Surviving the harsh winter, Dakota-style

Demo at Lower Sioux agency site re-creates

pastimes of times past

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

MORTON--If you've wondered how the Indians, fur traders and settlers survived the usually harsh Minnesota winters, then the two-day winter survival demonstration at the Lower Sioux Agency Historic Site this weekend had the answers to most all your questions.

The fact that the temperature was in the 40s, at least on Saturday, and there was no snow cover did little to diminish the enthusiasm of the Minnesota Historical Society employees who conducted event, with a little help from outside "consultants."

"Weather is cyclical anyway so it really isn't a problem; there were times like these back then, too," said Historic Site Manager Tim Talbott. "The only thing we couldn't do were the snow snakes."

One of the popular winter recreational activities back then, Talbott explained, was sliding tree branches over the snow, leaving snake-like tracks.

But the other things being demonstrated at this first-ever event like the clothes they wore, the food they ate and particularly the production of maple syrup and sugar weren't restricted by the balmy weather.

John and Mary Peterson of Delano were the maple sugaring experts brought in make sure that demonstration went well.

"It's our first public performance, but we've been doing this for, oh, 20 to 30 years on our farm," John Peterson explained. "We have probably about 30 acres of sugar maples."

It was something he had learned from his father, Gordon, who began cooking sugar on the family farm around 1935.

"He made the taps himself out of sumac, the old-fashioned way," Peterson said. "We've always used the metal taps because they're easier to use and there's less damage to the tree."

However, for the demonstration, the Petersons had supplied wooden taps so that people could see how they worked. They also had done the tapping, with metal taps, on the five maples just over the ridge from the demonstration site which supplied the sap used in this weekend's event. A large metal pail, hanging from each tap, collected the sap.

"The trees are on kind of a steep slope," Talbott explained. "That's why we're not taking people over to see the actual tapping. Next year we'll tap a maple over by the demonstration site so that people can see that, too."

Another consultant brought in for the event was storyteller Joe Campbell of the Dakota Sioux Prairie Island community. Storytelling was a pastime for weathering the harsh winter periods when it was too cold to be out.

Campbell began his storytelling in an actual teepee but had to take it outside when the fire burning in the teepee smoked out Campbell and his audience. Apparently the wood used for the fire was too damp to burn efficiently.

One of his stories involved the awesome Thunderbird which could send bolts of lightning to earth. The victim in the story was meant to be a young rabbit who had been dumped by the Thunderbird into its nest with two of its babies in it.

The rabbit was meant to be their dinner, but he devised a clever scheme to get out of the nest. Then everywhere the rabbit ran to hide, including in a pile of stones, was demolished by the Thunderbird's lightning--except one place. The little rabbit hid in a hollow birch tree.

"You are a lucky rabbit, the Thunderbird told the rabbit, because you have hidden in the one thing that I can't destroy with my lightning," Campbell recited. "That's because lightning never strikes anything with birch bark around it."

Meanwhile, inside the Historic Site Visitor Center, Site Interpreter Judi Waterfield was demonstrating the art of finger weaving "or how to make a big mess out of yarn."

She told visitors how the Indians used plant fibers before wool to make the "yarn" used in belts and leggings. The fur traders made large sashes out of wool yarn to carry bundles of hides.

Various foods for sampling, winter clothing and quilts also were displayed in the visitor center.

"We'll definitely have this event again next year," Talbott said. "We'll probably try to have more foods to sample, more indoor games to play and more examples of winter clothing."