GW, I've never heard of sweetgrass. Is that an herb? Do you grow it from seed or plants or cuttings? What flavor does it impart to the food? Sorry for the 20 questions.
Wikipedia has an informative article on sweetgrass and its uses, thought it doesnt' mention that the Great Lakes region also has native sweetgrass.
My Native American Heritage is that of Chippewa, or Ojibwa. In fact, my mother's maiden name was Ojibwa. On my father's side, there is Cherokee in the mix ( have 1/4 blood quantum for both, then throw in another 1/4 German, followed by Scottish, Irish, and a hint of French, yep, that's me, a regular mutt
). Sweetgrass is harvested by many in my tribe (Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians).
It's funny though. To look at me, you wouldn't guess that I had any Native American in me. I had white-blonde hair aas a child, which turned darker as I grew older to it's now medium brunette color, and have blue eyes. Two of my sisters look nearly 100% Native American, and one sister looks 100% Irish. We all had the same mother, and my odest sister and I shared the same father (Mom divorced my Dad when I was about 3 and I lived with her and my step-father during the weekdays, and with my Dad on the weekends). My mother looked very Ojibwa, espcially as she grew older. I was the only blonde-haired, blue-eyed one of the bunch. I used to get some good-natured ribbing by relatives and freinds of the family that I must have been the mailman's kid. But my Dad had green eyes and had light-brown hair as a child. And as I said, my mother's father was full-blodded German, with her mother being full-blooded Ojibwa. On my father's side, there is probably some black in the family as well, thoigh I don't know if I have any in my direct bloodline. Cherokees often intermaried with African/American. So I am truly a man of many races, and consider all of them equal in value. I am a child of my Creator, and all other titles were created by mankind, and aren't so important.
Wow! Did I ever get off-topic. Sorry 'bout that. Here's the link to that sweetgrass article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweetgrass I'm gonna see if I can be more useful on another thread now.
Seeeeeeya; Goodweed of the North