MOTAHKOMIKUK — Standing at the narrows that separate Big and Long lakes, Matthew Dana II curled his fingers around the base of a sweet flag shoot and pried its root from the boggy earth.
He snapped it in two to reveal its light interior and release its earthen scent.
Once dried, flag root — or kiwhosuwasq, which translates to muskrat root, given the rodent’s affinity for the plant — is a traditional Passamaquoddy medicine used to treat, among other things, colds and indigestion.
