May 2005 Re-enactment Canoe Trip

[intrepidcamper]

What is an sthingy?

[PG]

For patterns, check out

www.5rivers.org/en-gb/dept_18.html

or you might find something on

www.nativetech.org

a very interesting site run by a friend of mine.

Cost would be cost of permits and price of food divided between all who go on trip (approx $35 to $40 apiece for food). We will probably have breakfast at Britton's before we leave and we usually stop for a meal after we get out.

Gear would be a tarp, old style pack, clothing, shoes or mocs, and two good wool blankets. The blankets would probably be your biggest ticket item. Check out e-bay.

For shoes you could probably cut down a pair of military low quarters. With top and bottom eyelets removed, leaving two rows of eyelets, and scuffed over with coarse sandpaper (18th century shoes were constructed with the "flesh" side out) - they look very similar to latchet shoes of the mid 18th century.

During the 18th century, Ojibwe Indians wore cloth clothing almost exclusively. Once they had access to cloth, they were not interested in leather clothing. If you've been caught in a good downpour wearing a leather jacket or coat - you know why. The cloth clothing they wore, however, had a definite "Indian" slant to it, however, styling wise.

Pierre

[intrepidcamper]

I've been studying historical information from the 1700's and 1800's. Two interesting sources are : Home and Child Life in Colonial Days by Shirley Glubok. It is a compilation from two other books called Home LIfe in Colonial Days and Child Life in Colonial Days, both by Alice Morse Earle. They are easy to read and full of interesting stuff. Another is The Wilds of North America by Charles Lanman. Written about his travels and adventures in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and the St. Lawrence River in 1854.

[Kawishiway]

You guys and gals are good. You do a swell job of making history and facts fun to read. Like James Micthner and Sam...er ah..Mark Twain.

Thanks.

k

[PG]

IC:

I have that colonial life book. Thought it sounded familiar. It is a good source for out east.

As I've become more interested in this subject (local 18th century history) I've found there is a dirth of information locally. Most of the white history locally remained, in large part, French (and to some extent Scottish) up until the 1840s - as this area was more closely tied to Canada than to the rest of the US. Canadian sources are also woefully inadequet prior to the 1760s, being anglocentric.

Zebulan Pike's account of his trip into this area in 1805 is intriguing. He stopped at several Northwest Co. fur posts in Minnesota where he demanded they pull down the British flag - which they promptly put back up as soon as he left. During the War of 1812, any one involved in American interests was promptly rounded up and hauled to Montreal for the duration of the war. In 1816 Selkirk, of the Hudson Bay Co. sent soldiers of the De Meron Regiment ( a Swiss mercenary Reg't that fought for the Brits against Napoleon) to Superior, WI and captured Fort St. Louis. There really wasn't an Ameircan presence in Minnesota - other than in name - until the advent of Fort Snelling in (I believe) 1817. this, of course was in Sioux country, and had little effect on NE Minnesota. The border country was influenced by the Brits for far longer.

Native life at that time is also seen unclearly - historically - just glimpses written mainly by people with other interests.

PG

[PG]

Been having several cancellations on the May trip. Folks who haven't got a lot of vacation time who would rather do the autumn trip to Woodland Caribou Provincial Park.

PG

[intrepidcamper]

PG,
I hope that doesn't mean you are giving up on the re-enactment trip.
I have to give you credit for the only time in my life that I have paid any attention to the French and Indian War. I've been surfing the web for details, in an effort to get a feel for what was going on, and what life was like in that era. IC

[PG]

Negative. Still on.

PG