A traditional teaching lodge now stands ready for use by Sokaogon Chippewa tribal members in Forest County.
Tribal members built it by hand earlier this month, a process that includes both physical and spiritual efforts.
“People actually lived throughout the winter in these, because we were nomadic,” explained Sokaogon Chippewa tribal elder Wayne LaBine as the lodge was constructed.
LaBine was overseeing the construction of the lodge near Mole Lake.
Teenagers, and some adults, bent long, straight, slender lodge poles into place, then lashing them together to form a dome.
They had collected the supplies from the woods that morning, following LaBine’s guidance on the lodge-building process.
“This is good for the kids, to teach them what this is all about, why we do this, how it used to happen. You’re doing exactly what our ancestors did 100, 200, 300, 400 years ago,” LaBine said.
Lodge-building is a custom LaBine has learned to perfect from tribal elders over the years.
“I started learning some more, why it was built, how it was built. As an elder, it’s now my responsibility to pass those things on,” he said.
The lodge opens to the east, LaBine explained. That’s where life comes from.
West is where we go home.
It’s just one of the spiritual lessons the builders learned as they completed the physical process of making a lodge.
“By everybody putting their hands on there with their good thoughts, that all goes into that structure. That’s for community, that’s for good feelings, good things that happen in there,” LaBine said. “That’s what that lodge is for.”
The lodge is part of a developing cultural camp on a property just east of Mole Lake.
Now finished, it’s ready to host teaching sessions and gatherings for tribal members.
