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Binaakwe-Giizis
(Falling Leaves Moon) / October 1995

Sometime the little books get overlooked. Don't make this mistake with Voyageur's Sketchbook by James A. Hanson. For $4 or so this book provides loads of information and helpful drawings of authentic voyageur gear. It is a great first book for anyone getting into voyageur reenactment.

Among the items shown in good detail are moccasins, cassettes, bottles, and cooking gear. The level of description and detail in the drawings is such that you can make much of the gear with only these for guides.

Most of the items listed are from the Museum of the Fur Trade or Smithsonian. Just reviewing the drawings and simple text will provide you with a basic grounding in voyageur era gear and some insights into the era itself. If you can't find it locally, order from The Fur Press, HC 74, Box 18, Chadron, NE 69337.

"I'm proud of my wood craft," says Gary Wolf better known as Quill, White Oak's blacksmith and probably its most recognizable interpreter. To anyone who knows Quill, it is not strange that someone known best as a blacksmith prides himself most on his knowledge of the North Woods.

Quill's knowledge of smithing and the woods is self-taught. His first experience as a blacksmith came in his folks' garage in Little Falls at the age of nine. "It had a barrel stove for heat and I just started making stuff." That first knife is owned by Ken "Grizz" Yezek of K&K Foothill Tailors.

Living on 80 acres near Longville, Quill has ample time and room to trap and learn more about the woods. He is well versed in wild food and medicinal plants and such arts as making cordage from natural materials.

Quill came to White Oak by chance. Camping at the first rendezvous he was approached by the Society to become its blacksmith. Ever since, Quill has been a fixture at White Oak.

And a popular one at that. Adults are fascinated by his ability to transform steel into useful artifacts, but it's the kids most attracted to the forge and Quill. He treats them with firmness, teaching them about blacksmithing, fur trade history and respect for things that are hot. He makes strikers to fit the pocketbook, swap something for raw material, and lectures about honesty.

Over twenty years of smithing, though, have taken their toll on a man who is tall and gangly. A leather brace does little to ease the severe tendinitis in his right arm.

During the fur trade, the blacksmith was essential for making and repairing everyday tools and items. As blacksmith, possessor of wood craft, teacher and intepreter, Gary "Quill" Wolf is essential to our modern era White Oak Post

The cool weather of fall is a good time to curl up with a book and drink hot tea. Well, the book to read is Gil's recently published Wild Plant Uses (Both Past and Present).

Designed as a guide for plants alnog the nature trail, the book's 63 pages have information useful throughout the region. After setting the scene of the fur trade era, Gil examines wild foods and recipes, provides a warning about water hemlock, describes various common wild medicines, and reviews general utility plants (e.g., basswood and birch). Copies of this useful guide are available at the White Oak office for $4.00.

As for tea, Gil notes that "the flavors of root, leaf, and berry yield themselves into a hot tisane of good merit. Some require long boiling, others short, and a few need only be infused into hot water."

American mint ("little spirit") leaves and stems can be infused or steeped for tea. Look for it in wet locations where it can be identified by its square stems and minty smell; its leaves are jagged, opposite and occur in layers.

Now is a good time to gather wild sarsaparilla (wabosodjibik "rabbit foot") in dry open woods. It's 1-3' tall with bright yellow leaves in fall. The roots, which have a faint root beer scent, are boiled into a tea.

The roots of spikenard, a relative of sarsaparilla and a member of the ginseng family, also can be boiled into tea. The Ojibwe used this tea for coughs.

"The Midewiwin is not so much to worship anything as to preserve the knowledge of herbs for use in prolonging life. The principle idea of the Midewiwin is that life is prolonged by right living, and by the use herbs which were intended for this purpose by the Mide manido (Grand Medicine spirit)." Gage'w_n telling about traditional Ojibwe beliefs and medicine society. [Frances Densmore in Ojibway Customs.

"Tho' roughly & rudely constructed, we soon get accustomed, & when we have enough to eat we feel comfortable; for, here as everywhere else, we live in anticipation of better times & never, at least very few of us know to enjoy what we possess." George Nelson, a XY Company trader commenting on the crude quarters at the 1802-03 Yellow River Post in west central Wisconsin.

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