By Trish Laumann
On October 6th, the eleven people of Mark Warren trip #2 gathered at school. After everybody showed, we packed up the van. It was about 9:30 a.m. when we left the high school’s parking lot. Patti Heien, a former Mini-Schooler came along to help Doug out. She drove three kids up in her car so the van would not be as squished. We were on our way to Wisconsin near Grantsburg and right by the St. Croix river.
When we finally arrived at our destination, we built the fire that the other trip had let burn to ash. It was still a bit chilly from the morning but the sun was trying to shine through the clouds. LaKaysa was our weather girl and you could tell that she had prayed to the weather god the night before we left. We sat around until the other group from trip #1 started showing up. When we were all together we shared peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Then the first group left and we ventured our way into the woods with Mark to find Basswood trees. He taught us how to recognize the lopsided leaves. When we found them, Mark told us how the Indians used the bark of this tree to make rope. We all had a hard time believing that until he showed us. We all made our own. Most people wore them as necklaces or bracelets. After that we came back to camp and learned the techniques of stalking animals for survival, which is using very slow motion and not putting your foot down as hard as humans tend to do.
The second day we were there, we found throwing sticks. A throwing stick is a carved tip stick that you would use after you stalked an animal, just close enough to injure it. We practiced that for awhile and then moved onto a game practicing stalking again. There is a person that is blindfolded and uses only their sense of hearing. When they feel as though someone is close enough to them they throw a pretend snake to eliminate a person out of the game.
On our way back we picked up a curved stick and a rock. Our next event was to make fire without matches or a lighter. We carved a sharp tip on both ends of thin piece of cedar. Mark provided us with rope and we tied it on our curved stick. The rock was to keep the carved cedar sturdy while it was on a flat board of cedar digging a hole into it causing friction. Underneath the flat board is tinder which the ash is caught on and starts burning to make flame. We tried for about 2 hours before one of our teams succeeded.
While we were eating dinner, Mr. McCormick pulled up. He is the principal at Minnetonka High School and he came to join us in our naming ceremony. Earlier in the day we were asked to answer some questions so Mark could give us spirit names, which would be given to us at the ceremony. We started out the ceremony by finding our spots around the fire. Then we talked about what we learned and practiced some Indian sign language. We were then given our spirit names. With the talking stick we went around telling each other our names. You could only talk when the stick was in your hand so it was quiet enough to concentrate and memorize each others names.
We woke up to Patti’s voice saying “breakfast.” One tent at a time, we walked up to the cabin where Doug was making his famous French toast. When we were done eating we packed up the van and took down the tents. We made our way down to the canoes where we would be ferried across the river to an island. At the island there was a roaring fire with heating stones that had been burning all morning. Farther down the island there was a tarp made into a tent. When the stones were red hot Mark took a pitchfork and carried them over to the tent having each person blowing ash off as it went by them. When all the stones were in the tent, everybody entered and found a steaming hot area, almost like a sauna. It lasted about an hour getting hotter every time Mark put water on the coals. Since heat opens up the pores of your skin they needed to be closed back up, so after the sweat lodge everybody jumped into the river. If it weren’t for our wonderful weather girl, Lakaysa Bollig we probably all would have icicles hanging from our noses. The sun was shining and not a cloud in sight.
We ferried each other across the river to go eat lunch. After we ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the third day in a row, we played one last game with Mark. It was called “Gling.” The game consists of an empty milk jug and people. Kicking the empty milk jug around the circle, we did not make the record which is around 50. It’s like the game hacky sack except in Gling there are embarrassing consequences: if you were to hit it with a hand or kick it while it had already hit the ground. After that game we said our good byes to Mark and we were on our way home.