Northeastern Ethnobotany

For hundreds of generations, Northeastern native peoples have relied on our diversity of plants for food, fiber, tools, dyes, medicine and more. Join us for a guided walk through meadow and forest habitat to identify native plants and trees and learn about what they can provide to humans past and present. As we go, we’ll touch, smell, and taste what we find - including a beverage tea made with traditional native herbs!

About our Guide: Justin Wexler is an ethnoecologist that has spent the last 20 years conducting archival and ethnographic research to understand the history, culture, and land management practices of the Northeastern Native people of the Hudson and Delaware Valleys. Justin is not native and he does not represent any native peoples - his experience and understanding comes from two decades of academic research, ethnographic work with contemporary native peoples, and a lifetime of studying, growing, and working with native plants. In every program he leads, Justin strives to help people understand who the native peoples of the Hudson Valley are, their historic lifeways before colonization, the complex history of the last three centuries, and where their contemporary communities are today. Through Wild Hudson Valley, Justin and Anna are able to support contemporary Lenape and Mohican people with accommodations and a teaching space to represent themselves and their beautiful languages and culture in their ancestral homeland. Proceeds from this event will go directly towards offsetting the travel expenses of native guests who visit this summer.