Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Artist

Jennie Brown, Black Ash Baskets.

A member of The Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, comes from a long family line of professional basket makers representing the Potawatomi Nation. In the 1830's large amounts of Potawaotmi were forcibly removed to Kansas where they lived . Many of the Potawatomi returned to Michigan and relied on basket making for revenue. Now the traditional art of basket making is considered a very important part of The Pokagon culture.

At the age of seventeen, Jennies uncle, Edward Pigeon, began teaching Jennie how to make baskets. Since the age of seventeen Jennie has perfected basket making and teaches the tradition at Potawatomi gatherings.

Jennie has passed her family tradition of basket making on to her daughter, Jamie who also is a very well known basket maker among the Potawatomi nation.

Black Ash Tree facts link

The black ash tree has a very soft bark and can be easily reduced to powder by rubbing it.  It likes growing in cold wet areas so it lives in a Northern climate.  The black ash tree can grow to 60 feet and is being threatened by the emerald ash bore, a wood boring beetle accidentlly introduced to North America by logging back around 1998 and has since killed millions of trees.  It currently threatens 7 billion ash trees.