A trip back in time

It's a hot one here today. The heat and humidity has finally caught up with us. Temperatures are in the mid 80s, with dew points in the mid 60s.

We are home today, trying to beat the heat. A good time to tell you about our visit to the Indian museum a week or so ago.

This was in Lac du Flambeau, WI, about 75 miles away. We had seen fliers about the museum and decided we wanted to see for ourselves.

I have always been interested in the Ojibwe culture that existed here before the Europeans arrived in the 19th century. I have some books about the Ojibwe life and culture, and I've been to a powwow or two. Exceptionally colorful events. If you ever have a chance, you'll never regret the time and effort it takes to go to a powwow. I plan to provide proof of that later this summer.

The museum was quiet. It was a weekday, so not many were there, and we had plenty of chance to walk the halls and study everything to our hearts' content.



That's the main hall. The museum is built in a circle, just as the circle of life, with dioramas for each of the seasons in the middle. This is summer.



The description of summer is beautiful. You will get to read it a little later.

Here are some canoes. The one on the wall was built in the 1930s. The large one at the bottom was recovered from the bottom of a lake about 30 years ago (they deliberately sunk their canoes in winter, to better preserve them), and it is estimated to be from between 1750 and 1850.



And then, when it comes to craftsmanship and clothing ... It's amazing, beautiful stuff. Look at this basket, which was made in the last century.



To be specific, it was made in 1999. (Last century, right?)

Then the clothing. Look at this display.



Isn't that something? Here is a display of moccasins and gloves. You can't get stuff like this at the mall, at any price.



Fascinating place. The Ojibwes, if you don't know, originally were in upstate New York but were forced to move to our region by the government and settlers, as part of treaties. They were also called the Chippewas. They called themselves "Anishanabe," which means "the people."

Once "civilization" caught up to them, they set up "Indian schools" for their children. Here is what one display said about them:

The Bureau of Indian Affairs Boarding School opened in Lac du Flambeau in 1895. These government boarding schools were operated throughout the United States. A part of their charge was the forced assimilation of Native People into the dominant European American culture. Children were removed from their families at the age of five through their teens and were boarded in the school. Their Ojibwe language was forbidden (the children were punished if caught), the boys' hair was cut short, they were not allowed to wear traditional clothing, and all other Native traditions were to be eradicated. The class work was aimed at teaching industrial arts to the boys and domestic arts to the girls. These policies had a tremendous long-term negative impact on the children and their families. It was not until the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s that this policy was reversed and the boarding schools were encouraged and indeed allowed to teach and promote the teaching of Native Culture to the students. The school closed after the enactment of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934.

Now we're in summer, and from the description by the summer display, it sounds like a paradise on earth.

"Nii bin -- Summer" A time for pow-wow and games, planting gardens, gathering berries and herbs, making canoes and tanning hides. When the snow is off the ground, families come together in villages near clear bodies of water in places suitable for both fishing and traditional berry and garden patches. After the family settles into its summer bark or reed mat-covered shelter, the food pit is open to retrieve seed corn and pumpkin and squash seeds stored from the autumn before. Each family cultivates its own plot of ground. Corn planted in the strawberry moon is harvested in the late summer, often still green as the climate may not allow it to ripen. Families dried part of each crop for storage. Berries are plentiful--first strawberries and then juneberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and cranberries as the season wears on. The berries are eaten fresh every day and are also dried and packed into makuks for winter. Some are pounded and pressed into little cakes, while raspberries are boiled into a thick paste. Hot or cold drinks are made by adding wintergreen, raspberries, spruce or snowberry leaves to water. The days are long, the sun warm, and there is plenty to eat. It is a time for visiting with friends, holding feasts and dances and playful games. In every sense, nii bin is a time for gathering.

How could you possibly imagine anything better than that?