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To restore lakes, try looking north:
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| By: Timm Severud, Winter |
October 14, 2009 |
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A number of years ago, I ran into Jean Baptiste Perrault's 1831 map that Henry Rowe Schoolcraft used for a trip here that same year. On that map, Prairie Lake is labeled 'Lac la Folle au Fame.'
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This was the start of an affair with the lake. I grew up on this lake; so had my father. I wondered if I did not want it to be famous, to see it be central in the history. It is not central, but it has a strong place. It is famous in so many ways acre for acre, the most productive rice beds, at the heart of Folle (rice) region during the early fur trading (French pre-1761), and a major place of contention between the Mdwekoton (Dakota) and Anishinabe (Chippewa), with a history written on the ground for 11,000 years.
I loved this lake before I knew I loved it. The history I have learned about it and the area tell me that what is happening to our lakes today is because we have forgotten the natural position they played. This was a place where the food grew on the water. This was the place where the apex of aboriginal form of agriculture dominated.
I have seen enough to know that wild rice is a cleaner of water, the fishing gets better and it is where both swans and musky nest. We can study a problem forever and get nowhere, other than support people who make money off of studies, or we can define a possible solution.
I always look for solutions and know that if I had the power to fix this (not a power I would want), I would drain the lake, use the new refuge-between the old shoreline and new one-as a nondevelopment park zone. I would also reintroduce wild rice and see if we can't do a little historical/cultural reconstruction.
Restoring Prairie Lake to Prairie Rice Lake is my dream ... imagine the amount of trail, at least 30 miles around. Imagine having a series of bubbling pure spring water on the north end. I am imagining Mush-ko-da-mun-o-min-e-kin (rice beds so thick they look like a prairie, a.k.a. Prairie Rice Lake) being harvested by a dozen rice camps all telling the full history of this valley.
We tend to look south for our answers, whereas this time we need to look north. There is more knowledge and a strong cultural connection with this lake from the local bands of the Chippewa. It is time to ask the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (glifwc.org) for help and, in the process, recognize they have a voice here, in the ceded territories.
The choice is ours. Do we dominate this place or live with it? Do we ask for help or give away frog skins ($$ it is green and jump from pocket to pocket) just to talk about it some more?
Talk or do, it's up to you!
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©The Chetek Alert 2009
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