By Karen Kenefick
Picture this: It’s 5:45 on a very cold morning. Ten students carrying huge bags are standing around freezing in the Perkins parking lot and they paid fifty dollars to be there. What is wrong with these people, you might ask? Well, I’ll tell you. These people are about to embark on a great journey to Doug’s cabin on the St. Croix River to meet Mark Warren. The ten of us: Sharon Korzendorfer, Kristie Ennis, Raeann Rasmussen, Ronilyn Rasmussen, Stacy Vetvick, Katie Steger, Tom McKinney, Brandon Marcaccini, Matt MacCrady, and I had never met Mark. So for the next three days we would learn Mark’s view on nature for the first time.
We reached the cabin by mid-morning. Sharon had a small problem getting out of the “Barge.” It grabbed the pocket of her jeans and almost ripped it off. The “Barge” was seeking revenge from the Grantsburg trip last year when its door got broken. We all made our way to the front of the cabin, then Doug walked out with Mark. After hearing so much about him it was strange to see him standing in front of us. For a while there was an uncomfortable feeling in the air. No one really knew what to say or do or how to respond to the things he said. That didn’t last for long because his sense of humor and great personality lightened up the scene. We all were introduced, then we went off to the day’s activities.
We were busy all day. In the morning, the first thing we did was a little game where we made a small model of some trees and your partner had to figure out what group of trees the model was from. After that, Mark showed us a plant called Lizard’s skin that was edible. It tasted very strange. The air was really moist and being in the middle of the woods, the bugs were eating us alive so Mark had us follow him up a huge hill to a grassy place. We headed up to find a plant that repels bugs, called the wild mint. He told us that he wanted us to use trial and error to find it. We were supposed to smell different plants and if it had a strong stench, we should ask him if it’s safe, then rub it on our face and see if the bugs went away. While everyone was busy rubbing weird plants on their faces, Kristie and Ronilyn found the right one. We took a break and then Mark began to teach about stalking.
A good portion of the day was spent learning stalking. Stalking is the form of movement that Indians used for hunting. The whole idea behind it is really slow, subtle movement. It requires a lot of patience, strength and balance. We got to try out our new skills on Mark. He got on his hands and knees and pretended he was a deer. If he heard or saw any of us move, he would clap his hands and point at us, then we would have to go back to where we started. The object was to get as close as possible to him. Everyone was doing great until Raeann got too close, so to destroy her concentration, Mark hissed at her. That got rid of Sharon, Raeann and me. We all started laughing, but Katie stood her ground even when he was sniffing her boot.
Everyone was getting hungry so we all went back to the cabin for lunch. We scarfed down peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, cookies, potato chips, apples, and Kool-Aid. Katie, feeling really tired, lounged on the bench by the fire pit but she wasn’t there long before it tipped over.
After lunch we headed back to the woods to play a stalking game. One person stood in the middle of a circle with a blindfold and everyone else had to sneak up to him and touch him with their nose. The person blindfolded had ropes that he would try to hit you with when he heard the direction you were coming from. The game was a lot of fun and we spent a long time playing it. I was the only blindfolded person who got everyone out. After we got tired of playing the stalking game, we moved on to the next objective for the day.
We went back down to the cabin. Mark was now going to teach us how to make fire. We went and found a basswood tree that was dead and dried up. He instructed us how to make the kits to make fire. We used basswood as the fireboard and the middle piece that spun around called the drill. We used the inner bark of the tree for tinder. It could be worked into soft thread. The last thing we needed to find was a piece of hard wood to use as the top of our kits. Every kit needs a bow to make it work, but Mark decided it would be better just to share one because making one requires cutting a living branch down. After we gathered all of these materials, we met back at the fire pit and carved and cut our wood into the right shape. The rest of the afternoon and into early evening, we spent working on our fire kits and making bracelets from basswood bark. Ronilyn was carving away so vigorously that she broke the end of her knife off in the wood, but Doug loaned her another one. Most people eventually gave up on their fire kit but Sharon decided she was going to make fire. She worked and worked at her kit and, without the help of anyone else, this determined young lady started the fire for the evening by herself. Matt was quick to almost fall into the fire after it was really going.
The bark of the basswood tree can also be twisted into a thin rope which can be worn as necklace or bracelet. So when people got tired of putting together their fire kits, they worked on making rope.
That night everyone got tired pretty early, especially Stacy, who could always be found sleeping in her tent. We had a big spaghetti dinner that night made by Doug. As Katie and I were walking to the spring to clean off our plates, we were surprised by a porcupine waddling around by the hose. It ran away and like a rocket Mark went running after it because he had never seen one in the wild. Porcupines just aren’t a common thing at his home in Georgia.
After dinner we had a short meeting. We talked about the activities for the next day and we were told about the naming ceremony that would take place. We all had to give Mark a small writing assignment about ourselves that he would use to give us our spiritual Indian name. The idea behind giving us a spiritual name is so we could have a name that would actually mean something to us. It is a very serious ceremony.
The next morning everyone was awakened early. This day was very busy. Besides doing our writing for the naming ceremony, we got the island ready for the sweat lodge which we were supposed to have Wednesday morning to celebrate the naming ceremony. Getting ready for it required several trips across the St. Croix with logs and a trip with rocks and a trip with the material to make the lodge itself. Unfortunately, the sweat lodge was cancelled due to the weather, which really turned bad.
Part of the day was spent making bowls from logs. The first step in making the bowls was to make a pipe that was air tight. We first had to get a six inch branch from a sumac tree. Raeann and I were responsible for finding a branch big enough so that everyone would get enough to use.
The rest of the people went with Mark to collect sap from pine trees which would be mixed with ashes to make a strong glue. Mark and Matt climbed up a huge tree and threw sap stuck to leaves and branches down to the others. Then we all met back at the fire. Mark showed us how to make the bowls and everyone worked on them for several hours. Kristie torched the glue so it took a little longer for some than others.
Around noon Mark started taking trips to the island with firewood (that Doug slaved over for hours cutting it up for us). He took one canoe and the other canoe had Tom at the bow and Matt at the stern. This proved to be a winning combination. They made it to the island safely but on the way back they were swept way down the river and got stuck on a rock. It would have been really scary to be in that canoe, but I can tell you it sure was fun to watch.
After lunch when everyone started to get a little bored, Mark taught us another one of his great games. The game, called gling, was a lot like hackie-sack except we kicked around a milk jug and we had to follow Mark’s special rules. If you apologized for anything, the person got to throw the milk jug at your backside as hard as he wanted. If you kicked it after it was on the ground, you had to get down on your hands and knees and bark your name. If you hit it with your hands or arms you had to blow up the milk jug. The game was really fun. Everyone got really into it—especially Brandon, who, while going after the jug, ended up on his butt.
It started to rain toward evening of that day, so we went inside the cabin. We sat around drinking hot chocolate while Mark taught us Indian sign language, then we ate dinner.
The final activity for the evening was the naming ceremony. We each were passed a piece of paper with our new names on it and we opened them all together. Most people got two names, a long name and a short name. The short name was an abbreviation of the long one, but the long name is special because it tells more than the short name and it’s only to be told to people who understand its importance. The second part of the ceremony had to do with bettering ourselves and being more in touch with our influence on others. I think each one of us were touched in our own way by the ceremony—some more than others.
The next morning we packed first thing, then we met in the cabin. It was still raining so the sweat lodge was cancelled, but we got to drink ceremonial tea to celebrate our new names. It was made from sumac berries. We each gathered a cluster of them and put them in a big pot and boiled it to get out the little surprises left by animals. While it was boiling we played a couple more of Mark’s games and before we knew it the other group was there to take our place.
Mark Warren is a man who truly appreciates the value of the earth around him. He teaches others to see the earth in a different perspective. He showed the ten of us how to get more in touch with the earth around us and he made us think twice about civilization. The trip was truly an experience that will not be soon forgotten.