Growing my Tiospaye 1960's to present - Returning to the headwaters and lands of the Prairie Lakes Of Turtle Island for reflection and renewal

 Yesterday, my friends, Stan Bookout, l, left and Andy Mickel right, with me in the green shirt in the middle, shared our visions of savoring this day, Tuesday, Nov 3, 2015, for a wonder filled 16 mile bike ride. I met Andy at his home in Prospect Park, across the Mississippi a couple blocks from  the iconic "Witches Hat"  water tower in South East Minneapolis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Park,_Minneapolis.

We then crossed over the Mississippi on the Franklin Ave Bridge, to meet up with Stan in the Seward neigborhood on the west side of the river.   Then on the Greenway straight west to the lakes, Lake of the Isles to Calhoun, Bde Maka Ska (Lake Earth White) and some say Mde Mdoza, Bde Bdoza (Lake Loons) see below.


Here we are stopped at the south end of the Lake, recently named Bde Maka Ska in addition to the Lake Calhoun Name.  Some interesting history from "Thursday Night Hikes: Lake of the Isles Hike Architecture Notes, Part 1Observations on Architectural Styles, Part 1 -Lake of the Isles Hike Assembled by Lawrence A. Martin Webpage Creation: April 10, 2003

http://www.angelfire.com/mn/thursdaynighthikes/lakeisles_arch1.html "Lake Calhoun was originally known as "Mde Mdoza" or "Lake of the Loons." It was renamed by Army surveyors sent by then Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun, to map the western lands in 1817. John Caldwell Calhoun was also the Vice-President of the United States from 1825 to 1832. Missionaries Samuel Pond and Gideon Pond arrived in 1834 on the eastern shore of the marshy lake at the large village "Marh'piya Wicasta," the village of Dakota chief Cloud Man. In 1911, the Park Board dug the channel linking Lake Calhoun, Lake of the Isles, and Cedar Lake."

A Personal Review of Gratitude - My life path and my connections with Life, Wiconi, and natural history and storytelling.  

Part of My Journey, Zuya of Life, has involved a deepening connection with making relatives with Creation, with the plant and animal nation as well as the Two Leggeds, the Ikce Wicasa

 Since 1968, at, least with the photos I have personally taken on my Zuya, life's journey in Dakhota-Lakhota,   I have developed a particular interest in plants, water, and rivers, being out in Nature and learning to respect and live as part of natural systems, that support life in a good way.

Now in the autumn of 2015, I am dropping into my elder body, of 68 winters, wani'yetu wikce'mna shakpe sum sahdo'gan, to reflect on that path, updating things with my current circle of friends, my growing tiospaye, family of choice circle that also includes some of my biological family.  Thanks for your willingness to read, and I looking forward to further connections that support my current mission of service "I  co create a world of safety peace and trust, through curious listening, reflecting and acknowledging, freeing myself and others to be fully alive"  Wi chozani Mitakuye Oyasin

 
Summer, We'tu, 1968 - Tom Weaver as a 21 yr old summer session student between Jr and Sr year at Carleton, where I was a biology and education major. In 1968,  I enrolled in a limnology, lake ecology class taught by Dr Jim Underhill of the U of Minnesota, and plant taxonomy class, taught by Dr John Thompson of the U of Wisconsin, Madison.
Staying in the student cabins, a friend took this photo of a small 4 legged, a least chipmunk that felt safe enough to climb up for a visit here. Tamias minimus  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_chipmunk

Summer 1968, driving my first car, the 1949 Buick Woodie Estate Wagon, at the Enterance to the University of Minnesota Forestry and Biological Station.  I purchased this car from my parents in 1964, when they brought a new 1965 Chrysler.  Note the basketball in the back window, as I was still playing that sport.
  

 1968 Dr John Thompson with students out on the prairie to the west of Lake Itasca, Waupun Prairie with"DSanders and MGropelli" as students.

 
Minnesota State Flower, Showy Lady Slipper photo by TW during the 1968 class. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypripedium_reginae
 
1972  Dr Ted Olson Professor of Environmental Science U of Minnesota, School of Public Health testing water sample at St Croix River where there are pools soured out by rocks south of Taylors Falls. He was an elder with a lot of knowledge about tropical diseases and the environment.
While at the U of M Medical School from 1969- 1974, I enrolled in the School of Public Health and took classes in Epidemiology and Environmental Science.  Along with Dr Don Lawrence PhD in the Dept of Botany with whom I assisted in his Field Botany and Ethnobotany (Plants Useful to Man), Dr Olson was a mentor who encouraged a deeper understanding of and connection to ecological and natural systems.  

http://editions.lib.umn.edu/ahcarchives/2010/02/02/theodore-a-olson-papers/
"Theodore Alexander Olson attended the University of Minnesota earning a degree in biology in 1926 and worked as an instructor in Entomology.
He resigned from the University in 1928 and began working for the Minnesota State Board of Health (Minnesota Department of Health). While at the State Board of Health as an associate biologist, Olson conducted research at the Harvard Biological Laboratories.
In 1938 he rejoined the University of Minnesota as an Assistant Professor in Preventative Medicine and Public Health. During World War II, Olson served with the Seventh Service Command Headquarters from 1942 to 1946. After returning to the University, Olson oversaw the establishment of a teaching and research facility in sanitation biology in the newly organized School of Public Health.
Olson’s early post-War research focused on the transmission of human pathogens via cockroaches as disseminators of Salmonella and other diseases. In 1956, Olson’s research focus shifted to freshwater pollution and the environmental quality of Lake Superior. This change realigned Olson’s work with his earlier freshwater research while at the State Board of Health and Harvard University in the 1930s.
Theodore Olson retired as Professor Emeritus School of Public Health from the University of Minnesota in June 1973. He passed away in 2002 at the age of 97."

Lake Itasca Trip to Bike with Jim and Melanie Weaver Family from the East Coast.. CA 1991 ?

Note sure of the date.  Jesse Weaver blonde headed in the front with Jim Weaver, Sue Weaver and Nathan Weaver at the entrance to Lake Itasca State Park.  Itasca Veritas Caput - the name someone like Schoolcraft made up for the lake as the "True Source" of the Gizazippa (Mississippi) River to the Anishinabeg.


 Sue Weaver and Jim Weaver with biking safety head gear ready for a ride with the family.  ?1991?




 
Nathan Weaver, Jesse Weaver crossing the rocks of the small Mississippi as it leaves Lake Itasca, with Uncle -Lekshi (Lakota)  Jim Weaver in the background.

 
Jesse climbing the rocks and Uncle Jim on the other side.  CA 1991-2  
Group on the rocks at the source of the Mississippi, friend of Ken Weavers, from Boston MA area, Ken Weaver, Nate Weaver, Jim Weaver, Melanie Weaver and Jesse Weaver....1991-2??

 Here in 1995, the summer, when Nate was enrolled at Concordia Language Village German Camp Waldee, my German tehanshi, brother, Manfred Kazenmeier, whom I met on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1990,  joined us at the camp.  Jesse Weaver shared in this stop at Itasca that summer.

 

Nate, Manfred and Jesse at the source of the Mississippi 1995.