Hi, my name is Alva, and I'm going to be talking about the B'dote field trip. On the B'dote field trip, we went to three stops, and I'm going to tell you about each one.
First, we went to B'dote, where the Mississippi and the Minnesota Rivers meet. We never actually go to "see" B'dote, but we were there, and I felt so special! I felt special because we were on sacred land, I mean it was there! Ms. Levine had us pick up cottonwood sticks (you'll find out later) as we left. We also got to see the Dakota medicine wheel and some prayer flags. They are little pieces of string that Dakota people put out to honor their ancestors.
On to our next stop; it is Mounds Park. Mounds Park is a Dakota burial site, yes, but it also connects the earth and the sky! We also got to see a cool statue of an indigenous woman by an Ojibwe artist. And, (This is my favorite part of the field trip) Ms. Levine burned sage and said the Dakota would do this in ceremonies, and we were right near the Mississippi River!
Now for the last part of our field trip. We went to Wakan Tipi, a cave where the Kaposia stopped. Kaposia is the moving Dakota village. But before we went to Wakan Tipi, we stopped for Ms. Levine to tell us a story. Her story was about a star who wanted to live with the humans on earth, but her mother said "NO!" Finally, she came up with an idea to hide among the humans, so her mother said "yes," so she hid inside of a cottonwood branch! Ms. Levine said to crack open our sticks and (only some of us go a star) but it was still really cool!
Thank you for reading! I hope to be writing to you again!
Later,
Alva
