Day 2: Soil Ingestion Project ~ Cold Lake First Nations (English Bay)

Day 2:

Cranberry

Today was a good day, we walked pretty far through a slough to get to one of the sites where we can pick berries, sweetgrass, & other medicines.  I was so amazed the sweetgrass was half my height (I am 5' 3") after I braided it.  These braids are defiantly for my mom :) ~ she'll just love me up lol.

I know for sure I have to bring my rubber boots because at one point I had to take my boots off & walk bare feet across the same exact place me & my auntie Alice got stuck the day before.  It was all good though because now I have smooth soft feet from the mud lol, jokes! 

One thing for sure, is Cold Lake First Nations if very beautiful, there is so much here in regards to medicines and everything we would need to sustain ourselves.  The people at the English Bay Community Centre have been so welcoming, kind, & hospitable to all of us who are on this project.

My "Hidalgo" tent lol

The funny thing we are having a hard time getting used to is being a Ginny Pig & having to do the urine & fecal samples.  We’ve had some funny laughs around the camp fire about this.  One thing about our people is we sure know how to laugh.  We are like a little family here and we help & share & are very respectful to each other.  One of the participants calls me “Princess” (jokingly) because I have the largest tent & even with an entrance way (ha ha ha).  I was laughing about it saying I feel like that blonde haired rich woman in the movie, “Hidalgo (not Horaldo, my son corrected me after reading my post)” where that woman has that huge tent in Arabia lol.

It rained a bit but it was only enough to slow people down & take a rest until the sun came out again.  I am learning so much about medicines and I love listening to one of my relatives share Dene stories about the old ways, the old people, & traditional ways our people collected, gathered, hunted, fished etc. in this area.  I have been trying to keep making mental notes to remember stuff.  For instance, I learned that “sus” is Dene for “bear” & “susas” is Dene for “little bear”.  In Cree, “bear” means “muskwa” & “little bear” means “muskwasis”.

I also met more family today & got a great hug from my auntie Melanie, loving is always special & worth paying attention too.  A hug maybe a small thing to others but a great gift when you need it.

Well today was a great day & know tomorrow will be awesome because I am surrounded by great people.