My trip to Wolf RidgeAmanda Rose

My trip to Wolf RidgeAmanda Rose

I wonder about Wolf Ridge...

What will the bus ride be like? I’ve seen the buses and they look so big and nice, I hope it’s that nice on the inside too. I hope I can bring my Walkman onto the bus so I can listen to the radio. My brother said he brought his Walkman on the bus but rules may have changed.

I also wonder about the dorms. At Camp St. Croix we had a decent bedtime and the dorms were okay so I hope it’s okay this time. I know it’s not a vacation anything but I still want to enjoy myself. But I know the bedtime will probably be earlier than mine so I’ll have enough energy in the morning for sure! Also at Camp St. Croix we got to pick some friends to be in our cabin, I hope I will be with my friends again.

I wonder what the activities will be like. At Camp St. Croix we had different “study groups” and I was in the group B, maybe we’ll have groups like that again or maybe something different. Maybe we’ll all do things together or as a class. I hope I’m with the people I like and we do fun projects like at Camp St. Croix. I hope we all enjoy ourselves!

I wonder about Wolf Ridge...

What will the bus ride be like? I’ve seen the buses and they look so big and nice, I hope it’s that nice on the inside too. I hope I can bring my Walkman onto the bus so I can listen to the radio. My brother said he brought his Walkman on the bus but rules may have changed.

I also wonder about the dorms. At Camp St. Croix we had a decent bedtime and the dorms were okay so I hope it’s okay this time. I know it’s not a vacation anything but I still want to enjoy myself. But I know the bedtime will probably be earlier than mine so I’ll have enough energy in the morning for sure! Also at Camp St. Croix we got to pick some friends to be in our cabin, I hope I will be with my friends again.

I wonder what the activities will be like. At Camp St. Croix we had different “study groups” and I was in the group B, maybe we’ll have groups like that again or maybe something different. Maybe we’ll all do things together or as a class. I hope I’m with the people I like and we do fun projects like at Camp St. Croix. I hope we all enjoy ourselves!

Minnesota CultureMinnesota CultureThe Ojibwa are one of the largest American Indian tribes in North America. Ojibwa women farmed and took care of children. Ojibwa men were hunters and sometimes went to war to protect their families. Ojibwa warriors used bows and arrows, clubs, flails and hide shields. Hunters used snares and controlled fires to herd the animals into traps or over cliffs.

Ojibwa women wore long dresses and men wore breechcloth and leggings. They later adapted European clothing such as cloth blouses and jackets, which they covered in beads.They mostly lived in birchbark houses called waginogans or wigwams. Most Ojibwa people live in modern homes just like us now.

Lake Superior is the world’s largest freshwater lake by surface area. The Ojibwa people called it Gichigami, meaning “big water”. French explorers called it Lake Le Lac Superieur meaning “upper lake”. The average water temperature is 40 degrees. Even though it’s cold it rarely freezes over. The average visibility underwater is 27 feet and it some areas it is 100 feet.

It contains as much water as all the other Great Lakes put together. Water flows into Lake Superior from over 300 streams and exits into Lake Huron. The surface area of Lake Superior is greater than the areas of Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire. Lake Superior is also the cleanest of all the great lakes!

Lake SuperiorLake Superior

Cute ChipmunkCute Chipmunk

Our FortOur Fort

The Stairs of DeathThe Stairs of Death

Group PhotoGroup Photo

Ojibwa HeritageOjibwa HeritageThe sparks flew onto the charred cloth and little by little it caught fire. Then two pots, one filled with wild rice and the other with raspberry tea, were hung on a metal rod over it. We sat around the fire and did small tasks like stomping on grains of rice to get them out of their hard shells, peeling wood strips off of stumps for making baskets, twisting dry plants together to twine and tending to the food that was cooking over our fire.

Eventually the food was finished cooking and we all gathered for a small meal. We each got a little cup for our tea and wild rice. I ate mine separately but some of the other kids poured the tea right onto their wild rice like soup. I left a handful of wild rice on a stump and a cute little red squirrel sat there and ate. I was happy that I shared my food with him.

After eating, we all sat in our winter house and listened to Thunder Moose (Matt) recite Ojibwa folklore. Then the time came when we had to leave, so we packed up everything and got ready to leave. I’ll never forget when I was in an Ojibwa tribe with the rest of study group D, and when my name was Polyushka Vole.