Tucked away in the serene forests of the Hubbard Lake community is Mashkiki Garden. The sounds of birds singing in the trees that tower over the small green cottage highlight the herb shops’ natural remedies in a tranquil environment.
Maryam Blackeagle is the founder and herbalist at Mashkiki Garden. She is descended from the Miami Wea Tribe, also known as Twightee, or the downriver people.
The term Mashkiki is Anishinaabemowin – a universal dialect among Great Lake Tribes – for “Power of the Earth”.
Blackeagle said the word is interpreted as medicine, but it is much more complex.
“We all have some type of higher power,” she said. “And that all combined together when we use that power of Earth -- we're getting back to our origin, to our own creation and that only is going to enhance our health.”
Having over 40 years of experience as a nurse and being a part of a world-wide herbalist guild has supplemented Blackeagles resources to make medicinal products, educate and provide client services.
She said the American herbalist guild hosts seminars and provides further education to all herbalists online.
“It's the spirit of helping so it's not a competition like nursing,” she said. “That's the most dog-eat-dog world (nursing). … So, we (herbalists) partner with each other because we all have the same mission. And when one does good, we all do good.”
Although she is a supporter of herbology, Blackeagle said she is not a doctor’s office.
“I'm not here to diagnose, prescribe or treat,” she said. “This is about education, empowering people so that they can make better informed decisions about their health care.
“I can be a liaison with doctors … you know, there's things that can be done to work together. I don't want it to be an opposing dichotomy. I think it should be complementary. We're not the alternative medicine, we are the original medicine.”
This is the first year Mashkiki Garden has been open. Blackeagle said she has been studying herbs for decades and this herb shop is something she has always wanted to do.
“It's just always been a passion,” she said. “And as a nurse, and as a single mom, I really didn't have time. It was just something that I dreamt about. … I always said someday I'll have a cabin … and I realized someday never comes.
“You have today. Either do it or let it go. So, I did it.”
With her cabin being a little ways in the woods, Blackeagle said it only adds to the experience of the shop being in a more casual, natural atmosphere which her customers thus far have agreed.
What are the health benefits of visiting an herbalist?
Blackeagle attained her master’s accreditation as an herbalist from the United Kingdom, where she thought she might’ve originally moved, but decided to stay although America has no official board or certification for herbology.
“This is the only country that really doesn't have that kind of respect for herbalists,” she said. “In some ways, that's a real challenge. But there's also some opportunities within that a freedom.
“You have to follow the rules. I cannot diagnose, treat that type of thing. And I can't make product claims. But I can educate people about the traditional uses of what I put in my products.”
With her background as a nurse, Blackeagle can apply the process of anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and drug interactions while adding the herbology and plant energetics aspects to complement and reduce those issues.
To define plant energetics, it is the energy and qualities that a plant carries. According to Simplee Natural’s energetics diagram, there are categories of herbs such as oily, sour, warming, cooling, salty and so on, with different affects.
For instance, flaxseed is an oily herb. This means it has an oily taste and texture with cooling, moistening and nourishing energetics that provide lubricative and mild laxative properties.
“It has to do with the flow of life that is within everything…” Blackeagle said. “Basically, it's the life force of plants and utilizing it in a good way. When you approach harvest, you must approach it in a good way. You must have a positive flow within you (while) you are doing this, with respect to the plant.”
Blackeagle said most modern medicine is meant to treat symptoms rather than the base of the problem.
“We are so used to pharmacology that's a quick fix,” she said. “And we are trained in our brain that change means better. But that's really symptomology. And that doesn't necessarily mean you're better.”
When using products that are created in a laboratory versus those available in nature, there are adverse reactions, Blackeagle said.
“They can't patent Mother Nature,” she said. “So, they have to go into the laboratory and synthesize it. And they can make a product that does that. But that comes with a wagon full of adverse reactions and concerns. So, if you can find the natural thing, that's much better for you.”
Mashkiki Garden offers a range of products whether its soaps, shampoos, body butters, teas or pain cream – all of them are made with herbs.
Blackeagle listed some of the herbs she uses in her products. For instance, her shampoo bars have horsetail root, similar to Minoxidil, for hair growth. And for some of her beauty products she uses calendula to reduce inflammation.
“What my real claim to fame is my medicinals,” she said.
From her own personal experience with dilated cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease that causes chronic pain, Blackeagle created a natural remedy that she said has helped her as well as many others.
She said those that deal with chronic pain in the United States are often given opioids, which are meant for acute pain relief, but not chronic.
“And if you have chronic pain, and you go to the doctor, and they don't want to give you the opioids, you know, what are you gonna do?” she said. “You're between a rock and a hard place.”
Blackeagle discussed how other drugs are then prescribed that are typically seizure medicines that end up having lasting affects on patient’s livers and the blood chemistry of their brain.
“We are just hopeless when it comes to chronic pain in this country,” she said. “So that's why I spent, you know, a couple of years deciding what I wanted to do with this. And it worked for me.”
After handing out little jars containing the pain cream at a local farmers’ market, she said she started to receive phone calls from numerous people saying how shocked they were with the results.
“There's people that have pulled up (to Mashkiki Garden) and it's like they're on this voyage,” Blackeagle said. “’Are you the one with the pain cream?’ And I can’t tell you what that does to my heart. It is that type of joy to be able to know that you're making a difference. I mean, that's what it's all about in this world.”
Blackeagle revealed some of the ingredients she uses in the pain cream such as triple purified emu oil imported from Australia which is supposed to reduce joint pain. Supplementing the oil is what is referred to as nervine herbs.
Blackeagle said nervine herbs are used to deal with the excitement of nerves such as muscle spasms, arthritis and inflammation.
To help with her own chronic pain, Blackeagle uses her herbs and the nervine cream, as well as fire cider to boost her immune system.
“I think this helps me in many ways more than the medication … I'm not against going to the doctor,” she said. “If somebody came to me with a compound fracture in their arm, I would send them to the hospital.
“Get it set, and then come back to me, and I'll teach you about herbs that will help that bone heal. You know, let's work together on that. I want to have that partnership in health care.”
Visiting her own doctor, a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Blackeagle said she highly recommends D.O. services due to their more holistic approaches.
When asked whether her doctor is involved in Blackeagles practice, she said her doctor understands what she does and encourages it.
Looking to the future
Currently, the herbology shop is open, however, Blackeagle is still in the works of putting together her garden by herself. There are a few plants in the process of growing, but there is still work to be done to finalize it.
Another challenge Blackeagle has faced is the lack of people that know Mashkiki Garden is in town. She said she hopes to do some seminars and workshops soon in Alpena to spread the word.
“I'm here,” she said. “I welcome anybody just to come and chat. Because I live here, my hours are casual, I usually put out a coffee pot or lemonade or whatever. And we can sit and talk. It's in confidence.”
Blackeagle’s vision remains strong for Mashkiki Garden as she spoke of the garden walks and plant identification discussions she hopes to host in the future.
When the garden is established, Blackeagle mentioned she would like to have a Tribe elder come out and bless it. She also wants to set up a trust fund for language education related to the Tribal community.
“Even if it's $1 a year, you know, that's $1 more than they had,” Blackeagle said.
Blackeagle is associated with Alliance of Native Seed Keepers which means she is receiving heritage seeds before they are genetically modified, some of them pre-colonial.
“I'm getting heritage seeds from around the world to get back to what the food should be, instead of this ‘Franken food’ that we’re eating,” she said. “All of these preservatives, the hormones, none of this is food. … the insects don't want to eat it. … Do we want to eat something that the insects don't want to eat?”
Although Blackeagle hopes to incorporate culinary works with her herbs, her focus as of now is medicinal.
“As a nurse, that's just been my path in life is to help people who have problems and have tried to make their lives a little easier,” she said.
Additionally, Blackeagle is in the process of putting together an official website, and people can visit her Facebook page at Mashkiki Garden.
From being a nurse to an herbologist
When Blackeagle was a nurse, she said she still dreamt of pursuing herbology. She has experience as a clinical supervisor for health agencies all over Michigan and worked with premature babies as well as the elderly in nursing homes.
“You know, we may be living longer, but the quality is not there. The depression, the side effects that I saw amongst the elderly, broke my heart.”
Blackeagle worked at a nursing home facility with 61 patients and had only two nurses’ aides alongside her. She talked about how they didn’t have anytime to individually care for patients and had to give medicine with methods such as the applesauce.
“You see how bitter and horrible it is, and they don't want it,” she said. “And then one night this gentleman looked at me and he said ‘I know you don't care about me.’ And I broke down crying because I did. But I also cared about the other 60 and it just … This is no way to take care of people.”
The longer Blackeagle was a nurse, she said the more she wanted to use a natural way to help people, “the way I think God intended.”
“I believe he (God) put a cure on this planet for everything but death,” she said. “You know it's there. We just have to find it and utilize it and appreciate it.”
When her own health deteriorated due to her heart disease, Blackeagle could no longer work as a nurse. She said she had herbology to fall back on because she felt she had to do something to help others.
That is when she took matters into her own hands and searched for a property until she stumbled upon Hubbard Lake where she is now.
“I've been in Michigan since the 90s,” she said. “But never been here. And I was following the realtor. And there's that one special spot down on the trail where you see all the tree roots and everything. And my spirit just said you're home.”
Blackeagle explained how time is precious to her to get the garden established while she can and to continue to live up to her personal mission of helping others through herbology.
“I want to be able to leave this place a better place than where I came and if that is to be my legacy, that eased somebody's pain, I helped somebody that has asthma, these are good things,” she said. “And to meet who my higher power is, you know, the creator of us all, that would be a good standing to meet him.”