Cass Lake, MN

The Windigo came roaring into Cass lake 12 days before Christmas. He looked around and brought his blanket of woe and spread it out over the Cass lake Family center.. His arrival was announced when the voice on the other end of the phone told Thom that there would be no toys for the families that had signed up at the Cass lake Family Center. Thom said “oh no! That can not be.” But the voice assured him , indeed, it was. The toy donation was down this year and the program that gives the toys had thought that the little family center was part of another program on the reservation that already received their toys.

Tom wearily hung up the phone .and said to the staff “there will be no toys for our families” It was a moment before anyone said anything as the sad news sank in. “What are we going to do?” ” One hundred and twenty-five families with 400 children and no toys for Christmas.” Our Families depend on this extra help. Most of the children will have nothing for Christmas . “Its too late to get the families signed up for toys elsewhere.” ” What are we going to do??” is what the staff was saying.

When Thom called one lady she asked Thom if she could try and help. She said “They say its not what you know, but who you know and in my lifetime I’ve met a lot of people. Let me see what I can do”. This lady knew that she would need a lot of help, so she went out and talked to Grandma Rabbit Choker. Grandma Rabbit Choker was an old lady living out in the woods. A lot of people in the area don’t even know her and certainly Thom had never heard of her.

The woman took Grandma Rabbit Choker some Tobacco and a few little gifts and said “the people need your help”. It is always said that the elders are waiting to be asked and grandma took the tobacco and gifts and told the woman to go home and send as many smoke signals to everyone she could and let them know. She told the woman that the Windigo was in Cass Lake and that only man kind and love would defeat him ,Compassion and kindness would kill the Windigo and that mankind was good and the people must have faith that good will come of this. The woman went home and did what she was told.

Grandma Rabbit Choker went into her house , turned on her computer and emailed everyone in her address book. She told of the Windigo or his relative who had come to steal the children’s Christmas. And said HELP! Now Grandma was old but she had heard about these computers and went to town one day and bought one. Her grand children taught her how to email. She was always amazed that one could send smoke signals to a lot of people at the same time and you did not need to chop all that wood. But when Grandma sent out the email she put her own phone number down instead of The Family Center. It was a mistake she found out about the next day.

The lady called Thom the next day and said help will come and told him what Grandma said. “Have faith , that some good will come of this”. Meanwhile the Windigo was hanging out at the family center. He would go out to the food shelve and munch on anything he could find. He went down to the post office and hung out , making sure that people heard of his work here and there would be no toys at the little family center. He could not have been happier. And many of the people who heard the news would have liked to help but this was a very poor community. Lots of people with no jobs and families with no place to live. It got cold and he went back to the family center. Thom was on the phone with Grandma Rabbit Choker who told Thom that a lady named Sue called { that’s when Grandma realized the mistake she made} and she wanted to help and she was sending $250.00 and another lady named Carolie called and said I will help. Carolie got her her husband Bob to help too. Bob Collins helped put the word out all over Minnesota. They also sent a check. Grandma felt good as she knew both Sue and Carolie and how hard they work for families and children.

The next day Public television called . Grandma told them come to the family center. Grandma was beginning to hear from a lot of people. By Friday night there had been $2,500 raised for toys. Granma did a Little dance and told Thom again “Have faith the Windigo is going down.

Mean while two people came to town , they came to do a workshop for people in the community. The business they run is called Access Philanthropy . They left after writing a check for $500. And rescheduling the workshop. When they left the Windigo was lurking around out side and I believe the Windigo was starting to realize this was not going to be easy. The people in the family center were laughing and say maybe we will have Christmas and they were so happy and grateful that it made the Windigo sick. So he went up to the Indian Hospital and they gave him some pink stuff for his tummy and told him come back if you get worse. He had to wait a long time before he saw the doctor. But what he saw and heard there made him feel better. Sick children and unhappy people always made the windigo happy.

The Windigo was still in Cass lake. Thom