The great aboriginal Attawandarons are a tribe existing only on bits and pieces of paper.
Their magnificent valley on the Grand River now stands silent.
The last full blooded Attawandaron was recorded in a census living displaced near the Lake Michigan in the 1780's.
In the valley it is said, "where there is sumac, there is a dead Indian".
The reason being that sumac thrives on light soils...
and for the Attawandarons such soil was an easy place to bury their dead.
This is a valley steeped in aboriginal native history.
If one looks hard...
there are flint artifacts...
village grind stones...
and native burial grounds.
There is no one here to morn the dead...
in fact no one knows the dead are there.
Floating classrooms, the intrusion of rafts...
is the entrance to the ancient Valley of the Attawandarons.
To those of the metropolitan world this is a new place of new experiences.
Many have never swam in a river...
or tasted fresh water springs...
or rubbed plant medicine on the skin.
As old stories are told...
lost words re-form on a child's tongue.
People smile as they play in the water...
youthfulness engages all...
it is a different place on the river...
something the native people always saw.
People marvel at the "croaking" noise of the blue herons...
they freeze when coyotes howl...
and jump when a beaver tail smacks.
They marvel at soaring vultures and red-tail hawks...
and delight in the daily fishing antics of osprey.
They get excited when a deer flags its tail or a turkey appears...
even a lone goose or a clam-washing coon holds the eye.
Things that an Indian would simply take in...
now rivet people's attention.
Everything is strangely new.
Many rush down the Grand River paddling in canoes and kayaks...
trying to get maximum mileage for maximum dollars spent.
A floating classroom is different...
here minimum mileage is offered and maximum experience is gained.
There is no rushing through.
Instead there is an acute awareness of totally enjoying an alien experience that seems so comfortable.
Maybe the Attawandarons aren't the only ones extinct...
What has happen?What have we lost? Where have we been?