PRAIRIE DU CHIEN - The 350th Anniversary of the 1673 voyage of discovery of Father Marquette and Louis Joliet, the very moment 350 years later, when they reached the Mississippi River, was remembered last weekend in Prairie du Chien.
Two replica canoes arrived on the slough at Washington Park. The canoeists, dressed in reenactment costumes, were welcomed by a small crowd, near the camp meant to depict what a voyageur camp would have looked like one hundred years later, in 1773.
Though not located in the center of activities on St. Feriole Island and downtown Prairie du Chien, the arrival and encampment were the thematic centerpieces of the event. Large crowds were seen on the Island, there to take in the Prairie Villa Rendezvous, Flea Market, and Native American dancing by Nedallas Hamill and his family, descendants of the Navajo (Dine) and Ho-Chunk nations.
Nedallas Hammill is part of a family Native American dance performance company started by his father Brian Hammill, as a way to share native culture and dance with various people from all across the United States as well as overseas. Native Spirit is based out of Phoenix Arizona, but the dancers represent various nations from all across the United States, as well as Canada.
The young Hamill has been dancing the Hoop Dance since he was three, and has gone on to significant achievements. Most recently in early 2023, he danced at the 2023 Super Bowl, and then went on to place in the Top 10 at the World Championship Hoop Dance Competition in the Adult Division. In 2020, he was the Teen World Champion Hoop Dancer. Nedallas is currently a junior at UW-Platteville, majoring in business.
At last weekend’s event in Prairie du Chien, Brian and Nedallas Hamill, as well at Nedallas’ sister, provided dance performances, with Nedallas’s sister sharing what was described as a ‘Butterfly Dance.’
Voyageur camp
At the Voyageur’s camp, reenactors were seen using period methods to create canoe paddles and other tools. Their low, canvas-covered tents contained bales meant to portray the furs the voyageurs had traded for with Native American trappers, personal items, tools, canoes, paddles and foodstuffs.
Dr. Eugene Tesdahl was there with his son Harvest, portraying what he referred to as an ‘engage pour l’ouest,’ or a person contracted to transport furs by canoe (from the ‘west’) during the fur trade years.
Contrary to the ‘coureur des bois,’ independent entrepreneurial French Canadian traders who travelled in New France and the interior of North America, an engagé was legally hired under a contract to a merchant or an ‘engageur.’ These contracts, drawn by notaries, usually stated the conditions under which the engagé was to canoe and carry merchandise up to various posts in the Great Lakes or Illinois, and come back with furs that they bartered the merchandise for.
These men normally did not trap and process the animal pelts themselves — indigenous people did. ‘Ouest’ (west) could mean anywhere west of the Ottawa River, following rivers, lakes and rapids.
One of the items Dr. Tesdahl displayed was what he described as a ‘flintlock musket,’ which he contrasted with the earlier ‘matchlock musket.’
“The matchlock musket was a much more dangerous firearm than the later flintlock versions to operate, because it essentially contained an open fire used to ignite the gunpowder with a match,” Tesdahl explained. “With the flintlock version, the powder was contained, and ignited by a spark from the flint hitting metal.”
Tesdahl at one point was seen using a foot-operated vise to craft a canoe paddle, and later a mallet used to pound in tent stakes and for other tasks.
“Essentially, the Voyageurs were constantly creating paddles and other tools as they travelled,” Tesdahl explained. “Paddles were frequently lost or broken, and had to be replaced, and a tool like a mallet was used and broken, and also needed to be replaced.”
Game of Lacrosse
Dave Turner of Minneapolis, a member of the Ojibwa Nation, also maintained a reenactment tent at the site. He was seen displaying a handcrafted Lacrosse Stick and describing the traditional Native American game. The game would have goals, for instance a tree or a bent over shrub, and used the sticks to throw a wooden ball between players.
“I began to use traditional methods to craft the sticks used to play the game about 20 to 30 years ago, and since that time, I have taught many others the traditional methods,” Turner explained. “Here in the Midwest, we play with the version of the stick that was used to the west of the Great Lakes, while the version that is played by high school and college athletes is the version that was typical among Native peoples to the east of the Great Lakes.”
Turner, standing over six feet, said that the game can be very physical, with lots of bruises and bumps. He explained that using the traditional wooden ball versus a sewn hide ball made the stakes much higher.
“I am fairly cautious when I play, because I prefer to keep my teeth,” Turner joked.
Turner said that among some Native peoples, it is not considered appropriate for women to play the game.
“Our group will play with women, but because of our culture, it typically will be a much less physical game than when we are playing it with men only,” Turner explained. “However, the women know this, so when we play with them, they take full advantage of that fact in their play.”
Turner said that his group is composed only of Native Americans because “we like to create that space for ourselves.” He said that in the summer, they will play tournaments in Minneapolis parks, at Pow Wows in Black River Falls and other locations, and in the winter he said they have received permission to play in the Super Dome in Minneapolis.
To learn more about the history of the game of LaCrosse, Turner recommends the book, LaCrosse Legends of the First Americans,’ by Thomas Vennum.
According to the book’s description, Lacrosse was “an ancient Native American sport, originally played to resolve conflicts, heal the sick, and develop strong, virile men. In ‘Lacrosse Legends of the First Americans’ Thomas Vennum draws on centuries of oral tradition to collect thirteen legends from five tribes―the Cherokee, Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Seneca, Ojibwa, and Menominee. Reflecting the game's origins and early history, these stories provide a glimpse into Native American life and the role of the "Creator’s Game” in tribal culture.”
Food preparation
Turner also worked with other members of the Voyageur encampment to prepare the types of food that the voyageurs would have eaten. The group was smoking brook trout caught in the Kickapoo River Watershed near Viola, and also prepared a traditional voyageur stew, made with salt pork and yellow peas, along with carrots, potatoes and onions.
Birch bark canoes
Lee Nelson of Hayward was another reenactor, who brought a traditional Voyageur canoe constructed of birch bark to the encampment. The canoe was kept covered, except to show it to camp visitors, because birch bark can be damaged by sunlight.
“Most of the canoes that we use are not made of birch bark, because the bark has become more difficult to obtain in recent years,” Turner explained. “There are some places in the continental U.S. that we can still obtain the bark from, but the size of the birch trees needed to obtain bark for canoes is increasingly less common. Sometimes, we find ourselves online to source the bark, and it can be from as far away as Russia or Siberia, and is very expensive.”
