Sheila Bautz
Special to the Herald
Mark Monsebroten, known as The Blind Trapper, has an extensive wealth of knowledge about wild medicinal plants and food. His experiences extend to wildlife survival, trapping, fishing and hunting. As a result, Monsebroten has attained an extensive, respected status for his holistic food harvesting and food supply. To many, he is a Medicine Man. The Blind Trapper’s own medical journey led him further on the path to holistic healing.
In 2014, Monsebroten was dealing with a vision problem that was becoming progressively worse. While he still had some vision left, he began researching various demographics to relocate to and explore. It was during this time he discovered the Saskatchewan River Delta region.
“I wanted to just go and try to live off grid before my vision was gone. I started doing some investigation on it, the history,” explained Monsebroten. “I realized that it’s like a really diverse ecosystem where there’s a lot of stuff that doesn’t grow other places. I moved off grid with no running water or power. I just had a couple dogs and tried to get a garden going and do the off-grid thing.”
The Saskatchewan River Delta is the largest inland river delta in North America. It is the location point where the North and South Saskatchewan River meet. The Delta is part of a watershed spread across the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. It is considered to be one of the most unique landscapes in the world due to the various wetlands, shallow lakes and river channels in the Boreal Forest setting.
“It ended up my vision got too bad, but while I was up there, I really learned a lot about how to live without the help of pharmacies and pharmaceuticals, supermarkets and stuff like that,” explained Monsebroten. “When it comes to the pharmaceutical companies, I believe pharmaceutical companies make customers, they don’t make cures. That’s what made the decision for me to decide to start looking at something different than all these pills. Within nine months of moving to the bush, I went from six prescriptions down to zero.”
Natural remedies and nature’s medicinal pharmacy on the landscape provides the ingredients to heal many ailments. In childhood, Monsebroten was keenly interested in medicinal plants. In his youth, he relayed how he initially received a great deal of training from his grandmother.
“My grandmother came from Poland in Eastern Europe, and she was really super knowledgeable with the herbal practices of European people,” said Monsebroten. “We all come from the Boreal Forest and you know, it’s over there in Eastern Europe, and it’s here.”
While in the Saskatchewan River Delta, Monsebroten found an abundance of various plant species in their natural habitat. Within the Indigenous community in the area, he met with the Elders to discuss the versatility and abundance of the various medicinal plants. Monsebroten also sought their guidance on what they wanted done in order to begin harvesting the wild vegetation.
“The first thing that the Indigenous Elders wanted was to make sure that everything was sustainable and that there would be something there for tomorrow,” he relayed with a deep level of respect for the Indigenous culture expressed in his voice. “So, we looked at different sustainable harvesting processes and came up with a harvest plan. We then found markets for some larger quantities of a number of different plants that grow there.”
The crew of harvesters consist of local Indigenous residents who collect the medicinal plants on their traditional territories. Emphasis on traditional values and a deep respect for the land ensures that they do not disrupt the natural environment. They will not collect anything within 100 meters of roadsides. During the harvest, parts of the plants are respectfully cut from the main vegetation.
Monsebroten’s team of harvesters also received additional education on sustainable harvesting as a prerequisite for collecting the wild medicinal plants. The educational program entailed a required four-day course to learn various skills, such as wilderness survival. In addition, Monsebroten and his team built drying sheds.
From 2017 to 2021, Monsebroten continued sustainable harvesting and attendance at festivals and markets with his holistic food supplies. Once Covid emerged, Monsebroten found himself experiencing a surge of patrons who wanted his help with their medical issues. With his previous ailments healed and his holistic food supply business doing well, people noticed. They had watched him lead by example and trusted the results they witnessed.
“I had a lot of people that were coming to me for different types of chronic or health issues they were having, as they saw me move to the Delta knowing I had been on a number of medications from the doctor when I moved. Within about 12 months of moving to the Delta, I was perfectly healthy and not taking the prescription medications anymore.”
Along with medicinal sustainable harvesting, and the increase in Monsebroten’s popularity, his brand emerged. Although he was healthy, his eye vision continued to worsen. In many cultures, poor eyesight or blindness is a physical trait and spiritual reality for many authentic seers and medicine people. Monsebroten’s transformation continued, as he now became known as The Blind Trapper.
In 2020, he appeared on Trapping Inc TV Series, Season 6, in Episode 6 entitled The Blind Trapper. As a way of life, The Blind Trapper hunts, fishes and traps, thus his trademark name emerged, which branded him. The episode is available on YouTube for interested viewers.
“I got a huge social media following from the Trapping Inc TV Series episode and it’s kind of bloomed since,” said The Blind Trapper. “We’ve kind of cut down on the large harvesting and concentrated more into the medicinal aspect of the business. We have and offer 50 different individual medicinal plants in dried form. We also have a number of different wild berries and mushrooms when they’re in season.”
The Blind Trapper and his local harvesters generally will not pull roots on a majority of the plants, but there are exceptions. The exceptions include common medicinal roots, such as Dandelion roots, Seneca Snakeroot and Rat root. In addition, the wild medicinal harvesting crew have a harvesting formula guideline that honours the wild medicinal plants.
“We only take a maximum of 1/3 of the natural plant that’s there,” explained The Blind Trapper. “We leave 1/3 for the animals, 1/3 to replenish the environment, and then we take 1/3. We’re very, very conscious about where we collect our plants, too.”
The Blind Trapper also revisits the areas he harvests to check on the plants and vegetation and assess the harvested area. Through the sustainable harvest practices, the floral and various wild medicinal plants flourish due to their harvest method. It is comparable to pruning plants. Pruning encourages the vegetation and medicinal plants to become more robust with foliage and flowers. The pruning process also encourages healthy growth and fruitfulness.
“I was back looking at the plants we harvested the other day, and they are perfectly healthy. You can’t even see they’ve been harvested,” said The Blind Trapper.
Plants and grasses used for smudge with spiritual purposes, meditations and sacred ceremonies are also collected by The Blind Trapper and his crew. As everything contains energy, particularly in the natural world, various smudges have various effects and properties for different purposes and spiritual practices. The sacred ceremony of smudging creates a smoke that speaks to and sends signals to the Higher Power, The Creator. Smudge is incorporated in spiritual and religious worship ceremonies in every culture.
“We have a lot of people that are interested in the spiritual aspect. We collect a lot of smudging plants,” said The Blind Trapper. “Cedar, which didn’t really grow in some places, we have that. We collect a couple different types of sage and sweet grass as well, but in those cases, we take very, very small quantities of the plant when it is not really common. We have a local person that has planted some ceremonial tobacco, and we also have that put into bundles.”
Through his vast experience, The Blind Trapper noted that genetics play a factor in how quickly a medicinal remedy works. He also emphasized that food is medicine while explaining that this is due to the genetic connection to the land, the foliage and the environment. For instance, cultural groups have foods that they thrive on because their ancestors consumed those particular foods for centuries. Yet, the same diet can cause a sore stomach in a person from another culture.
“One thing I found about the medicines between the different communities is — if the medicinal plant is native to your community, the medicine works faster and stronger for you. Medicinal plants don’t work the same on everybody,” The Blind Trapper explained. “And you should always talk to a medical professional before you go into some type of holistic cure. That’s very important because I’m not a doctor, I’m a student who’s just learning stuff being passed down from knowledge and personal experience.”
Saskatchewan residents are the majority of The Blind Trappers’ market base. The medicinal products available include medicinal teas, seasonings, syrups, extracts, dried fruits, dried mushrooms, and dried roots. At the markets The Blind Trapper attends, spiritual smudging kits with different smudges and mixtures are also prepared and available for purchase.
Mark Monsebroten, The Blind Trapper, frequents the Prince Albert Markets. He also attends other Farmer’s Markets and Festivals throughout central to northern Saskatchewan. His daughter, Megan Moor, handles all Monsebroten’s social media pages, including his Blind Trapper Facebook page and Tik Tok, where she lists the places and dates they will be attending festivals, events and markets. Moor attends the Wakaw Farmer’s Market on behalf of her father every Saturday.
