Wildlife Management Area (WMA) consists
of 337 acres of shrub swamp, Atlantic white cedar swamp and cranberry bog
reservoir, with small areas of mixed upland forest in the Town of Freetown. The
property was acquired in 2006 by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and
Wildlife and is managed for fisheries and wildlife habitat and open space.
Common vegetation on the WMA includes red maple, sweet pepperbush, highbush
blueberry, leatherleaf, swamp azalea, sphagnum moss and Atlantic white cedar,
with uplands dominated by white pine, red oak and common greenbrier. Cotton
grass, sundew and other bog plant species are also present.
History
The Freetown Swamp Wildlife Management Area contains one of
the largest remaining shrub swamps in southeastern Massachusetts. The WMA and
abutting private cranberry bogs were likely once part of a much larger Atlantic
white cedar swamp than what exists today. Historic topographic maps of the area
show two perennial stream channels winding throughout the area, which likely
supported wild brook trout populations prior to the disturbances to the area
caused by the creation of cranberry bogs. Native Americans and early settlers likely
made use of the Atlantic white cedar trees for construction of shelters and
fence posts. Jacob’s Mountain, which is more of a hill located nearby, would
have been a likely area for Native Americans to set up seasonally because it
overlooked the large cedar swamp and provided a good area to access the area’s
natural resources.
Within the remaining cedar and shrub swamp there are several
very large glacial erratics (boulders left behind by receding glaciers) that
can clearly be seen on aerial photos of the WMA.
" Although the native Americans did not
cultivate it (called sasemineash by the Narragansett tribe), they gathered
berries and used them in pemmican, a mixture of dried meat or fish and berries
that was pounded into a pulp, shaped into a cake and dried in the sun. They
were the first to make it into a sweetened sauce using maple sugar. The berries
were also eaten raw. Cranberries were used as a poultice for wounds and when it
was mixed with cornmeal it was an excellent cure for blood poisoning. The juice
was used as a dye to brighten the colors of their blankets and rugs.
In North America, Native Americans were the first to use
cranberries as food. Native Americans used cranberries in a variety of foods,
especially for pemmican, wound medicine, and dye. Calling the red berries
Sassamanash, Algonquian peoples may have introduced cranberries to starving
English settlers in Massachusetts who incorporated the berries into traditional
Thanksgiving feasts. American Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall is credited
as first to farm cranberries in the Cape Cod town of Dennis around 1816. In the
1820s cranberries were shipped to Europe.[10] Cranberries became popular for
wild harvesting in the Nordic countries and Russia. In Scotland the berries
were originally wild-harvested but, with the loss of suitable habitat, the
plants have become so scarce that this is no longer done.
In 1550, James White Norwood made reference to Indians using
cranberries. In James Rosier's book The Land of Virginia there is an account of
Europeans coming ashore and being met with Indians bearing bark cups full of
cranberries. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, there is a 1633 account of the husband
of Mary Ring auctioning her cranberry-dyed petticoat for 16 shillings. In
1640's Key Into the Language Roger Williams described cranberries, referring to
them as "bearberries" because bears ate them. In 1648, preacher John
Elliott was quoted in Thomas Shepard's book Clear Sunshine of the Gospel with
an account of the difficulties the Pilgrims were having in using the Indians to
harvest cranberries as they preferred to hunt and fish. In 1663, the Pilgrim
cookbook appears with a recipe for cranberry sauce. In 1667, New Englanders
sent to King Charles 10 barrels of cranberries, 3 barrels of codfish and some
Indian corn as a means of appeasement for his anger over their local coining of
the Pine Tree shilling. In 1669, Captain Richard Cobb had a banquet in his
house (to celebrate both his marriage to Mary Gorham and his election to the
Convention of Assistance), serving wild turkey with sauce made from wild
cranberries. In the 1672 book New England Rarities Discovered author John
Josselyn described cranberries, writing:
"Sauce for the Pilgrims, cranberry or bearberry, is a
small trayling plant that grows in salt marshes that are overgrown with moss.
The berries are of a pale yellow color, afterwards red, as big as a cherry,
some perfectly round, others oval, all of them hollow with sower [sic]
astringent taste; they are ripe in August and September. They are excellent
against the Scurvy. They are also good to allay the fervor of hoof diseases.
The Indians and English use them mush, boyling [sic] them with sugar for sauce
to eat with their meat; and it is a delicate sauce, especially with roasted
mutton. Some make tarts with them as with gooseberries."
New England's Rarities Discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes,
Serpents, and ...
By John Josselyn
Page 119- 121: Cran Berry, or Bear Berry, because Bears use
much to feed upon them, is a fmall trayling Plant that grows in Salt Marfhes
that are over-grown with Mofs; the tender Branches (which are reddifh) run out
in great length, lying flat on the ground, where at diflances, they take Root,
over-fpreading fometimes half a fcore Acres, fometimes in fmall patches of about
a Rood or the like; the Leaves are like Box, but greener, thick and glittering;
the Bloflbms are very like the Flowers of [66] our EngliJJt Night Shade, after
which fucceed the Berries, hanging by long fmall foot ftalks, no bigger than a
hair; at firft they are of a pale yellow Colour, afterwards red, and as big as
a Cherry; fome perfectly round, others Oval, all of them hollow, of a fower
aftringent tafte; they are ripe in Augujt and September}
For the Scurvy. They are excellent againft the Scurvy.
For the heat in Feavers.
They are also good to allay the fervour of hot Diseases.
The Indians and English use them much, boyling them with
Sugar for Sauce to eat with their Meat; and it is a delicate Sauce, especially
for roasted Mutton: Some make Tarts with them as with Goose Berries.
Vine, much differing in the Fruit, all of them very fleshy,
some reasonably pleasant; others have a taste of Gun Powder, and these grow in
Swamps, and low wet Grounds. 1
1 Vaccinium
macrocarpum, Ait. Our author seems not to have known the European cranberry (V.
oxycoccus, L., the marish-wortes, or fenne-berries, of Gerard, p. 1419); which
is also found in our cold bogs, especially upon mountains. This is called by
Sir W. J. Hooker (Br. Fl., vol. i. p. 178), "far superior to the foreign
V. macrocarpon ;" but, from Gerard's account, it should appear that it was
formerly much less thought of in England than was ours (according to Josselyn)
here, by both Indians and English. Linnaeus speaks of the European fruit in
much the same way, in 1737, in his Flora of Lapland, where he says,
"BacccE hte a Lapponibus in usum cibarium non vocantur, nec facile ab
aliis nationibus, cum nimis acidce sint" (Fl. Lapp., p. 145): but corrects
this in a paper on the esculent plants of Sweden, in 1752; asking, not without
animation, "Harum vero cum saccharo prceparata gelatina, quid in mensis
nostris jucundius?" (Ama?n. Acad., t. iii. p. 86.) Our American cranberry
was probably the "sasemineash — another sharp, cooling fruit, growing in
fresh waters all the winter; excellent in conserve against fevers"—of R.
Williams, Key, /. c, p. 221. — Compare Masimin, rendered \_fruits\
"rougespetits." — liasles' Did., Abnaki, 1. c, p. 460.
New England's Rarities Discovered in Birds, Beasts, Fishes,
Serpents, and Plants of that Country (Google eBook)
John Josselyn 1865 - 169 pages
The Lenni-lenape Indians of New Jersey called the cranberry
"ibimi" meaning 'bitter berry.' They used this wild red berry as a
part of their food and as a symbol of peace and friendship. The Chippawas called
the cranberry "a'ni-bimin," the Alogonquin called it
"atoqua," and the Naragansetts called it "sasemineash."
Native Americans would eat it raw, mixed in with maple sugar, or with deer meat
(as a dried "Pemmican").
Early
settlers named the berry 'Craneberry' because the flowers looked like the head
of a sand crane.
Cranberries
were offered to the pilgrims at the first thanksgiving.
During
the days of the clipper ships, captains kept barrels of cranberries on board to
prevent scurvy.
To learn even more about the history of cranberries, click here.
Cranberries grown on the small, creeping vines of an
evergreen shrub commonly found in cold-water bogs and marshes. These vines support thick clusters of pink
flowers beginning in spring, which then give way to small, red berries in late
summer. Many American Indian tribes,
particularly the Algonquin and Wampanoag of New England, would wade into the
cranberry marshes to harvest ripe berries from Labor Day through October.
In contrast to the heavily sugared cranberry sauce popular
at today’s Thanksgiving celebrations, fresh cranberries have an extremely tart
or bitter taste. The Wampanoag and Lenni
Lenape (Delaware) tribes called the berries “ibimi,” meaning “bitter” or “sour
berries” (Kavasch, 48).
Uses:
Food
Cranberries were an important food source for many American
Indian tribes. The coastal Algonquin,
Wampanoag tribe holds a festival in Martha’s Vineyard each October to celebrate
the cranberry harvest. Similar festivals
were held in Cape Cod and farther south in Delaware where the Lenni Lanape chief,
Pakimintzen became famous for his annual cranberry holidays (Kavasch, 48).
Wampanoag Language Note: Wild Cranberries are called
sasumuneash in Wampanoag.
Pilgrim language note: The name cranberry is derived from
"craneberry", first named by early European settlers in America who felt
the expanding flower, stem, calyx, and petals resembled the neck, head, and
bill of a crane. In 17th century New England cranberries were sometimes called
"bearberries" as bears were often seen feeding on them.
The Wampanoag celebrate Cranberry Day on the second Tuesday
in October, and it is an excused absence for Wampanoag children enrolled in
Island schools. The following information about Cranberry Day is from the
Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah).
Gladys Widdiss, a Tribal elder, recalls cranberry days of
her youth.
“We picked for two or three days, enough for what we figured
we needed through the winter and more. While waiting for our elders to finish
picking in the afternoon, we would race cranberries down the dunes. We would
make a trough from the top of the dunes to the bottom; sometimes snake like,
some times straight, and set the cranberries in a line at the top; push them to
start, and see whose reached the bottom first.”
Helen Manning, a Tribal elder, remembers arriving at the
bogs in an ox cart and filling up the carts with the cranberries they picked to
store them for the remainder of the year. She remembers that a friend’s parent,
another member of the Tribe, had a room in their house just for storing the
cranberries that had been picked during the three-day festival. Not having
central heating throughout the house kept the rooms cool, and the cranberries
lasted through the year. Helen remembers the story, “that my father, as a young
boy, used to go into the room and enjoy hearing the popping sound as he stepped
on the cranberries”. Helen said the cranberries were used for very simple
recipes. Her mother used them to make cranberry dumplings, cranberry sauce and
cranberry cobbler. Helen said everyone had a cow in those days, so the cobbler
would be served with fresh cream.
BUILDING THE BOGS
Building a cranberry bog was done mostly by hand. The first
thing that had to be done was to clear the area of trees and then to remove the
tree stumps. There were no chain saws to cut down the trees or bulldozers to
remove the tree stumps. Stumps were removed by hand using a prying device, a
1st-class lever. You would dig an area around the stump, then 3 or 4 persons
would keep pushing down on the long pry. Over a time, and after many
"heave hoes," the stump would begin to loosen. Let's compound this
from one stump to 10 or 20 acres of land with stumps to be removed. You will
then begin to get an idea of how much backbreaking work went into the making of
a 20-acre or more bog. There were bogs built that were 100 acres in area. Hundred
of trees were cut with saws and axes to clear the swamps. The blood and sweat
of many of the Cape Verdeans were left in the cranberry bogs that you see today
in your travels. Looking at the workers on the cranberry bogs today would lead
you to believe that a Cape Verdean never stepped foot on a cranberry bog. As a
young boy growing up, I worked along with my father mother and my brother in
the building of several cranberry bogs in Rochester and one small bog in West
Wareham. I have first hand-knowledge of what it was like to work in a muddy
swamp and how hard this work was. Cape Verdeans largely did the building and
maintenance of these bogs that you see today. That is why I am trying to
portray, not only to the present cranberry growers, but to the young Cape
Verdeans who never worked in a cranberry bog, just how much these Cape Verdeans
contributed to the building of the cranberry industry. In many instances Cape
Verdeans built cranberry bogs on property they owned close to their homes. What
these Cape Verdean men and women did is something to be proud of. Their hard
honest work is not something to be ignored as if it never happened. Most of the
younger generation is unaware of this part of their heritage. This was
backbreaking work done for minimal pay. It was an honest living, something that
my parents and all the early Cape Verdeans instilled in their children. This
was a great period, one that led to great things for the Cape Verdeans that
followed. These Cape Verdeans went on to build their homes something that Cape
Verdeans took great pride in. This is especially true of Cape Verdeans that
were brought up in the Cape area. I could go on about the great accomplishments
of the younger Cape Verdean, but this story is about the older, hard-working Cape
Verdean cranberry workers of yesteryear who are really the forgotten cranberry
workers.
PAKIHM is the Lenape word for cranberry. The famous chief
PAKIMINTZEN used the cranberry as a symbol of peace. Pakimintzen means
cranberry eater. PERKIOMEN Creek comes from the Lenape word Pakihomomink –
“where there are cranberries growing”. The cranberries were enjoyed fresh or
dried in soups, such as “succotash“ of cranberries, corn and beans. They were
also used in “pemmican“ where the cranberries were crushed, dried and combined
with dried venison (deer meat) and fat drippings. This mixture was then molded
into small “cakes” (loaves of bread). This would keep for a long time and was
good on a long trip.
