Mi’kmaq designs featured red, yellow, black and white long before colonists brought packaged dyes to Cape Breton.
So, where did the colours come from? Red (mekwe’k), in particular, is a notoriously difficult dye colour to get from plants so the origin of these early reds has been the basis for some intriguing detective work for me. The main players in this story are a large prickly mammal called porcupine (matues) and a rather unassuming little local weed called stiff marsh bedstraw (essawiaqkek).
The porcupine provided the decorative material and the dye came from the roots of the weed. Little beads may be used to adorn many modern crafts but the pre-contact Mi’kmaq inhabitants of the Bras d’Or Lake Biosphere used coloured porcupine quills to bring design interest to many things like furniture, boxes, baskets and clothing.
It is a traditional skill that has been passed down through the generations. Porcupines do not live on Cape Breton Island, which is an interesting story in itself. Their quills were obtained from mainlanders by trade. The quills themselves are white, so the first step in the early designs was the dyeing process.
On this side of the Atlantic, according to Ruth Holmes Whitehead in her book called Micmac Quillwork, the striking red porcupine quills were tinted using the roots of stiff marsh bedstraw. In the Mi’kmaq language this unassuming little plant can be called ‘essawiaqkek” meaning “the plant used for dyeing.” This name was given to me by Mi’kmaq botanist Tuma Young. The scientific species name of stiff marsh bedstraw (Galium tinctorium) also alludes to its colourful uses.
Experiments by modern botanists Bohr and Lindsay published in an issue of Material Culture Review in 2009 have shown that producing a beautiful red quill was a skilled process, not just boiling roots and quills together. Subtle differences in water chemistry and temperature can make a large difference in the outcome. Few people had the skill to successfully dye and the secrets of the process were carefully guarded. It was said that one had to avoid gazing into the dye pot or the dye would fade. The process was one of the jobs under the control of women exclusively which may explain the lack of specific information documented by early male missionaries. For example, Nicolas Denys and William Ganong in 1908 stated that:
“They have some very beautiful colours, especially their flame-colour, which surpasses all that we see in this country of this nature. It is made from a little root as thick as a thread. As for the leaf, they are not willing to show it, something which is unusual with them.”
Stiff marsh bedstraw is a member of the bedstraw family which also includes coffee and madder (Rubia tinctorum), that famous European plant originally used to dye the uniforms of the English redcoat army. Madder as a dyestuff has had a long history on the other side of the Atlantic. By about 1000 BC the Greeks and early Romans mastered the skills to apply red dye from madder to textiles. Natural dyes became one of the luxury trades of the Roman Empire.
So, I was curious about how this wiry little weed got its English name because it is the last thing that I would want to lie on in my bed. Apparently the people who lived here before me were not so picky. I have been told that early colonists added the pleasantly scented plants to straw to stuff pillows and mattresses. It is a very versatile plant, and masses of bedstraw were spread around the ground edges of wigwams to inhibit the entry of “pis” (Mi’kmaq word for fleas and ticks). Not only was bedstraw a dye and insect deterrent, but it also had medicinal uses. For example, the Ojibwa made teas with whole plants to treat respiratory tract infections.
There are over 600 species of Galium worldwide and, according to the Flora of Nova Scotia, 12 in Cape Breton (Unama’ki). We know that at least three of these species have been used for dyeing. We are most interested in the distribution of these versatile plants. If you are out and about in the Biosphere take your cell phone and send a picture of your sightings to I Naturalist at: https://www.inaturalist.org/, a web-based platform which is very easy to use.
Dr. Annamarie Hatcher is a consulting ecologist, a board member of the Bras d’Or Lake Biosphere Reserve Association. For more information about the Bras d’Or Lake Biosphere Reserve Association, please visit: http://blbra.ca/or our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/blbra/.