This Women’s History Month, we hear from three women stewarding culture through storytelling: Tracey Dagen, Jess Anderson Ojala, and Dani Pieratos have all made thoughtful contributions to the past & future iterations of the Vermilion Lake Oral History Project, an effort to preserve stories from Elders for future generations. Full transcripts of Mary Anderson’s interview and more interviews with Bois Forte elders are accessible on the Bois Forte Heritage Center’s website.
Transcript
ANCHOR: You're listening to North Star Stories: Voices from Where We Live, a daily newscast about what it means to live in Minnesota.
Maija Hecht: Almost thirty years ago, the Vermilion Lake Bois Forte Oral History Project was undertaken by
Gerald Pete, Marvin Lammpa, and Tracey Dagen. Together, they recorded 12 interviews with Elders about life on the Bois Forte Reservation and the surrounding northwoods. Recently, the Bois Forte Heritage Center revived the project.
[Sound element: water, nature in the woods]
Jess Anderson Ojala: It was in the fall, like September. Do you know how many moose we saw? 25 moose on our way. 25 moose, they were beautiful.
Maija Hecht: That’s Jess Anderson Ojala, reading a story her great grandmother, Mary Anderson, told to Tracey Dagen during their interview in 1996.
Jess Anderson Ojala: One stood on the river, and he wouldn't let us go by. The river was very wide, I think it was their mating season. And that bull wouldn't move. He just stood there, and he was big. I never like to tell that part. That Mr. Boshey had to shoot him. He must have weighed over 1000 pounds. He had to put 11 shots into him. Then we could go by, which was kind of scary, because the river wasn't very wide, he would have just crushed those canoes.
Maija Hecht: Jess, who now teaches Ojibwe language classes at the Bois Forte Heritage Center, was the first
person in her family to pursue Ojibwemowin proficiency.
Jess Anderson Ojala: I had just graduated high school, and I was like… what do I want to do with my life? [laughs] I actually started looking up and researching my grandma, and those audio files came up.
Maija Hecht: Jess heard her great grandmother's voice for the first time on audio tapes that much of her
family didn’t even know existed.
[Sound element: grandmother’s story in background]
In the story, Mary Anderson recalls a family canoe trip she took as a thirteen year-old girl, to Lac La Croix. For Jess, who still hunts moose with her family, hearing the story of a time when you could see a few dozen moose in one day’s paddle was amazing.
Tracey Dagen: Recording things, making sure that our youth know us, passing things on to the seven
generations. If we don't share what happened, how are we going to learn and know, how can we get better ourselves? You know, what should we strive for? How- how to deal with things? You know, some people don't know that there is a boarding school right here on Vermillion, that’s crazy!
Maija Hecht: Tracey Dagen was one of three interviewers who compiled the Lake Vermilion Oral History recordings. Now an Elder herself, Tracey is deeply involved with her community as a water protector, advocate, and member of the Bois Forte Government. She recorded Mary Anderson’s interview in her apartment in Ely.
Mary Anderson’s story brought up Tracey’s memories of her own mother—who had attended the
same residential boarding school as Mary Anderson, although during different years.
[Sound element: wood being chopped]
Tracey Dagen: they all helped each other. They all had horses. It was like a community. My my mom and her sisters and her cousins, they were all raised together. I think there's only two left of Strongville now. I have lunch with [them], called Squeaky. Havin’ lunch with Squeaky and Floyd. Floyd's another elder. I basically just laugh through lunch [laughs].
Maija Hecht: When the Bois Forte Heritage Center began publicizing the interview transcripts, people
discovered family connections in facebook comment sections, unearthing paragraphs worth of shared memories and relations. Dani Pieratos, who also works with the Heritage Center, said the moment is critical for recording and listening to oral histories. Only one first generation fluent Ojibwe speaker remains in the Bois Forte community.
Dani Pieratos:
So our elders, we really need to get them recorded now, those that are left here, and then that way, in 30 years, we'll still have those stories.
Maija Hecht: The Heritage Center is seeking grant support through the National Park Service to fund another oral history project.
Dani Pieratos: We're hoping that all the transcriptions can go into a book, and we're calling it the Bois Forte
Teachings and Traditions Project. It'll be printed by Thunderbird press at the Fond du Lac college.
Maija Hecht: Until then, you can read the 12 original interviews on the Bois Forte Heritage Center’s website,
and you will soon be able to listen to their audio as well on their Youtube channel.
Tracey Dagen: People want to listen. You may not always want to ask people, but people want to listen. People want to be heard. Take the time. Time is a precious thing.
Maija Hecht: For North Star Stories, this is Maija Hecht. This Women’s History month, we heard from three
women stewarding culture with storytelling through the Bois Forte Heritage Center and Vermilion Lake Oral History Project.
ANCHOR: North Star Stories is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, with support from the McKnight Foundation and the State of Minnesota. Online at ampers.org.