Today is Wednesday the 27th, finally found time to post a blog, we have been quite busy here the last few days. Going out to the sites finding more disturbance, just when we find an undisturbed site it becomes disturbed. Weather patterns have been stormy, we still continue to move forward and do our work. We were graced with a visit by Dr. Robbins yesterday, she came by to see how we are progressing on our studies and offered us feedback on our presentations. She kind of gave us a taste of what to expect out there in the scientific community, be prepared to answer any questions thrown at you. If you do not appear to know what you are talking about you will be dismissed as uninformed. So to all you youngins out there be prepared to Bring IT, learn all you can as fast as you can.

No we are not talking about Pokeman which seems to be the latest rage. Busy week for all of us, things happening at work took me away from my research. I just have to decide what  is right, my involvement with traditional medicines or pay the bills by still working. Conflicting work problems, have been good employee for the past 12 years working hard, having to fight for my job every year. I decide to take a little time and involve myself in the internship, this year I made sure I did. Years past I have had to turn down Internships and good ones too,  to focus on my job more. Seems just because I am going forward, obstacles are being put in place now more than ever in past years. Being the resilient, innovative person that I am will not let this affect me. Like I said before Niminwendam Omaa-aayaayan, which translates “I am happy to be here”.  In the profound and wise words of Dory the clown fish “Keep swimming, just keep swimming”.

July 7th and 8th we had the opportunity to travel to Bethel, MN to visit the reserve, which is a veritable oasis for  anyone interested in Natural Resources or Science. 5,500 acres of mostly undisturbed landscape, everything from the grass plains to Boreal forest, to marsh land and swamps. From what I gathered was that the students that were there; were either second year or first year, ranging from bachelors to masters studies. The way everyone talked was with a highly educated scientific knowledge.

I asked them how they found their topics of research, did they just spin the wheel and say “Mold species found on trees” or “Invasive insects”? They said they had to tie into what they were really passionate about. We did learn quite a bit about how the scientific world works now, from the students there and the instructors. It seems to me the higher in education you become the more apt you are to teach or mentor as they say.

But they also learned from us as well; Mary Goggleye schooled them on some Indigenous knowledge. They were interested on our take on Science and research as well, as our mindset is more caretaker version, where theirs it is more straight to the point leave no room for error hypothesis. I’m sure that is what they are taught and just a brief peek into what we will be included in, in the future.

One day was clearly not enough for me anyways, you would need at least a week just to check out all the different biospheres. Very ,very interesting field trip to say the least. Shows us that there is a much larger scientific community out there if we are willing to venture out and be a part of it.

Thursday June 30th, 2016. “Today was a good day” in the infamous words of Ice Cube, we were treated to lunch at Howie’s; thank you Sheila. We continue to work on our mapping by adding more information to make our maps more professional looking. Making sure to show the placement of Minnesota within the United States boundaries, because people from foreign countries may not know where we are. Also making sure to highlight where the Leech Lake Reservation is located in Minnesota, deep in the heart of the state. Maybe I’m just a little biased when it comes to the location of my homeland, that’s just what I believe.

Looking forward to going to Cedar Creek next week; hope everyone don’t chicken out at the last minute. we are also plugging in our waypoints that we took out in the field. Glad to see where exactly in the woods we were at. All the possibilities we can include in our maps, GIS can be fun once you learn the basics otherwise it can be most difficult. There are times you want to rip your hair out and punch through your computer screen, trust me. Patience is the key to understanding the program.

This weekend is 4th of July weekend Abitaah Niibing which means half of summer, they considered the fourth of July to be the turning point of summer. After that it’s all downhill into fall then winter. Sorry to say folks but that’s just how it goes. Pow-wow here on Leech this weekend I am hoping to be able to go and enjoy myself, but will most likely have to work.

June 29th 2016, Wednesday. Today was a good day working with GIS making maps, lots of lessons learned. Patience was a major factor, patience in waiting for the data to upload; I don’t know how Sheila did it, but it was a totally Zen moment. Mr. Anderson graced us with his presence today, you could feel the pressure being lifted as his expert knowledge was put to much needed use.

But by far the most unexpected and eye opening presentation was by Mr. David Northbird. He talked about the invasive species of earthworms, and how they are all foreign to Minnesota. Being brought in by fisherman and used for bait. Little did we know that they are destroying the forest ecosystem slowly. I thought that they were just worms that have always been here for time eternal, great for fishing and scaring girls. Education is the way to fight the invasive species, because most people do not know the harm they are creating.

These are just some of the things we are learning on our internship, who knew how exciting it could be to learn all the things we have so far. So glad to be a part of this journey of knowledge, working with the young people hoping that this plants some kind of seed in their minds. Because we need more people especially Anishinabe people to step up and start protecting mother earth. Niminwendam omaa-ayaayaan.

Woohoo! I just reset my password and am now officially able to enter my daily reports. I was having the most difficult time trying to login, but now I am found. Lots of interesting things happening with our group, we are hopefully going to Cedar Creek to do a presentation with what we have discovered so far. Exciting times to say the least, a chance to get away and see how things are done in the scientific world. We have yet to discover the undisturbed site on the Cuba Hill road. I am beginning to think it’s a most magical place filled with Unicorns and Bigfoots frolicking in the afternoon sun; we shall see.

Lots of other topics going on the world today ; people are getting arrested in Hawaii for protesting the placement of a telescope on their sacred grounds. Undisturbed land that has been set aside for spiritual purposes, now to be trampled and ruined without a thought for the wildlife and land. Last year the delegates for the Hawaiian college were here and they put on a show with their dances and gift giving. Which I thought was really cool, they travelled here with the intent to bring gifts and foster a community spirit. Traditional practices for when you visited  to bring gifts and promote good medicine by eating  with that person or persons. Our school was totally unprepared as far as gift giving, so I went home and brought in beadwork that I used in an art show once that took second place, and a huge medallion I made that also took second place at AIHEC in Montana 2014. They were very happy to say the least, so I can honestly say that I feel for these people. What made their visit even more amazing was how our stories and beliefs in Mermen or Merwomen were almost exactly alike, they felt a special closeness to us after they had found out. They said that at one time this land was all covered by water and the possibility of Mermen and woman was very possible, but for us way up North in the middle of the deep woods still believed in such things was amazing. It just showed that even thought we are from totally different topographic areas we still have a connection that ties us together our legends.

June 23,2016 Cuba Hill road the weather was top notch today, not too warm not to humid a light breeze to keep the horseflies or deer flies away. Today we went out and put down our 1 meter squares and did plant species samples within the area. Lots to learn about what we are doing with the ginger root. Since it is a plant used for various medicinal purposes, we must treat it with great respect by putting down tobacco for all the plants we picked. Today it seems like all the birds in the area were all abuzz with our presence, maybe they are getting used to us being there.

While out there I did notice there was more water in the area, because of the rainfall we received just the day before. Frogs were more abundant than usual, at first we were seeing little black frogs today it was little brown frogs hopping around the ground area. I made sure I did not step on one, frogs need to live too. My aunt used to do beadwork and she would do Loons for my brothers and one time she did a beaded frog, I asked her why would she do a frog. She said that frogs are the eyes of god, whatever happens to frogs will also happen to us, so do not be mean to them.

There are quite a few intelligent people in our group who have wonderful insights and knowledge of other things. I think it is great that we can learn from each other, and it is so nice to be with people who discuss and share ideas and concepts. Instead of the everyday people I work with who only discuss gossip and other people, as we don’t have enough of that in our lives.