- Home
- Prairie Partners
- Field Guide
- Introduction
- Map
- Heritage
- Local Prairie
- Geology
- Ojata
- First Peoples
- Voices
-
Species
>
- Ferruginous Hawk
- Marbled Godwit
- Short-eared Owl
- Western Meadowlark
- Snowy Owl
- Greater Prairie Chicken
- Le Conte's Sparrow
- Upland Sandpiper
- Wilson's Phalarope
- Yellow Rail
- Northern Pintail
- White Prairie Aster
- Common Bladderwort
- Pasque Flower
- Prairie Coneflower
- Maximilian Sunflower
- Big Bluestem
- Wild Prairie Rose
- Wild Bergamot
- Black-eyed Susan
- Canada Wild Rye
- Tiger Salamander
- Common green darner
- Prairie Is
- Pioneers
- Prairie Heroes
- Photo Gallery
- Speaking of Prairie
- Links
- Contact Us
First Peoples
In that time before the white man, the sounds of horses walking leisurely along the banks of the Red River or journeying up the beach ridges surrounding the valley were common. From the wigwams and teepees pitched mostly at the confluence of the Red and Red Lake Rivers, the people could hear the gentle swishing of paddles and churning water breaking over the front of a birch bark canoe that told them visitors from another tribe were coming. The rhythmic sounds of water drums and stretched raw hide drums bounced off the cottonwood and raised the head of a wandering deer or alerted a lone visitor to the valley that trade and conversation was ahead.
It was a time of trade and travel for Native people. It was a time of the land, aki (land in Anishinaabeg). Waterways now called the Tamarac, Middle, Snake, Turtle and Goose rivers fed the powerful Red River and provided transportation for Indian people in the areas. The upper and lower Red Lakes east of the valley emptied into a meandering Red Lake River that wound its way to its sister, the Red River. The Red Lake River formed a corridor of boundless travel and trade between the Bands of Turtle Mountain (mik-in-ockwa- jiw ish-knoi-gon), Red Lake (mis quaga- mi-wi-saga-eh-ganing) and tribes such as the Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, Arikara (Sahnish), Mandan and Hidatsa. Those of the Siouan nations called this land tin ta or makoce.
The Red Lake River also fed the marshlands where the snake, moose, bear and wolf roamed among the swampy bogs inhabited by mosquitoes and colorful ladyslippers.
Among the tallgrass prairies and almost inhabitable marshlands, tribes harvested wild rice, wild cranberries, chokecherries, blueberries, pin cherries, asparagus, wild rhubarb, turnips, onions and maple syrup, and made tea of sumac or wild mint leaves. Birch bark was an important trade commodity for Native people in the area. They turned the tree bark into many things including baskets, twine, shelter and
food for horses.
A father of a crying, fevered child sometimes traveled to the healers of the Red Lake tribe. Perhaps the Turtle Mountain people might travel to the Sisseton/Wahpeton or Spirit Lake tribes for healing. The tallgrass prairie and marshlands were rich sources of medicines for Native people. Some uses and names of the healing plants used by Native people have been lost. Those still in use today are: bitter root, wii sa debiibag (there is no English word for this medicine) and tobacco or red willow (asemaa).
Like the tallgrass and prairie orchid, the tribes have lost some of their hold on the great glacial valley. Yet their spirit is in the wind that moves the tall grass into ocean-like waves. It's in the upturned faces of wildflowers that look toward the Creator and the spirit of Native people is the great soaring eagle that circles and dives above the waterways of the Red River Valley. They remain forever a part of the land.
By Dorreen Yellowbird
It was a time of trade and travel for Native people. It was a time of the land, aki (land in Anishinaabeg). Waterways now called the Tamarac, Middle, Snake, Turtle and Goose rivers fed the powerful Red River and provided transportation for Indian people in the areas. The upper and lower Red Lakes east of the valley emptied into a meandering Red Lake River that wound its way to its sister, the Red River. The Red Lake River formed a corridor of boundless travel and trade between the Bands of Turtle Mountain (mik-in-ockwa- jiw ish-knoi-gon), Red Lake (mis quaga- mi-wi-saga-eh-ganing) and tribes such as the Dakota, Lakota, Nakota, Arikara (Sahnish), Mandan and Hidatsa. Those of the Siouan nations called this land tin ta or makoce.
The Red Lake River also fed the marshlands where the snake, moose, bear and wolf roamed among the swampy bogs inhabited by mosquitoes and colorful ladyslippers.
Among the tallgrass prairies and almost inhabitable marshlands, tribes harvested wild rice, wild cranberries, chokecherries, blueberries, pin cherries, asparagus, wild rhubarb, turnips, onions and maple syrup, and made tea of sumac or wild mint leaves. Birch bark was an important trade commodity for Native people in the area. They turned the tree bark into many things including baskets, twine, shelter and
food for horses.
A father of a crying, fevered child sometimes traveled to the healers of the Red Lake tribe. Perhaps the Turtle Mountain people might travel to the Sisseton/Wahpeton or Spirit Lake tribes for healing. The tallgrass prairie and marshlands were rich sources of medicines for Native people. Some uses and names of the healing plants used by Native people have been lost. Those still in use today are: bitter root, wii sa debiibag (there is no English word for this medicine) and tobacco or red willow (asemaa).
Like the tallgrass and prairie orchid, the tribes have lost some of their hold on the great glacial valley. Yet their spirit is in the wind that moves the tall grass into ocean-like waves. It's in the upturned faces of wildflowers that look toward the Creator and the spirit of Native people is the great soaring eagle that circles and dives above the waterways of the Red River Valley. They remain forever a part of the land.
By Dorreen Yellowbird
Home | Partners | Field Guide | Heroes | Gallery | Links | Contact Us
Grand Forks County Prairie Partners - 2011 - All Rights Reserved