Ministry Description
We’re going to the wilderness! The core of your mission will be a 3-day, 2-night canoe and camping trip. After settling in and eating supper on Sunday, you’ll have camp orientation, your first planning meeting, and a worship time before turning in. On Monday, you’ll train and gear up. You’ll eat dinner that evening with the local kids who’ll go with you, separate into canoe groups, and practice with the canoes a bit. After a second planning meeting with everyone present, you’ll worship together before the local kids go home for the night.
They’ll come back the next morning, ready to leave, and the group will be gone TU-TH. Food, tents, and sleeping gear will be transported in vans from one overnight site to the next, resulting in lighter canoes and less-exhausted paddlers! An added bonus is that all gear will remain dry.
When the trip is over, everyone will clean the equipment and store it until next time. The local kids will go home on Thursday night, but you could invite them to have breakfast and send off your team the next morning.
Project Overview
Most Native communities now deal with meth, gangs, and an increase in violent crime, just like the non-Natives surrounding them. Alcohol or drug-related accidents account for the majority of deaths among young people on the reservations.
These are cross-cultural missions, with distinct differences between Anglo and Native society. Our words and actions will be viewed with the perception that we are there to make ourselves feel good. We must address this possibility before going.
Most of the nearby 1,200 Potawatomi, and many of the 500 Chippewa on the Mole Lake Reservation, are closed to Christianity. Their view of white Christians is generally not positive, and they are not open to hearing the Gospel message about Jesus. They will allow their children to attend camps, outings, and other Christian activities, but it is difficult to gain trust and relationship among local Natives.
Since we seek to share lives and truth through relationships, we need opportunities to really get to know the adults and children of the community. We must live in a wa
y that shows Christians are trustworthy, that their messages bring life, and that Jesus followers can be believed.
Potawatomi People, Culture, and Religion
The Potawatomi originally settled along the shores of the Atlantic, near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Their name is a translation of the Ojibwe "potawatomink" meaning "people of the place of the fire." Similar renderings are Keepers of the Sacred Fire, Fire Nation, and People of the Fireplace. All refer to their role as keepers of the council fire in an alliance during the 1500s with the Ojibwe (Keepers of the Faith) and Odawa or Ottawa (Keepers of the Trade). In their own language, the Potawatomi refer to themselves as the Neshnabek, meaning "the people.” By 1600, they were living in Lower Michigan.
Threatened by tribes trading with the French during the late 1630s, the Potawatomi began leaving their homeland in 1641 and moved to the west side of Lake Michigan. By 1665, they completed the relocation to northern Wisconsin's Door Peninsula just east of Green Bay. Eventually, they moved south along the shore of Lake Michigan, reaching the tip by 1695. Shortly after the French built Fort Pontchartrain at Detroit in 1701, groups of Potawatomi settled nearby. By 1716, most of their villages were located in an area between Milwaukee and Detroit, with some moving into northern Indiana and central Illinois.
The Potawatomi ate wild game, fish, wild rice, red oak acorns, and gathered maple syrup. After being pushed out of their hunting ground and into Wisconsin, they learned farming from neighboring tribes and grew corn, beans, and squash. The women took care of the fields while the men did the hunting. They used birch bark canoes as their main mode of transportation, and later domesticated horses as the tribes moved into different regions. Horses were used to hunt buffalo on the grasslands.
Land cessions to the U.S. government began in 1807, and drastically reduced Potawatomi territory during the next 25 years. Forced removal from their tribal lands occurred between 1834 and 1842. This march west to new lands in Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma became known as the Potawatomi Trail of Death, since many perished along the way. Several groups avoided removal and fled to Canada, or remained in the Great Lakes area, including the Forest County Potawatomi Community.
Probably the most traditional group, the Forest County Potawatomi of northern Wisconsin have retained much of their original language, religion, and culture. In 1913, the government accepted their residence in Wisconsin and used treaty monies to purchase nearly 12,000 acres for them. All land, except for 200 acres, is tribally owned. Federally recognized with an enrollment close to 800, they live in three communities, with tribal headquarters in Crandon, Wisconsin.
For an in-depth history of the tribe, go to http://www.tolatsga.org/pota.html and scroll down to “History,” or view a timeline at http://www.fcpotawatomi.com/forest-county-potawatomi-history/timeline-of-potawatomi-history.
Mole Lake Chippewa People, Culture, and Religion
The Mole Lake Anishinabe (Chi
ppewa) migrated from eastern Canada to northern Wisconsin a thousand years ago. Living near the upper Great Lakes region, they have kept treaty rights to hunt, fish, and gather on lands ceded to the U.S. government in the mid-1800s.
The Sokaogon Mole Lake Band of Lake Superior Chippewa resides on a reservation next to Rice Lake in Forest County, northeastern Wisconsin. The early-autumn harvest of wild rice, a staple of the Chippewa diet, has altered very little in the hundreds of years that the Sokaogon have lived there. It was recorded that around 500 warriors died during the 1806 Battle of Mole Lake fought between the Chippewa and the Sioux over the wild rice beds, referred to as “manomin” or “food that grows on the water.” It is still harvested and processed today in the traditional way.
The Sokaogon are known as the “Post In the Lake” people because of the spiritual significance of possibly a petrified tree that stood in Post Lake. The Sokaogon Chippewa are also known as the Lost Tribe because legal title to an 1854 treaty reservation was lost in a shipwreck on Lake Superior. The band, under the leadership of Chief Willard Ackley, finally received federal recognition and reservation status in 1937. Before the Mole Lake Indian Reservation was established, the Sokaogon Chippewa lived in the Rice Lake vicinity without the benefit of tribal government, other than the ability to hold council meetings.
In the late 1960s, one of the richest metallic ore deposits in North America was found near Mole Lake. The proposed mining of the site spurred a controversy lasting three decades. Along with the neighboring Forest County Potawatomi Community, the Sokaogon bought the mine for 16.5 million dollars. The two tribes argued that the opening of the zinc and copper mine would harm the environment. The land is now in control of the tribes and no mining is planned for the future. Today the Sokaogon Chippewa continue to harvest rice and spearfish as they always have. Principle means of livelihood include boat building, gathering wild rice and wreath greens, selling tourist novelties, and gaming.
In 1968, the Sokaogon received additional lands which brought the reservation size to almost 2,000 acres. Some areas are considered sacred, and are not open to the public. For an in-depth history of the band, go to http://www.sokaogonchippewa.com/history.htm, or http://www.glitc.org/pages/scml.html.
The Midewiwin, or the Grand Medicine Society, is a secretive, traditional religion practiced among the indigenous groups of the Canadian Maritime provinces, New England, and the Great Lakes region. Its animistic system incorporates the belief that souls or spirits exist not only in humans, but also in all animals, plants, natural phenomena (such as thunder), geographic features (such as mountains, rocks, or rivers), and other entities of the natural environment.
For an in-depth look at Potawatomi/Chippewa traditional religion, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anishinaabe_traditional_beliefs#Common_Beliefs.
The two 18-person double cabins provide for Campfire area and canoe storage – Forest County
teams to bunk when they are at the base. contains 836 lakes!
