After getting snowed out of our first trip planned in February, we were finally able to make it up to Red Cliff–and the timing could not have been better.
Our Meeting
We dropped off our bags at the no vacancy Legendary Waters Resort & Casino and headed to the Administrative Office to meet with Dee Gokee-Rindal, Carmen VanderVenter and Jennifer Bresette. These three women wear many hats in the Red Cliff Community and working with the TLAM students on the library project is just one of those hats. After catching up and eating delicious pastries from a local bakery, we dove in to our project for this semester.
In the past, the TLAM class has been helping Red Cliff box up and pack away the now closed Red Cliff Library, research grants for the campaign, help film and create some promotional videos for the new work in progress library and community center named Ginanda Gikendaasomin meaning “We Seek to Learn” in Ojibwe.
Coming in to our meeting, we expected to get some updates regarding the current status of Ginanda Gikendaasomin as well as discuss some new possibilities for more promotional videos. However, some big news was shared with us during that meeting. Dee and Carmen had found out the day before that the current Community Health Center will be undergoing a move and a portion of the vacant facility will be used as an INTERIM LIBRARY!
We will be traveling back to Red Cliff in late April and by that meeting, our group will have worked on creating some layout designs for the new space that incorporate the wish list items of Dee, Carmen, and Jennifer. This wish list includes things like computer access, tables, a copier/scanner, an exhibit of tribal history, and a more Native-centered collection.
We are all very excited to start brainstorming and working on making their wish list a reality for this incredible space and opportunity. We wanted to get going with the planning right away, but another exciting opportunity came up while in Red Cliff that we simply could not pass up. On Friday morning, we took a trip to the Apostle Island’s Ice Caves!
Ice Caves
Stuffed with omelets and French toast from the casino restaurant, we hopped in the shuttle to take us to the beginning of the Ice Caves. From the entrance, it is just over a 1-mile walk on the ice to the beginning of the caves. Louise was the only one to bring yaktrax, so it was a slippery walk for the rest of us!
For most of the walk, we had a beautiful snow with some of the largest flakes we have ever seen. It looked beautiful against the red cliffs along Lake Superior, where Red Cliff’s name comes from.
Once we reached the Ice Caves, we couldn’t help but to regress into our childhood. We were climbing through the caves– Jacob even jumped into one!
We left Red Cliff tired from the Ice Caves but excited to start working on our new project.
-Cassy Keyport, Brenna DeGan, and Erin Thomas