Hard Work, Northern Lights and a Powwow

We spent the rest of last week working hard on the two homes we’re helping rebuild for members of the Red Lake Nation. The students are learning quickly. They have all gained a wide variety of new skills, and everyone is contributing hard work, good attitudes, and valuable tasks to their crews. They’ve impressed me, and I’m so grateful for the ways they’ve bonded and looked after one another amid work that can be physically and emotionally exhausting.

We finished the week having nearly completed both houses. A couple of the crew leaders finished one of them over the weekend, and a student crew will finish the other in the coming days. That pretty much sums up the work week.

We stayed busy over the weekend as well. Friday night featured a visit from Bev Lapp (former GC music prof and Dale Klassen’s wife)—did I mention that Dale is co-leading the trip with me (Luke), focusing on helping students learn construction skills and providing overall good vibes?—and a trip to the Nation’s nearby Seven Clans Casino pool and hot tub. After the swim, around 10:30 pm, we piled into the bus and drove north along Lower Red Lake in search of a clear view of the horizon. Red Lake has some of the darkest skies in the country, and we were treated to a beautiful display of Northern Lights.

Saturday we had some fun in Bemidji before driving to a small section of Chippewa National Forest with giant 250+ year old pine trees. The grove is remarkable in part because it stands in such contrast to the skinny young forests we’ve seen everywhere else on our trip. It highlights just how radically the timber industry transformed the Northwoods landscape since the mid-nineteenth century. The beautiful old growth forest exists by mistake. A team of surveyors were supposed to map and allocate these Minnesota woodlands for timber companies and white settlers in the late 1800s, but a harsh winter led to haste and human error, and they neglected this little parcel, so visitors today can enjoy a glimpse of what northern Minnesota would look like if the interest in logging hadn’t been quite so absolute. We had a pleasant hike, then drove back to Red Lake, where we ate delicious, student-prepared Indian food and Japanese curry for dinner. 

On Sunday we visited the Mother’s Day Powwow at the White Earth Indian Reservation. The powwow was a big community event centered around dancing and traditional drum songs. Most of the dancers were dressed in elaborate, beautiful regalia. 

On Monday it was back to work. Another blog coming soon! Here are some  more  photos.