fond du lac follies

Well, this is it folks. The final curtain comes clanging down on the Fond du Lac Follies.

Our friend Cheryl Gresczyk died. She was the wife of Rick Gresczyk. Our family watched as she fought her illnesses with dignity and courage. Cheryl, you will be missed by everyone in this household. We were saddened by your leaving but were glad that your pain is now over. * *...

The time to harvest maple sap came and we were ready. By we, I mean the crew: son Joe, son Aaron, nephew Kris and two daughters-in-law, Sara and Jackie. We have been working together for about a decade and I think any one of them can set up their own sugar bush.

Jim Northrup

Jim Northrup

Fond du Lac Follies motored to Chicago, the Windy City. We were traveling to attend the Heartland Book Festival. It was a long boring ride on excellent highways. Patricia and I laughed together and listened to music as we cut through the middle of Wisconsin. The trouble began when...

Fond du Lac Follies motored to Perch Lake to harvest manoomin (wild rice). My wife, Patricia, and I were going to manoominike together as we had been doing for the last several decades. What a grand sight greeted us. Perch Lake was full of manoomin. I did not see any open water anywhere,...

The Sobriety Powwow was held in Sawyer at Mash-ka-wisen. It was the 30th-something annual event. Once again we set up our "Free Coffee For Veterans" hooch. We gave coffee to veterans and to those who were delivering coffee to veterans. One local guy complained that the coffee was...

The Sawyer summer language camp was just good. Can you believe that we had 1,254 people? Last year 765 registered. This sets a new all-time record of people attending the Reservation's language camp. In the mornings we concentrated on language instruction from our fluent speakers....

My wife Patricia found a bar for a birthday party for me, my 70th birthday. I think about 60 people showed up to eat and drink. I used my K-Bar to cut the cake. As I thought about things I decided to go back decades in my long life. In 1953, I was in Pipestone Boarding School...

It started with a little breeze, then grew into a bigger wind. At first, the snowflakes were small. They just kept coming until we had a genuine blizzard in April. My little village of Sawyer was mentioned on the National Weather Channel because of our snowfall amount. I have long...

The Fond du Lac Reservation's language camp will be held June 13, 14, 15 and 16. Once again the location will be Kiwenz Campground on the north shore of Big Lake in Sawyer, Minn. For those who never heard of our language camp, I will offer this history. The first year we had 189...

The following Ojibwemowin is the speech I read when I was in Washington D.C. It was done at the Reflecting Pool near the Capital Building on Dec. 19, 2012. I thought it was so important I am sharing it now. "Use it or lose it" I have heard about our language, so I am including my...