The Children of Lac du Flambeau

Three days ago I posted about the Mother Earth Water Walk. That weekend a few groups of people came to stay at the same area I am camping at for the event. One of these groups, the first to arrive, was a group of about a dozen children from the Lac du Flambeau Reservation here in Northern Wisconsin.

I first met them when letting them in though the entrance gate. Once I was heading back to my campsite I noticed they were having some trouble with their tent so I went and helped them. After they were done with that they needed some help with their fire. Turns out this is new to most of them including the mother leading the trip. I stayed to help them cook dinner, which of course hotdogs on a fire pit grill was also new to them. The kids and I started to get along, and by the next day, Saturday, we spent most of the time they were here hanging out.

Unlike Friday, Saturday was a nice day, so after helping start lunch/dinner we all went swimming. The water was cold but the rock collecting was good. Four year old Sky had a bucket and we would stop at each spot of rocks to pick out the prettiest. After lunch the swimming turned into keep away with my watergun. I was severely outnumbered.

Anyone who knows me knows that when I am in the water, any game turns into a game of “Lets drown Travis.” Here is how this name normally works. Three to five kids will hold on to my arms and neck and try to sink me. I, being able to stand just fine with seven kids on me, will sink to the bottom, wait until the kids cant hold their breath any longer and they go up for air, then I swim away, come up and splash them, then we start again.

We are going to take that game and just toss it out my tent window here, and wait a second...sploosh, that is just floating away in the lake, working its way to Canada. No, this game involved no letting go. Turns out one of the girls can hold their breath as long as I can. She also had the tightest grip on me. I never went down to less than two still on me, trying to drown me. Instead of this game ending when someone started crying or a pool check, this game ended after we all decided that shivering meant it is time to get out!

After some s’mores we played a few rounds of a game, which name I cannot remember, but it is equivalent to Sharks and Minnios. Someone would start as it, and the rest of us would have to run to the other side without being tagged. The winner was the last one standing. Well last one to get tagged, as those who survived, and even those who didn’t, and even the taggers, would lie in the sand until the next round.

Another round of s’mores, some story telling how I almost passed out from touching a hot pan a long time ago and it was time to call it a night. It was then I explained to Ricki about how the white man took the land her people lived on and made it their own because of greed and wanting to be wealthy and happy (Read Mother Earth Water Walk Part 1). Once trash was picked up we all said good night and I even got some hugs.

Sunday started with everyone sleeping until 9, then I was invited to breakfast at the local casino. Getting back and onto the road that leads from the highway to the lake was about eight cars coming for the water walk. We all walked along the shoreline from our campsites to where the water would come down to meet the lake, then headed back. You can read about what went on there at Mother Earth Water Walk Part 2.

Back at the beach we played another game of who can get who cold and wet and more rock searching and skipping, followed by lunch. Then it was time for the kids to go home. Packing up a tent and everything else was of course quite an event but some more hugs and highfives and other ways of saying goodbye and it was time for them to depart. There is hope among most of us that sometime this summer they can come and visit again.

The kids, who will be reading this when they can are Elise, Lydiah aka Spazam Girl, the future lifeguard Presley, Kathleen, Merrilee, Sky, Robert, Brooklyn, Ricki, Winter, Audra, Richard, Kenny, JJ, and the leader of the group Betty. Hi everyone! It was fun having you all around. I can’t wait for you to all visit again.

From the guy with his eye on the sky, Travis...the camping lifeguard

The Mother Earth Water Walk Part 2

The Water Walk was today (Sunday). When the group I have been hanging out with got back from breakfast, we walked down the beach to where the walk was going to finish and the water from the 4 corners, the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Gulf of Mexico, and Hudson Bay, would meet and come together. As we waited for the water, many of the kids, including kids not with the group, and I went to throw and skip rocks while the adults talked. The atmosphere there felt like a family reunion; people may not have known each other directly, but we have so much in common that we skipped the talk and had fun. After a while of rock skipping (I got 7 skips, a personal best) and searching for the best rocks, the water started arriving. We climbed the hill to watch the walkers pass, and I don’t know how but the girl I was standing next to knew exactly which walkers were from which direction. Once all the water arrived, we (about 100 spectators) went down for a prayer to the spirits. I unfortunately could not hear what they said.

I wish I had more to write about but I am afraid I missed many of the events as I did not know the Water Walk was going on until Thursday. However at www.motherearthwaterwalk.com they have more information, videos, and audio to hear more about the ceremony and previous walks.

From the guy with his eye on the sky, Travis...the camping lifeguard

The Mother Earth Water Walk Part 1

Jello swimmers. I want to talk to you about water. This weekend I got to experience something I wasn't expecting, an event Mother Earth Water Walk. Water from the Pacific, Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Arctic were walked to Lake Superior. It is being done to raise awareness of the largest freshwater lakes in the world.

Starting out as early as April 10th, four groups were walking (and one train ride from the Arctic) carrying water to meet here. As I write this, tomorrow the water will be joined and put into Lake Superior, to help purify the lake. It is a call to the people of area and the world that we need to protect our lakes and other water sources from pollution and from being drained to water other peoples wants and not their needs.

I say that as I remember from college that one thing the states in the SW want to do is run a pipe from the Great Lakes to their land. They forget that they live in the desert and in the desert grass does not normally grow, so they must rely on their water sources to grow their grass and wash their cars when the water should be for drinking. They have already caused such damage that the Colorado River no longer flows to the ocean. Instead is dries up in a desert.

This walk is being done by the elders of the Anishinaabe, groups of Native Americans from the Odawa, Potawatomi, and the Ojibwe. I am not as familiar with the first two, but it is Ojibwe reservation land that I am on right now. The Ojibwe people stretch from here along the South Shore of Lake Superior up to Canada. All of this land was theirs before the white men came and took it from them and claimed it as their own. I say theirs but the Native Americans knew that the land and the lakes did not belong to them, they did not own it. Instead they are part of Mother Earth, and they are the children of the Mother, and they need to take care of her and all that she is.

As I was telling one of the little girls, Ricki, who is here for the ceremony, the white men, my ancestors, are more of the approach of “Mine Mine Mine Mine”. I explained to her that my ancestors believed that land was more valuable than money, not from a standpoint of being able live off of it (though a good use), but land meant power. The more land, the more power. The more money, the more power. The more money, the more land. She then asked me why money was so important to them. I told her that back then and today, people believe that money buys happiness. I could tell that she understood what I said, but also that she knew that money does not buy happiness.

This nine year old knows what others do not. Its not money that makes you truly happy, its friends and family that does, and for her, Stranger, her dog. The neighbors, who I will write about soon, know this, living of the grid with just what they need and some toys. The Native Americans also knew this for thousands of years and even today.

Happiness also comes from being one with Earth. Listening to the loons call for their mates, the wolf howl to their friends. The leaves rustle at the slightest winds, the waves break along the shore. This happiness has been known for so long by the Native Americans, by others who share this love for nature, and my best friend, Jeniqua, who, if it was not for being friends with her in college, I would not have learned this same happiness, and probably not even being doing this entire trip.

It is this happiness the Anishinaabe are walking for. Just like ships and countries would fight to protect their gold and other valuables, the Anishinaabe are doing their own fight, not for what is theirs, but what brings life to all of us up here and around the world...Lake Superior and Mother Earth.

If you want to learn more, visit www.motherearthwaterwalk.com

From the guy with his eye on the sky, Travis...the camping lifeguard

First bike ride

Went on a 16 mile bike ride this morning before lunch...down to Odanah and back. I did 16 since that is how far I have to go to get to my lifeguarding beach. Got back and the neighbors kids were playing in the sand along the beach

A few years ago was the movie "Supersize Me". The producer and star of that movie, Morgen something went on to do a tv series called "30 days". In one episode Morgen lived on a native american reservation in the SW. What he showed was a very poor area, where water is trucked in, homes are falling apart mobile homes, and over the entire reservation was only 5 job openings compares to thousands in a near by town off the reserve.

It's not as bad here in Odanah, it's smaller and there is Ashland about 10 miles away and there is running water, but you can tell it's still quite poor. Most home are mobile homes, some even without a driveway.

It's hard to make a living up here on this land as it is mostly wetland. Everything that is not wet has houses on it. This is due to the government giving the native Americans land other people didn't want. Everywhere I have been up here there has been some kind of wetland.

Tomorrow I going to go into town to work, and I plan to bike there. Only 17 miles!

From the mobile guy with his eye on the sky: Travis