Norwegian Trolls

These are the greeters for the Hjemkomst Center.  They are life-size wood carvings by Steinar Karlsen.  They were carved before a live audience at the 25th Annual Scandinavian Hjemkomst Festival in 2002.  Their images were on the official 2003 Festival Commemorative Button.  I don't think anyone ever gave them a name though.

Karlsen  has written books and poetry, composed songs, mastered painting and drawing before taking  up wood carving in 1990.  He has since created over 400 human sculptures for Scandinavian festivals in the Midwest.

This is the guy that pointed the way to the Viking ship (but he's not a troll.)

I like 'em!
 If you want a fun synopsis of Norwegian Trolls, go to http://www.squidoo.com/troll-of-norway
 

A Viking Ship In North Dakota!

Golly gee!  What will we find NEXT?  This is so-o-o-o cool!

Isn't this amazing?  Especially to find it in Fargo, North Dakota!  It is magnificent - and a real ocean-going Viking (replica) ship - it's been sailed to Norway!  You know that remains of a Viking colony has been found in Newfoundland, Canada, proving the Vikings (not Columbus) were the first Europeans in the New World.  No wonder the Scandinavians up here are so (properly) proud of their heritage!

 Here is a photo of the Hjemkomst sailing into Bergen Harbor:

The Hjemkomst

It took 72 days to cross the Atlantic from Duluth, Minnesota to Bergen, Norway.

The Hjemkomst was built by hand Robert Asp.  Vikings from the Ninth century took only a year to construct one of these, but it took a whole team of skilled craftsmen.  It took Robert six years. The keel is laid first and only has an 11 1/2" drop from where the upward curves for the bow and stern begin.  (Has anyone ever heard the term, "keel-hauled?"  It's an old sailor's punishment.  He'd have a rope tied around his waist and be thrown off the bow of the ship.  If he survived being hauled under the water under the keel, he'd be hauled back on board.  I'm thinkin' I'd only need to be "keel-hauled" once... - what am I saying!  I'd only have to know what keel-hauling was and I'm thinkin' I would never step out of line!!)

Once the keel was laid, you'd begin adding on the strakes (or planks) that form the hull of the ship.  You can see that the strakes overlap and are fastened together with a "Ro."  THEN the Viking's would form fit ribs into the hull.  (Special Agent Gibbs on "NCIS" does it the other way around - ribs first then the hull.)  Ultimately this is what Robert Asp and the Vikings would end up with:

The Hjemkomst keel was laid in 1974 and she was christened in 1980 at the Hawley Shipyard in Hawley, Minnesota. 

Robert Asp based his design on the Gokstad, a ship discovered in 1880 by archeologists digging in a clay mound in Gokstad, Norway.  The ship was apparently buried along with its wealthy Viking chieftain, probably Olaf Geirstada-Alf, after his death.  The clay preserved it, and his bones, for these 1,000 years - awesome for us!!  They also buried 12 horses, 6 dogs, and a peacock - not so awesome for them.  (I understand the horses and dogs for the afterlife, but a peacock?)

This is impressive - but there is oh-so-much more at the Hjemkomst Center!

Weather Forecast - or Pastcast

Wow!  What a weekend!  We had lows of 20-25 degrees below zero, and wind chill factors of 50 below.  There were blizzard conditions and white-outs.

I thought that kinda stuff only happened in Alaska!  There's cold, and then there is downright silliness!

Yup!  This is ice on the inside of the bedroom window...

 I think it's time for one of Granma's special recipes:

Day's End

Well, thank you, Lord, for a long and wonderful day.  And thank you, Granpa, for being a sweetheart and letting us make it to the headwaters of the Mississippi.

I just don't get it when folks say they see no reason to take a trip - even a one-day trip.  We always find something to surprise and delight us.  Who would have ever expected to find this beautiful piece of artwork here?

It's time to be getting on our way.  God has one more surprise for us, though.

Some of them stop on the other side of the road for a last goodbye...

as the sun finally sets in the west.

The First Colony of the United States

No, not the first colony IN the United States, the first colony OF the United States:  The Old Northwest Territory.  I never thought about that before, the fact that America had colonies of it's own...

THAT'S a big chunk of land!  Seems to be bordered by all the Great Lakes...

The Treaty of Paris in 1763, ending the French and Indian War against the British colonies in North America, granted all French territory on the "mainland" of North America to either the British or Spanish. The French and Indian War was the war George Washington cut his teeth on, so to speak.  He got his hinny whupped (as we say in Texas) by the French at Fort Duquesne in Ohio, but he learned from his mistakes, and we know the rest of that story...

In the Treaty of Paris, the British received Quebec and the Ohio Valley, essentially extending their northwest boundary from the northwest angle of Lake of the Woods to the Mississippi River.  (Itasca was the western boundary!  THAT's why it was important to find the source!  And we found it!  Cool!)

That's the little frozen lake behind the marker that the Mississippi flows from.

The port of New Orleans and the Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi were ceded to Spain in the Treaty of Paris for their efforts as a British ally. 

The Northwest Ordinance of 1787, signed July 13, 1787 by the Confederation Congress (the United States Constitution wasn't signed until September 17th, 1787, so there wasn't "Congress" as we know it today)...  The Northwest Ordinance established a government for the Northwest Territory, outlined the process for admitting a new state to the Union, and guaranteed that newly created states would be equal to the original thirteen states.  It was officially titled "An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio."

Thus began the westward expansion of America.  That's good because Granpa and I can now go all over and never cross an international border!

Wow, 1787 and this Ordinance outlawed slavery in the new territories.  Congress knew even then that slavery was wrong - they just weren't sure how to get rid of it.  It took the will of the people (Abolitionists for certain) to ultimately bring it about. 

This is interesting:  The Northwest Ordinance outlawed the right of primogeniture in the Territory.  That's the right of the first born to inherit the parent's everything.  We don't think about that much in America, do we?  That's another piece of the "puzzle of reasons" folks immigrated here:  if they weren't the first born son, no matter how wealthy the parents were, they received nothing of the inheritance.  The only way they could make their way in the world was to pull themselves up by their boot straps.  The best way to do that was to come to America.

Along these same lines, the Ordinance also established the awesome principle of American colonies becoming equal in all ways with the parent State if they were ever granted statehood.  (Kind of a government abolishment of the right of colonial primogeniture.)  These things were important to our Founding Fathers because they recognized first hand the harm that it created in Europe. 

Who Else Has Been Visiting the Headwaters?

This ridge between the two waters is THE beginning of the river flowing out of Lake Itasca that becomes the mighty Misssissippi:

Standing in the same spot but turning to the right ...

there she goes, off on her way to the Gulf of Mexico!  Along the way she will help out hundreds of thousands of people and animals and businesses...  Animals like these:

  

It's almost like being on hallowed ground.  It's so amazing that we live in America!  Thank you, Lord.

Headwaters of the Mississippi River

As we leave the restaurant in Bemidji, I begin looking at tourist information we had picked up and am pickled tink to find that we are just a few miles from Itasca State Park.  Now, why would that make me upside down and backwards happy?  Because the HEADWATERS OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER is in Itasca State Park, Minnesota.
 
A.  Whoever even THOUGHT about where the Mississippi starts?
B.   How did I accidentally stumble over this?
C.   It's in between us and "home" !!

Sun setting or not, we are goin'!

Another shock!  Lil' Miss GPS knows where it is!  Cool!

I just can't believe this:  THE Mississippi River, in Minnesota!  A snow-topped sign in Minnesota saying THIS is the Mississippi River.  No.  Must be a trick of some kind...

Pretty elaborate hoax if you ask me...

Archaeologists have discovered broken pottery, stone and copper tools around here left by ear-r-r-l-y Native Americans dating back 8,000 years.  They called the lake here Omushkos meaning Elk Lake and the resulting river Misiziibi or Great River.  I feel certain they had no idea how great a river this really was!

What makes a great river?  Well, how about measuring the distance from here to the Gulf of Mexico:  2,318 miles !!  But, so what?  Old Man River is great because of what it has done for people  - probably for 8,000 years! 

Semi-permanent villages were established here as long ago as 3,000 years.  500 years ago the Ojibwe/Chippewa settled here because of the beaver, mink and muskrat.  Plants like wild rice, cattail and bulrush made it possible to build more permanent structures and have something to eat without having to constantly move about.

But who first figured out it was the headwaters of the greatest river in North America??  Of course, conflicting claims - one official, one delayed and therefore unofficial.  Another hoax?  An 18-year-old dude with the XY (yes, XY) Fur Company wintered here in 1804 and again in 1811.  The Indians told him it was the headwaters .  He was the clerk for XY and kept detailed records.  But he didn't publish his records until 1856.  You snooze, you lose.

Henry Rowe Schoolcraft came LOOKING for the headwaters in 1832, named this place Lake Itasca which means "true source," and published his finding.

 IT'S NOT A HOAX!  IT'S THE REAL McCOY, er, MISSISSIPPI!

Minnesota's Lower Red Lake and Bemidji

On our trip up from Texas we were excited to see ice forming around the edges of puddles in marsh land.  By the time we got up to Grand Forks, entire rivers were frozen - and still are.  There has been snow on the ground in Grand Forks every day since we got here: some days more, some days less.

We've just come out of the east entrance to Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge, and we are on the shores of Minnesota's Lower Red Lake.  No surprise, it's frozen, too.

Now, you might think we would be tempted to just follow those tracks out onto that frozen lake, but no-o-o-o, our momma's didn't raise no fools!!  We're from Texas.  That lake might just take exception to that fact and swallow us right up.  We'll stay on solid GROUND, thank you. It is gorgeous, though.

We are headed to Bemidji (Be-mid-ji) now, a town of pretty good size.  Our little side trip to the Refuge has taken up some time, so we're thinking we need to consider a quick, late lunch in Bemidji and then head on home.

We stumble on one of John's favorites, Oriental food, and so he is a very happy man.  That's good, because I'm fixin' to push his limit...

Kitty Wethmann

I checked this out on Snopes.com - it's still under research.

I googled Kitty Wethmann and came up with a plethora of sites.  One says she's president of South Dakota's Eagle Forum.  There's some credible folks at Eagle Forum for sure...
Regardless, if you know something about history, you know what she says was true for Austria - and could easily be true now or in the future for other countries INCLUDING AMERICA.  Remember the telegram boy in "Sound of Music?"  He was a young man who wanted to believe the best of Hitler.  Fiercely loyal - only he's loyal to the wrong thing.  One of my brothers is like him.  Me?  I want to be loyal to the Constitution of the United States as written by our founding fathers who came to North America to escape persecution.  They and their parents knew persecution first hand, and they knew what it would take to protect ourselves from it.  Fools are easily manipulated.  Our founding fathers were no fools.  This is 85-year-old Kitty's story...

“I am a witness to history.

“I cannot tell you that Hitler took Austria by tanks and guns; it would distort history.

If you remember the plot of the Sound of Music, the Von Trapp family escaped over the Alps rather than submit to the Nazis. Kitty wasn’t so lucky. Her family chose to stay in her native Austria. She was 10 years old, but bright and aware. And she was watching.

“We elected him by a landslide – 98 percent of the vote,” she recalls.

She wasn’t old enough to vote in 1938 – approaching her 11th birthday. But she remembers.

“Everyone thinks that Hitler just rolled in with his tanks and took Austria by force.”

No so.

Hitler is welcomed to Austria

“In 1938, Austria was in deep Depression. Nearly one-third of our workforce was unemployed. We had 25 percent inflation and 25 percent bank loan interest rates.

Farmers and business people were declaring bankruptcy daily. Young people were going from house to house begging for food. Not that they didn’t want to work; there simply weren’t any jobs.

“My mother was a Christian woman and believed in helping people in need. Every day we cooked a big kettle of soup and baked bread to feed those poor, hungry people – about 30 daily."

“We looked to our neighbor on the north, Germany, where Hitler had been in power since 1933.” she recalls. “We had been told that they didn’t have unemployment or crime, and they had a high standard of living.

“Nothing was ever said about persecution of any group – Jewish or otherwise. We were led to believe that everyone in Germany was happy. We wanted the same way of life in Austria. We were promised that a vote for Hitler would mean the end of unemployment and help for the family. Hitler also said that businesses would be assisted, and farmers would get their farms back.

“Ninety-eight percent of the population voted to annex Austria to Germany and have Hitler for our ruler.

“We were overjoyed,” remembers Kitty, “and for three days we danced in the streets and had candlelight parades. The new government opened up big field kitchens and
everyone was fed.

“After the election, German officials were appointed, and, like a miracle, we suddenly had law and order. Three or four weeks later, everyone was employed. The government made sure that a lot of work was created through the Public Work Service.

“Hitler decided we should have equal rights for women. Before this, it was a custom that married Austrian women did not work outside the home. An able-bodied husband would be looked down on if he couldn’t support his family. Many women in the teaching profession were elated that they could retain the jobs they previously had been required to give up for marriage.

“Then we lost religious education for kids.

“Our education was nationalized. I attended a very good public school.. The population was predominantly Catholic, so we had religion in our schools. The day we elected Hitler (March 13, 1938), I walked into my schoolroom to find the crucifix replaced by Hitler’s picture hanging next to a Nazi flag. Our teacher, a very devout woman, stood up and told the class we wouldn’t pray or have religion anymore. Instead, we sang ‘Deutschland, Deutschland, Uber Alles,’ and had physical education.

“Sunday became National Youth Day with compulsory attendance. Parents were not pleased about the sudden change in curriculum. They were told that if they did not send us, they would receive a stiff letter of warning the first time. The second time they would be fined the equivalent of $300, and the third time they would be subject to jail.”

And then things got worse.

“The first two hours consisted of political indoctrination. The rest of the day we had sports. As time went along, we loved it. Oh, we had so much fun and got our sports equipment free.

“We would go home and gleefully tell our parents about the wonderful time we had.

“My mother was very unhappy,” remembers Kitty. “When the next term started, she took me out of public school and put me in a convent. I told her she couldn’t do that and she told me that someday when I grew up, I would be grateful. There was a very good curriculum, but hardly any fun – no sports, and no political indoctrination.

“I hated it at first but felt I could tolerate it. Every once in a while, on holidays, I went home. I would go back to my old friends and ask what was going on and what they were doing.

“Their loose lifestyle was very alarming to me. They lived without religion. By that time, unwed mothers were glorified for having a baby for Hitler.

“It seemed strange to me that our society changed so suddenly. As time went along, I realized what a great deed my mother did so that I wasn’t exposed to that kind of humanistic philosophy.

“In 1939, the war started, and a food bank was established. All food was rationed and could only be purchased using food stamps. At the same time, a full-employment law was passed which meant if you didn’t work, you didn’t get a ration card, and, if you didn’t have a card, you starved to death.

“Women who stayed home to raise their families didn’t have any marketable skills and often had to take jobs more suited for men.

“Soon after this, the draft was implemented.

“It was compulsory for young people, male and female, to give one year to the labor corps,” remembers Kitty. “During the day, the girls worked on the farms, and at night they returned to their barracks for military training just like the boys.

“They were trained to be anti-aircraft gunners and participated in the signal corps. After the labor corps, they were not discharged but were used in the front lines.

“When I go back to Austria to visit my family and friends, most of these women are emotional cripples because they just were not equipped to handle the horrors of combat.

“Three months before I turned 18, I was severely injured in an air raid attack. I nearly had a leg amputated, so I was spared having to go into the labor corps and into military service.

“When the mothers had to go out into the work force, the government immediately established child care centers.

“You could take your children ages four weeks old to school age and leave them there around-the-clock, seven days a week, under the total care of the government.

“The state raised a whole generation of children. There were no motherly women to take care of the children, just people highly trained in child psychology. By this time, no one talked about equal rights. We knew we had been had.

“Before Hitler, we had very good medical care. Many American doctors trained at the University of Vienna..

“After Hitler, health care was socialized, free for everyone. Doctors were salaried by the government. The problem was, since it was free, the people were going to the doctors for everything.

“When the good doctor arrived at his office at 8 a.m., 40 people were already waiting and, at the same time, the hospitals were full.

“If you needed elective surgery, you had to wait a year or two for your turn. There was no money for research as it was poured into socialized medicine. Research at the medical schools literally stopped, so the best doctors left Austria and emigrated to other countries.

“As for healthcare, our tax rates went up to 80 percent of our income. Newlyweds immediately received a $1,000 loan from the government to establish a household. We had big programs for families.

“All day care and education were free. High schools were taken over by the government and college tuition was subsidized. Everyone was entitled to free handouts, such as food stamps, clothing, and housing.

“We had another agency designed to monitor business. My brother-in-law owned a restaurant that had square tables.

“Government officials told him he had to replace them with round tables because people might bump themselves on the corners. Then they said he had to have additional bathroom facilities. It was just a small dairy business with a snack bar. He couldn’t meet all the demands.

“Soon, he went out of business. If the government owned the large businesses and not many small ones existed, it could be in control.

“We had consumer protection, too

“We were told how to shop and what to buy. Free enterprise was essentially abolished. We had a planning agency specially designed for farmers. The agents would go to the farms, count the livestock, and then tell the farmers what to produce, and how to produce it.

“In 1944, I was a student teacher in a small village in the Alps. The villagers were surrounded by mountain passes which, in the winter, were closed off with snow, causing people to be isolated.

“So people intermarried and offspring were sometimes retarded. When I arrived, I was told there were 15 mentally retarded adults, but they were all useful and did good manual work.

“I knew one, named Vincent, very well. He was a janitor of the school. One day I looked out the window and saw Vincent and others getting into a van.

“I asked my superior where they were going. She said to an institution where the State Health Department would teach them a trade, and to read and write. The families were required to sign papers with a little clause that they could not visit for 6 months.

“They were told visits would interfere with the program and might cause homesickness.

“As time passed, letters started to dribble back saying these people died a natural, merciful death. The villagers were not fooled. We suspected what was happening. Those people left in excellent physical health and all died within 6 months. We called this euthanasia.

“Next came gun registration. People were getting injured by guns. Hitler said that the real way to catch criminals (we still had a few) was by matching serial numbers on guns. Most citizens were law-abiding and dutifully marched to the police station to register their firearms. Not long afterwards, the police said that it was best for everyone to turn in their guns. The authorities already knew who had them, so it was futile not to comply voluntarily.

“No more freedom of speech. Anyone who said something against the government was taken away. We knew many people who were arrested, not only Jews, but also priests and ministers who spoke up.

“Totalitarianism didn’t come quickly, it took 5 years from 1938 until 1943, to realize full dictatorship in Austria. Had it happened overnight, my countrymen would have fought to the last breath. Instead, we had creeping gradualism. Now, our only weapons were broom handles. The whole idea sounds almost unbelievable that the state, little by little eroded our freedom.”

“This is my eyewitness account.

“It’s true. Those of us who sailed past the Statue of Liberty came to a country of unbelievable freedom and opportunity.

“America is truly is the greatest country in the world. “Don’t let freedom slip away.

“After America, there is no place to go.”

                                                                                          -- Kitty Wethmann

Agassiz - A Creationist!

I'm naturally thinking that this name, Agassiz, is Native American in origin.  Think again, my little chickadee!  Turns out that it is Swiss - from the 1800's.  Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz was born in 1807.  Over the next 60-odd years he became a Swiss paleontologist, glaciologist, geologist and a prominent innovator in the study of Earth's natural history.

After getting his education in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Zurich, Heidelberg, Munich, Erlangen, and in Paris under Humboldt (ever heard of the Humboldt Current in the ocean?) and Georges Cuvier, he received doctoral degrees in Philosophy and Medicine and branched out into the studies of geology, zoology, and ichthyology (the study of fishes).  This was one very, very smart very, very busy dude!

In 1837, Agassiz was the first to scientifically propose that the Earth had been subject to a past ice age.  He was so intrigued with this concept that he had a hut built on one of the Swiss glaciers, and he lived there just so he could study the glacier and glacial ice movement.  (Hmmm.  Glaciers don't move very fast.  I wonder how long he lived there?!)  By 1840 he had published a "Study on Glaciers," discussing their movements (learned in part, I'm sure, by investigating what the glaciers had left behind at the end of the last ice age.)  From his studies he concluded - for the first time - that in the geographically-recent past Switzerland had been just like Greenland - one huge, solid sheet of ice, as thick in some places as the Jura mountains were tall!  He was a tremendously well-respected scientist.

When Agassiz was invited to the Lowell Institute in Boston in 1846, the King of Prussia granted him the finances to accomplish the journey.  (How cool is that?  That a King would pay your way!)  He was to deliver a dozen lectures on "The Plan of Creation as shown in the Animal Kingdom."  While in America he also wanted to investigate its natural history and geology.

But, let's go back to the "Plan of Creation..." thing.  Here is a guy that one could arguably say was the preeminent authority on all things living - including the earth!  And he wants to lecture on the Plan of CREATION.  Alrighty!!

According to Wikipedia:   "Agassiz was a creationist who believed nature had order because God has created it directly, and Agassiz viewed his career in science as a search for ideas in the mind of the Creator expressed in creation. Agassiz denied that migration and adaptation could account for the geographical age or any of the past. Adaptation takes time; in an example, Agassiz questioned how  plants or animals could migrate through regions they were not equipped to handle. According to Agassiz the conditions in which particular creatures live “are the conditions necessary to their maintenance, and what, among organized beings, is essential to their temporal existence must be at least one of the conditions under which they were created”.

Controversial then and probably even more so now, Agassiz thought that God did not just create one man.  He believed that, just as God had created many different kinds of animals depending on the climate they might live in, God created the "species" of mankind, but put several "adaptations" of man around the globe.  Remember now, he was a scientist, not a racist, so put on your scientific thinking cap on for a few minutes.  That's a pretty intriguing concept, eh?  It's called the Theory (because there's no proof) of Polygenism.  According to Agassiz’s theory of polygenism all species are fixed, including all the races of humans, and species do not evolve into other species.


Even though Agassiz was a believer in polygenism he rejected racism and supported the notion of a spiritualized human unity. He claimed human polygenism did not undermine the spiritual commonality of all people, even though each race was physically diverse.  Agassiz believed God had made all men equal.  He said:

Those intellectual and moral qualities which are so eminently developed in civilized society, but which equally exist in the natural dispositions of all human races, constitute the higher unity among men, making them all equal before God.

According to Agassiz, species, in their natures and geographical distribution, were direct expressions of the intelligence and will of God, not the results of blind chance. Agassiz believed evolution was an insult to the wisdom and will of God.  WOW!

The Scopes Trial, bringing the evolutionist's theory to all the world, didn't happen until 1925.  Interestingly enough, it TOO is just a theory.  Hello!! T-h-e-o-r-y.


Well, there's lots more to this.  I just thought it was pretty unique.  I had never heard the theory before.

Agassiz ultimately made America his home and left a long lineage of wonderful American descendants.

But back to the Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge.  It, (and a gazillion other places world wide) I'm guessin' was named to honor Agassiz's work in all things animal and mineral.  And now you know the Theory of Polygenism!

Neighboring Minnesota's Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge

Today we're headed across the Red River of the North into Minnesota.  Folks at the hospital told Granpa that if you get far enough into Minnesota there are scenic roads and some cool stuff.  So we're off!

Jeepers!  Look at all those lakes and rivers!!  No wonder it's called the Land of 10,000 Lakes!!

Not that lakes and rivers do much good in the winter time.  The rivers are frozen more solid than the lakes.  Folks use them for snowmobiling nowadays, but I'd just bet you a hundred years ago they were used by horses and maybe even dog sleds.  (Well, maybe it's too far south for dog sleds.)  That stripe down the middle is pure ice.

We see river ice fishing here in CrookstonMinnesota:

 Beautiful sky!  And all of those trees are coated in ice.  It's really, really pretty!

We're tootlin' down the highway, and I see a sign pointing to the Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge.  I read in some of our touristy stuff that there's MOOSE there!  Ah, what the heck, why not, says Granpa, and we hang a left.  Going north is not going to bring us any warmer weather nor greener grass (duh!), but we just might see something of interest.

Yuppers!  There on the side of the road is a bunch of great big ol' deer - white tail deer, judging from the way they raised those white "flags" and headed for the tree line.

They stop for a minute or two, way far away, and study us, then decide we are indecipherable, turn and head into the stand of trees.  Thanks, guys, for the look-see.  We appreciate it.  Sorry to trouble you!

The farther north we head the smaller the road gets.  Could be not a good idea to go on, but if the rivers and lakes are frozen enough to support a car or truck, we're guessin' there won't be a muddy road in the whole state for us to get stuck on.

Finally we see another sign for the Refuge and hang a right onto a gravel road.  It's a wide, well-maintained gravel road, so we don't even hesitate.  We do, however, seem to be the only people in this northwest corner of Minnesota...

Another couple of deer, and another.  Granpa got this one on the fly:

There's a second one to the right, but you have to do a "Where's Waldo" to find him.

And that was it for the Wildlife Refuge.  No moose, just in the west side, out the east side, and nothing to show for it but a few deer.  But, okay.  We're just out for the ride anyway.  You grandkids know us well enough to know the ride is what is all about, eh?  And God was good enough to give us a few critters to appreciate.  Thank you, Lord.

Spirit Lake Tribe

The Spirit Lake Tribe is part of the Sioux Nation.   The almost 1300 acre reservation was established in 1867 in a treaty between Sisseton Wahpeton band of Indians and the U.S. government.

In the 2000 census there were about 4,400 tribal members living on the "Res," and by 2005 the Bureau of Indian Affairs (yes, there is still a Bureau of Indian Affairs) shows more than 6,600.

Remember my saying a couple of days ago how "not pretty" reservations are?  Well, maybe it's because there was a 47.3% unemployment rate in the year 2000 - even with casino work.

I copied this Obama 2012 Budget (Proposal?) from the Department of the Interior website which the Bureau of Indian Affairs is under (not that it matters because Obama hasn't had an official budget during his 4 years in office...)

Strengthening Tribal Nations

The 2012 Budget for Indian programs is $2.5 billion, a decrease of $118.9 million from the 2010 enacted/2011 CR. The major reductions include: completion of a one-time $50 million forward funding payment to tribal colleges; $14.4 million for completed settlements; $5.1 million from the Indian Guaranteed Loan program, while the program undergoes a review; $14.2 million from central oversight consistent with increased contracting to Tribes; and $27.0 million for Trust Real Estate Services.

The Budget includes $29.5 million for contract support and the Indian Self-Determination Fund. These funds will enable Tribes to fulfill administrative requirements associated with operating programs.

Honoring trust responsibilities and Strengthening Tribal Nations: The 2012 Budget includes $354.7 million for Bureau of Indian Affairs public safety and justice program operations to improve the safety of Indian communities. The goal is to achieve a reduction in crime of at least five percent within 24 months on targeted tribal reservations through a comprehensive and coordinated strategy. This request is a program increase of $20.0 million above the 2010 enacted/2011 CR.

American Indian land and water settlements: The 2012 Budget also includes $26.7 million to begin implementation of the Claims Resolution Act of 2010, which includes four water settlements for Taos Pueblo of New Mexico, Pueblos of New Mexico named in the Aamodt case, the Crow Tribe of Montana, and the White Mountain Apache Tribe of Arizona. Primary responsibility for constructing water systems funded by the settlements was given to the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs is responsible for the majority of the trust funds. This funding is in addition to mandatory appropriations for these settlements.

 * * * * * * * *

From the BIA.gov (Bureau of Indian Affairs) website I copied this:

Services Overview

The United States has a unique legal and political relationship with Indian tribes and Alaska Native entities as provided by the Constitution of the United States, treaties, court decisions and Federal statutes. Within the government-to-government relationship, Indian Affairs provides services directly or through contracts, grants, or compacts to 566 Federally recognized tribes.

And this:

How large is the national American Indian and Alaska Native population?
According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the estimated population of American Indians and Alaska Natives, including those of more than one race, as of July 1, 2007, was 4.5 million, or 1.5 per cent of the total U.S. population.  In the BIA’s 2005 American Indian Population and Labor Force Report, the latest available, the total number of enrolled members of the (then) 561 federally recognized tribes was shown to be less than half the Census number, or 1,978,099.

Now, WHY do we still have reservations?  Isn't a reservation almost like a prisoner-of-war camp?  Sure, they can come and go whenever they want, but why not divvy up the reservation land, give it to individuals of the tribe, and I would bet you that they will begin to take care of their little piece of the world in a way that they do not now do.  Maybe the tribal leaders don't want that because the tribe will lose their identity?

It wasn't until 1948 that all the legal rigamarole got resolved and all Native Americans got the right to vote.  (And African-Americans think THEY had it bad!!)  There is a super website that I won't even attempt to paraphrase that, if you are even a little interested, you should go to:  

http://www.nativeamericannetroots.net/diary/1364/american-indian-voting-rights

Remember that movie, "Windtalkers," about the Native American's code talk during World War II?  Keep that in mind as you read that website.

More On Our Home In North Dakota

This is looking down the street in front of our house.

This is looking into our garage with our sweet lil' Toyota van snuggled happily in there.

This is our back yard in the rosy glow of a sunset.

In the bottom of the photo you see my friendly white bunny has been by for a visit!

Spirit Lake Indian Reservation

So this weekend we've decided to mosey south to Fargo and then west to Jamestown.  If we stay on the Interstates, travel should be no problem.

Our lil' home away from home

Shortly, the skies clear out, and we begin to look down the side roads. I suggest we cut the trip much shorter by taking a step-down from the Interstate but still a good road, State Highway 200.  It's almost a straight shot west to Carrington.  From there we'll head north to Devil's Lake.

For miles and miles we are in the middle of nowhere.  There's a (very) occasional structure which may or may not be a home and may or may not be occupied.  Then, in the middle of this nowhere, we find:

this very pretty, very big church!  I'd love to be here on a Sunday, sitting in the cupola of the steeple, watching the neighbors gathering to worship!

We travel on to Carrington, stop in the local cafe for a hot lunch, and travel on.

We enter the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation at Sheyenne.  I don't know if you've ever been on a Reservation, but every single one we've been on is not pretty.  I realize the United States government wasn't giving away an oasis when it came to picking sites, but, come on.  It's been a hundred and, what? fifty years??  seventy-five??  And the last twenty of those years they've had casinos to help fund themselves...  I'm just sayin'...

And then we come upon Spirit Lake - well, what was Spirit Lake.

Now it seems to be everyone's favorite ice fishing spot!  It's a huge, huge lake, and as far around the shoreline as we travel we find mobile "villages" of ice fishermen (and women) (and children).

Notice the foreground.  While John is out taking photos I'm studying that ridge that follows the shoreline.  My mind is searching for a term that I've heard in the past and finally uncovers "pressure ridge."  I think that's what it's called.  I get John to zoom in on a particular section of it.  (It's an amazing marriage when the man will listen to the directions his wife gives when it comes to taking a picture...)  This is what he's got:

Isn't that what's called a pressure ridge, where two immovable objects butt up against each other, but one of them has to give?  That sheet of ice sticking up there is about 10" thick.  No wonder cars can drive on it.

This sucker is frozen solid, thick solid, all the way to the far shoreline - and it won't thaw out until next summer.  It's even got another 2 or 3 months to freeze even thicker!  Once you get past the pressure ridge it is flatter than a flitter and smooth as glass.

We have taken the eastern fork of the shoreline road and finally end up at the town of Devils Lake.  It's a pretty big place, right on U.S. Highway 2.  Interestingly, gasoline is 15 cents cheaper here than Grand Forks, so naturally Granpa has to fill up the gas tank.  I get a cup of hot tea and a candy bar, some peanuts for him, then we hit the road for home.  It's been a nice getaway day.