Cass Lake Indian Village tidbit and visitor
While talking with our coordinator , we shared a story about the grounds blessing with her and she suggested we post it on the blog . So here it is.
Rushing around to meet the spiritual leader at 8am the morning of the blessing, I did not have time to get all the food prepared for the dish we were going to offer to the spirits. Being as how we are building this village on land owned by Indian restaurant entrepreneurs, I called Marilyn and said could you please cook me a breakfast and we will use some of it for the spirit plate. so when I got there i went into the restaurant and removed small portions for the spirit plate.I added berries , maple sugar cakes. Marilyn asked what to do with the rest of the plate and I said just keep it and we will have the spiritual leader come in and eat when he is done.
When we finished we invited him into the restaurant and told him he could have breakfast but one of us should eat the plate that was made that I had taken the food off for the dish. He said we should all eat some of that food . So there we were six big Indians sitting in this restaurant all eating out of one dish. Now I never once thought about how that would look to other people and the owners really didn’t think anything of it either. I mean the waitress brought us six forks and the one dish. so there we were all taking bites of eggs sausage and potatoes and cutting off little pieces of toast. visiting and laughing and just having a good time . Then a man stopped by the table and offered to buy us something to eat, we politely declined. Then another person came by and pressed $10.00 in my hand and said you can get another breakfast or something. I was so engrossed with the plans for the village that I didn’t give it much thought until later………………OH duh……what a sight we must have been, sitting there all eating out of one dish. dressed in our best going to cut poles in a swamp clothes.
well those of you on the rez and nearby might get a chuckle out of that and the update for the village is the weather, childrens mental health {my other life commitment} and ceremony and pow wow has just brought everthing to a slow crawl but I assure you we will be finishing this all up before the 4th of July.
Actually the village had a visitor who is really excited about the idea . My old friend Sam English is here doing a bill board with the Youth Divison for their second hand smoke campaign. We told him the spirit plate story. He laughed so hard. We got to talking about the village and the potential and he was all excited and said hes going to Hannaville Michigan but will be back here the 4th of July for the pow wow. So he wants to see what we have done by then….so i said how about a little reception for you at the village, we will grill a little walleye, fluff up some wild rice, make you some bannock with maple butter and lots of fresh fruit. If you are really good we will do some rabbit soup with dumplings.and blueberry rubarbarb cobbler. He says we are on . actually he was never raised here so being born and raised in the southwest Im sure he would like that cusine as well maybe even perfer it so I will throw in some enchiladas and and rice and beans and can’t forget the glacamole chips and salsa.
well gotta run ……..check back for the pictures , coming soon ……..maybe we will even get one of Sam at the village.