By Marcelle Dorenkamp and Maya Diedrich
On September 30th the Mark Warren Crew met at school at 6 am (under Doug’s orders) to load up the van and head out for Grantsburg, WI for three days of hiking and camping with Mark Warren, a naturalist who studies Native American culture. After about a 2 hour long van ride, listening to Ramona’s “easy listening music” we were all very excited to see the sign “Raspberry Landing,” the road on which Doug’s cabin lies. We got our own tents set up, the girls needing a little help from the all mighty Toby Marshall, and put all of the equipment away, after which we followed Mark into the forest and paid very close attention while he identified different plants and shared with us their purposes. For example, the milk inside the stem of the Milk Weed plant removes warts. A few people from the group were very interested in this information. Mark also showed us the Basswood tree, a very important tree that has many useful purposes for wilderness survival. You can peel away the bark and tear off the inner skin, “twist, crossover, and switch” to make rope. You can also take the inner skin and tear it to pull the fibers apart to make tinder for starting a fire.
After we finished collecting the bark from the Basswood tree, we headed back to the cabin, each of us complaining of hunger pains. So when we arrived at the cabin we decided it was a great time to have lunch. Because everyone was so hungry we treated the pb&j, crackers and cheese as if it were the best meal we had ever laid eyes on. Each individual scrambled to the “buffet table” to be sure that they wouldn’t miss out on the rich, creamy peanut butter and sweet strawberry jam smothered in between two thick pieces of whole grain bread. I think our teachers knew what they were doing.
As soon as everyone had cured their stomachs of hunger Mark suggested a game- not just any game, but the zoogle stick game, a game which required a long, thick stick with a handle carved out of it. The object of this game was to get in a circle and throw the stick to different people within the circle. Now, that may sound easy but there were many rules to follow while playing. You had to plant your feet in one spot and you couldn’t move them. You could only catch the stick with one hand, and you had to have some part of your hand touching the carved handle when you caught the stick. You couldn’t throw the stick like a spear (for obvious reasons). And you couldn’t throw the stick and have it do a 360 degree in the air (also for safety reasons). The penalty for your mistake was one of your hands to be placed behind your back for the remainder of the game. The penaity for your second mistake was you lost one of your feet to stand on. This was not easy standing on one foot, catching the stick with one hand behind your back and maintaining your balance all at the same time. Many of us ended up playing like this through the rest of the game. Mark won.
Mark then talked to us about stalking animals and making fire. We headed back into the woods. Here Mark taught us how to stalk. After that we stalked Mark, who was pretending to be a deer, for almost a half an hour. Then we played another game. In this game (it is called night watchman) one person is blindfolded and given eight ropes (otherwise known as snakes).
Everyone else has to try and touch their nose to that person without being heard. This takes a very long time because there are so many leaves and twigs on the forest floor and you have to step very slowly in order to avoid breaking any twigs or crackling any leaves by stepping on them.
As soon as the game was finished we walked back to Doug’s cabin to eat dinner. Dinner consisted of mac & cheese, peas, bread, apples and milk. That evening we relaxed around the fire and made bowls out of wood and hot coals from the fire.
The next day each of us got pleasantly woken up by the sound of Doug’s voice yelling “Breakfast, pancakes and bacon.” After each of us had had a chance to wake up and eat breakfast once again we followed Mark into the woods. This time we made blinds out of sticks and leaves to disguise ourselves so we could silently hide from the animals in the forest. Once each of us had completed building our blinds we went back to the cabin to eat lunch. We ate lunch. Then we played a game called Gling. The purpose of this game was to kick a plastic milk jug around and see how long we could keep it up in the air. During this game people tend to say “sorry” or “oops” quite often. If you said those things while playing you got a penalty. The penalty was you had to turn around and bend over while the person across the circle threw the milk jug at your butt. You also got a penalty if you kicked the jug after it touched the ground (this is called “kicking a dead dog.”) The penalty for this was you had to get on all fours and bark your name. This is what made the game so much fun, at least until you are the one barking your name or getting hit with the milk carton.
When the game was over Maya and Kristi went to an island across the river from Doug’s cabin to help Mark put up the sweat lodge. Doug said his goodbyes to the group so he could return to Minnetonka to prepare for group #2. That left Ramona to tend to the rest of the kids and their needs. She did an excellent job taking care of us, by the way. Then Mark, Maya, and Kristi returned to Doug’s cabin safe and sound. We then had a snack and rested for an hour. The guys played zoogle stick (not necessarily in the correct way) while the girls sat around the fire working on their bowls. We left for our blinds after everyone had grabbed what they would need for the next hour and a half. Most of us grabbed food. Mark said he would make 3 raven calls, then pause, and do another set of 3 to end the session. When the session was almost, but not quite over a deer started making many noises. No one knew what to make of this and just figured that it was Mark and came stumbling out of the woods, except for Maya and myself. We exited out of our blinds, and because it was dark, didn’t think we would make it back to the meeting place without getting lost, so we headed in the opposite direction towards the cabin. We ended up walking down a very steep hill and almost had a few run-ins with the ground. Fortunately we made it down alive and finally arrived at the cabin. We waited for everyone else to return. When they did Mark was not with them. “Where’s Mark?”, Maya asked. “In the woods, looking for you two,” someone replied. So once again Maya and I headed into the dark woods and attempted to look for Mark. “Mark!”, “Mark!”, we yelled. Nothing. Till all of a sudden we heard a faint whistling sound. We didn’t know what it was so our minds began to freak us out. We made a mutual decision to run back to the cabin. From behind us we hear, “Hi, girls, it’s me!” We slowed our running but continued a steady trot just in case. We got back to the cabin and ate dinner. We had Dinty Moore beef stew and mashed potatoes. After everyone had finished dinner Mark took all the people who wished to receive a name from Mark into Doug’s cabin for the naming ceremony. Everyone else sat by the fire making their bowls. After each of us received a name we went back outside and gathered around the campfire. We were told to find three sticks. One the length of our hand, one the length of our temple, and one the length of our mouth. Mark then told us the meaning of each stick. The one which was the length of our temple represented all that we think, the one the length of our mouth represented all that we say, and the one the length of our hand represented all that we do. He told us if we chose to we could throw these sticks into the fire as a reminder to always think before we decide to say or do something. This was to make sure that it is the right decision and that it wouldn’t harm anyone in anyway.
The next morning we were all woken up early by Ramona telling us it was time to get up, and that there was oatmeal for breakfast. We were all a little hesitant for we didn’t much like oatmeal, and it didn’t sound too appealing first thing in the morning. After finishing as much oatmeal as we could possibly handle Toby Marshall and Chris Wegler began taking people across the river to the island. This is where the sweat lodge ceremony was going to be held. Once on the island we were told not to speak. The rocks for the sweat lodge took three hours to heat. So for three hours everyone was silent, with the exception of a few people who just couldn’t resist and as a result had to hold a leaf in their mouth as a punishment. Clair was exceptionally good at this. Finally the sweat lodge began.
We entered the blue tarp covered sweat house and sat in a circle in the order we had come in, Mark sitting on the opposite side of the door. He let everyone get situated and poured a little water on the hot rocks to get the ashes off them (everyone ducked their heads and waited.) He then began his words by explaining the directions, first the basic North, South, East and West. Then to directions inside of you. Each time he talked about one of the directions the sweat house was slowly filling with more steam. After we all had gotten comfortable with the amount of steam, Mark asked that we go around the circle and say something good about the person on your left as Mark dedicated a cup of water for each person in the sweat lodge. By the end of this it was so full of steam I could hardly see. I skipped out shortly. Afterward I was informed by Carrie Tiggas that he poured about 7 or 8 more cups of water onto the rocks and dedicated to them to Doug and all the things he did on the trip. It was a great uplifting experience and I’m glad I had an opportunity to take part in it and I’m sure everyone that went in was glad they did,too.
When the sweat lodge was over we were ferried, once again, over to Doug’s cabin. The second group was there when we returned and we all ate lunch together. Once we had said our goodbyes to Mark and made sure that all our stuff was packed and the tents were cleaned out we hauled our stuff back to the van, loaded it up, and headed back to Minnesota. All of us were disappointed that those two days had gone by so quickly. We were not too thrilled about the whole idea of going home. Overall the trip was a wonderful experience. I believe we all took in a large amount of interesting and useful information, thanks to Mark. And I encourage anyone who has the chance to go on this trip in the future to go on it.