August, 2018
On August 15, 2018 Karin and I hustled to get things ready to go to Wisconsin. We traveled northeast to say goodby to her cousin Brianne’s spirit at the Stockbridge Munsee (Mohigan) Pow Wow to see relatives she hasn’t seem in years on and off the reservation. We tried to get a direct flight but it seemed impossible. We decided not to travel in monkey class this long trip. This past year has been difficult. There are less people and more work with long days.
TA DA! Karin finally has her Danish Viking outfit. She searched online and found a costume designer that turned out to be quite a talented person. Her brother and father hunt deer and over several seasons collected hides and sent them to us. Finally we pulled out the box of hides and gave them to Valorie from which she made me Eastern Woodland leggings and a breech cloth. She also made a beautiful trade cloth shirt to wear with the outfit. back in the day 1660 to 1750 people would exchange furs etc. to french and english traders for several items one of which was cloth (mostly muslin) hence the name ‘trade cloth’ shirt.’
She fussed and planned to make sure her outfit was original. Emails flew back and forth between her and Marit the Queen of all things Viking in Norway. In the end Marit gifted Karin with a necklace that had been aboard the Harald Fairhair the largest Viking ship of modern times which sailed from Norway to North America. In arranged for UPS to retrieve the box in Avaldsnese and ship it next day. BUT as expected next day turned into a weekend it arrived the day we traveled to Wisconsin. I prepared a delivery label and left it at the office with the lodge address on the Mohican reservation where we were staying. To make a long story short $430 later it arrived just hours before we did.
We checked into a hotel that used to be a brewery. Very nice digs. If you go to Milwaukee stay there. We were early and the room wasn’t ready. So we went to a bar and had lunch. I have never seen so much fried food on the menu. We spent our first night in Milwaukee with Karins friend and her husband Gary man they are really a howl. That night we went to a back in the day Italian restaurant and the food was great but the floor show Wister and Gary put on was even greater. Garytold her not to drink to much and reminded her that she almost got them banded at the legion. Banded from the American legion! I didn’t think that was possible! Not for a college educated midwestern lady. Next was a very cool whiskey bar with food trucks out front. It was the first time I ever had an old fashioned.They took us to the Harley Davidson Hotel. WoW! We entered the bar and the band was playing 60-70’s tunes and old biker chicks we dancing to the tunes. The place was jammed so we went out to the patio bar and sat in the sprinkling for a couple of drinks.
Karin was excited to see her cousins. When we arrived at Janet and Brians house their hunting dogs were going crazy. Janet invited us inside but Brian wasn’t yet home. We sat and spoke about Brieanne the reason we had traveled home to Wisconsin. E asked Janet if we could do a tribute to Brieanne. It was so difficult to accept that such a young beautiful woman was gone. Later we saw pictures of the truck in which the accident occurred. The passenger side was flat it took hours to cut the driver from the truck. They were ice fishing and causing the truck across the frozen lake and tried to clear the bridge.
Then we went to the pow wow. Man it was hot and humid. SUPRISE! We ran into Dick and Pat and the family Miller or the Miller clan and Aunt Molly and saw relatives and ate fry bread. as we left the fry bread stand Karin ran into a German cousin of hers that said her divorce to that security guard Indian became final that friday. She asked Karin if she was still a Wasler. Karin said yes. Later we ment two of Dicks sisters. We watched all of the happiness that comes with pow wows indian culture and family dancing.
We decided to have dinner at the casino. Bad idea! We waited twenty minutes for service and still no menu. We look around and noticed all the uneaten food on plates at the tables surrounding us. Ten more minutes Im pissed and we moved on to the front desk and got directions to a country club restaurant. We drove 45 minutes through the country to a Mohican country club only to find out it was only opened one night a week … and Friday wasn’t the night. Then we drove another fifteen miles and found a dairy queen. Free at last!!n I was starving and by mistake ordered a hott double cheese burger.
We drove an hour and a half for a burger. LA really spoils a fella
Best thing at the casino was the bar except for the cigarette smokers. We fortified ours elves at the bar and returned to the lodge. The Indian that owns the lodge used to be a judge.
The next night we went to the pow wow dressed in our regalia. Karin in her Viking outfits and wearing Shawnee eastern woodlands clothing. The dancing had a quite sense of purpose that night. Karin and I prepared ourselves. I wrote an old traditional Shawnee death song to carry Brieannes spirit from this world to the next. I would read the prayer in Shawnee and Karin would translate it into english. We were surprised when we were told to read the prayer from the MC booth. It was a sad and moving night. Sucide is prevalent on reservations several months earlier the MC’s teenage daughter took her life two months later the younger brother sad that his sister was gone took his life. The crowd quieted as we read the prayer. I was sad when we finished. I felt proud when Aunt Molly the tribes language teacher said she recognized some of the words I spoke. Yes Creator was with us that night. and I know that Inumsi Illefewanu his female counterpart was there to carry Brieanne’s spirit to the land of the grandfathers.
Aho!
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