Fond du Lac Follies has been dragging the family to pow wows. My wife Pat dances jingle or has a food stand. Grandson Ezigaa just wanders around doing 12-year-old kid stuff. He likes being able to do what he wants when he wants.

I like the visiting that goes on and on at such places. I don't feel racism when at a pow wow. I like that feeling of being a part of something interesting, a skin thing.

One of my favorite parts is hearing stories from people about what is happening near them. For example, a friend reports that the elderly housing unit on his reservation is commonly called the Wrinkle Ranch. That same friend tells me about that generic toilet paper, the one that comes in the yellow and black packaging. It seems an Indian guy complained to the store manager about that no-name product. He even suggested a name for it. He said call it John Wayne toilet paper. When asked why he replied, "It is rough and tough and don't take no crap off Indians."

One such pow wow was held here in Sawyer. It was the 25th Annual Sobriety pow wow held at Mash Ka Wisen on the shores of Big Lake. That is an easy choice to make. Mash is just down the tar road from our home so it is a natural.

Is it my imagination or is that pow wow getting smaller with each passing year? On Saturday while walking around I heard the emcee say there was 167 dancers dancing. Compared to the 650 dancers a couple of weeks before at the Fond du Lac Veterans pow wow, it was smaller. The drums and singers sounded great. The visiting was just as good.

We motored up highway 61 to the Grand Portage Reservation for their celebration called Rendezvous Days. The ride along the big lake is always enjoyable. The blue of the lake and the blue of the sky matched each other. I saw birch trees growing all the way to Grand Portage.

When we arrived I saw there were two different groups camping there. The first group was wearing clothes from a couple of hundred years ago. They were cooking over open fires and were sleeping in canvas tents. Most of them seemed to be carrying knives for some reason. These were the voyageurs.

The second group was wearing modern day clothes, T-shirts and jeans. We were sleeping in nylon tents or in recreational vehicles. I saw one RV with a dish antenna and two air conditioners. I heard the generators that gave the people electricity for their appliances. These were the Shinnobs, visiting, dancing, and singing.

The dance grounds at Grand Portage were sturdy and built to last. The drums got everyone's heart beating at the same time. The singers sounded good in the cool north woods of the Ojibwe.

Question of the Month
Q.   What do you use for streetlights in Sawyer?
A.   The stars, and once a while, the moon.

Bears, we are seeing more bears than usual around this neck of the Rez. One black bear found my brother's garbage and scattered stuff all over the yard. My neighbor next door had his garbage scattered around. The Rez game wardens have placed a trap there. If they are successful the bear will be transported deep into the woods. I hear of more and more bear sightings. I have seen them crossing the highways. I was driving on the Interstate near Scanlon, Minnesota when I saw a bear crossing the freeway. He almost made it, loped half way and was then hit by the car in front of me. His body slid off the road in a long slide. I stopped for a closer look. This was an unusual bear; in the middle of his chest there was a V shape of white hair. I have never seen that in a black bear from around here.

My aunt Beeb, (Florence Greensky) said her dad told her that this is a bear highway, the bears use trails that pass through Sawyer.

One summer a few years back the kids come running in the house and said, "Bear!"

I looked out the window and sure enough, saw three bears strolling through the freshly mowed grass. I thought they were a mother and two babies. The bears were just walking along sniffing things.

I stood on the back porch above the bears and told them to get out of here because they were scaring the kids. The bears looked at me. I said something similar in Ojibwe to the bears and they took off running. They left me there scratching my head thinking that bears must understand our language.

Makwa niin nindoodem. The views in this column belong to the writer alone. They are not meant to represent anyone but me.

Comments and bingo packs can be sent to:
FdL Follies
PO Box 16
Sawyer, MN 55780-0016.
email: Northrup@cp.Duluth.mn.us
Web site: hanksville.org/storytellers/Northrup/