Early August on the North Shore is the year’s peak of abundance. In this country of thin rocky soils, cold and clear water, and long boreal winters, August opens with a rare, well-deserved swell of fruits, crops, visitors and festivals.
At the very tip of the North Shore, the Grand Portage community knows how to celebrate this abundance.
At MEP, we are honored to be developing relationships with the Grand Portage community and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Anishinaabe. Community members there experience firsthand both the beautiful abundance of the region and also the threats and challenges.
MEP staff members made two separate visits to Grand Portage this month, their reflections follow below:
Abundance of Blueberries
MEP’s Director of Foundation Relations Andrew Slade travelled from his home in Ely to participate in the Gitchi-Onigaming Blueberry Festival on August 2.
Staff at the Grand Portage Trust Lands office have successfully developed new blueberry fields in the Reservation hillside. Forester and bandmember Erik Carlson told Andrew about how they carefully cut down two spruce stands, delivering the logs to be used for the heating plant at the Grand Portage Lodge (“to heat the swimming pool”, Erik said). Then, with approval from the Tribal Council and from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, they burned the remaining vegetation. Among the survivors of the burn were re-invigorated blueberry plants.
Within a year, the berries came back in such abundance the foresters could open the fields up to Grand Portage bandmembers to pick. Problem was, the access to the blueberry fields was too rough for people to walk or even drive. That’s why for the last three years the Trust Lands staff have organized this special Blueberry Festival.
A shuttle van brings pickers from the Community Center down Highway 61. At a parking spot, pickers transfer to an ATV and get a bouncy ride up to the new blueberry fields.
2024 was such a drought year on the North Shore, there were not enough berries to pick. So the energy this summer was happy and palpable. Before picking begins, a small ceremony opened the event in a good way. There was a shade canopy where pickers could rest, chat with their friends, and enjoy some Bannock hot off the stove cooked with berries picked minutes before.
Pickers scattered into the fields to find berry plants tucked in around other native plants returning. Pickers found saskatoons in abundance, and even the occasional raspberry. But the blueberries were the stars of the show. They cast a blue haze across the ground.
“I’ve picked wild blueberries on the rocky knolls of the North Shore my whole life,” Andrew notes. “True abundance means being able to sit down…carefully so you don’t stain your seat… and pick from one spot. Let’s just say there was lots of true abundance in the Grand Portage blueberry fields this year.” Andrew picked about a quart of berries and donated them to the elders and neighbors he met that day.
The Grand Portage Powwow
MEP Northeast Minnesota Organizer Cristin Curwick reflects on her visit to the Grand Portage Powwow:
Buggy. Sticky. Rainy. The unrelenting summer experience of Northern Minnesota was on full display this past weekend at the Grand Portage Powwow. However, attendees and organizers of the annual community gathering were determined to show up, dance, eat and socialize with folks that come from all over to celebrate Anishinaabe culture.
As the drummers and dancers prepared for the Grand Entry, Fond du Lac spiritual leader Ricky DeFoe went around the dance circle, smudging the crowd with the sweet scent of sage, sweetgrass, and cedar. The healing smoke was much needed after long travels and a hot, sticky night fighting off mosquitoes, and several days of breathing in wildfire smoke from the north this summer.
The drummers set the pace as the dancers lined up to celebrate. No one dancer was dressed the same, each with their individual style from brightly colored ribbon skirts to animal skins to beaded moccasins. This diversity was reflected in their dance as well, from solemn march to exuberant prance, with each step landing with the heartbeat of the drums. The Grand Entry perfectly encapsulated a community that celebrates the heterogeneous makeup of its members while keeping their movement in sync.
Occasions such as these serve as beacons of hope, especially when the past few months our president, even peskier than a mosquito, has pushed us to feel powerless. The Powwow reminds us that our strength is in coalition, combined with the uniqueness we all bring to our community. Everyone has a role to play, and everyone is essential in our resistance to tyranny. So, will you dance with us?