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Kendra
Kendra
We started out the day by arriving at school at 7:00 a.m. I have to admit I did not think the trip would be that interesting. Upon entrance into the Menominee reservation at 8:30, I proved myself wrong. The beauty of the forests, the legends I heard and the people I meet captivated me.
To make sure they always have trees to cut they use a technique that their ancestors created. The Menominee start cutting on the west side of the reservation and work their way to the east. Along the way, they plant new trees so that by the time they reach the east they can start again in the west. This was an especially ingenious plan because the white loggers just clear cut the trees and soon ran out.
I think that the Menominee clans are a lot like our states with their division of people into smaller groups and different government leaders. Yet, each of the clans doesn’t have specific land and boundaries like our states do and are more cultural based.
When we arrived at the Wolf River Dells, Dave Grignon took us for a short walk to a spot where we could see signs of an ancient battle that made the dells a sacred location. He told my class the legend of the Thunderbird and the Serpent. The Thunderbird represented the good and the Serpent stood for the bd. Many days passed and the serpent was growing tired making loud noises as it attacked. The thunderbird locked the serpent in the dells forever. Today you can hear the serpent fighting to get loose.
First I attended a culture class where I heard the legend of lacrosse because the students were going to make lacrosse sticks out of white ash. At the first game they were playing for a cause. Some of the animals waned it to be dark all the time, while others wanted to always have daylight. It was winged animals versus legged animals. However, there was a bat and he had both wings and feet, so nobody wanted him on their team. The legged team picked him last and sat him out. They started the game and it went on for five or six days without making much progress by running back and forth from Wisconsin to Illinois. So they finally let the bat play and he ended up winning the game. The moral of the story is you can do anything no matter who you are.
Also in the culture class, we learned about the boys and girls coming of age. The boys start by going to a sweat lodge, a small building heated up to uncomfortable temperatures, used to cleanse the soul. From there, they go to a small shelter in the woods where they stay secluded for four days. During that time they fast, pray to the creator, sin and play a drum. They are not supposed to sleep until the spirit comes. After the four days are over, they go back to the sweat lodge and are then ready to back into the world. For girls, for the entire first year of menstruation they cannot eat wild game, walk barefoot or touch anything the creator made. At this point I was glad I wasn’t Native American because that would pretty hard.