(gentle music) - [Narrator] On this episode of "Postcards."

- You know, all of the problems and issues we have in our world aren't going to be solved by just one view, one perspective.

We all have something to contribute.

- My teaching experience is directly tied to the notion of kind of paying it forward.

I was given a lot of knowledge by a lot of different people growing up.

And so I feel, in a way, obligated to return that knowledge.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the Citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yael Jolene on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web @shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information @explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Councils Arts Calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web @lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7kram.

Online @967kram.com.

(gentle music) - Here's my grandma.

You can barely see her.

Blends in with the truss.

And then her sisters.

So this is Cerese.

So she's pregnant with Cerese in that one.

And then here's Cerese and then my grandma.

And then this is her mom.

And then this is Suspere.

And I always think she really looks tired 'cause she was in, you know, during the war she, there's a whole story about her in the book about how she fled from soldiers shooting at them when they were up in the Red River Valley going to Canada.

But anyway, that story really had a big impact on me that made me think about this maternal line of resiliency.

(gentle music) Once you know who you are, where you come from, no matter where you go, you belong.

So that's part of the healing journey I feel like I've been on, reclaiming all of that.

Even all of the struggles that our ancestors and relatives went through have teachings and values and just the fact of them surviving, the resiliency that I like to hope or believe that is somehow threaded through our DNA.

But you learn about that.

You learn about that resiliency through those stories.

(upbeat music) I didn't hear stories growing up.

So that's kind of the irony about all of this.

(upbeat music) You know, I asked my mom one time.

I was kind of working on a school project, and I asked her about stories and her education and schooling and all of that.

And she told me that she primarily heard stories when she was sick in bed.

And one of her younger sisters said they would also hear stories from their dad when they would drive over to Sisseton to see relatives.

So I suppose it was a long drive.

And then some time ago I was listening to a recording and reading the transcript of my grandpa, Walter Waubay, who was born in 1900.

And he shared that he heard stories just as an everyday thing growing up.

So they didn't have television and all the things that we do today, so that was their form of entertainment.

And he talks about how he would be in bed with his ma and she would tell him stories, stories about long time ago, you know, history stories and then our Unktomi stories, our trickster stories.

Unktomi is a mean spider.

(peaceful music) The thing about Unktomi stories is they kind of if you read "Grasshopper Girl," it's like the next time they're gonna tell a story, it'll be another thing that Unktomi does.

So it just goes on and on, flows into, it never ends.

The Unktomi story never ends.

So Unktomi, trickster, Unktomi means spider.

And how I've been told is that he kind of shows up as a man, but he can shapeshift and the Unktomi stories are kind of like Aesop fables.

They always have something to teach you.

So those were the stories to teach young people about how to be and how not to be.

And most of the time, Unktomi does how not to be.

(Teresa laughs) Yeah, he's always doing goofy things.

Maybe the worst characteristics in humanity is kind of how they show up.

(peaceful music) - [Walter] They call him Unktomi There must be a crown.

Unktomi means a spider.

In those Indian ways, they always have some funny stories to tell, and it's gotta be a funny, funny thing like spider that is funny in all kinds of ways.

So they call Unktomi.

So here's the story again.

- Doesn't he have a distinct voice?

- [Walter] Unktomi, he's a lazy man.

Beautiful music, power singing.

(Walter laughs) (indistinct) There was always a buffalo skeleton, no meat, just the bones laying there.

That's where they were singing.

- [Audience Member] Oh.

- [Walter] He stopped and (Walter hums) called out to his friends.

(Teresa hums) - Called out.

- [Walter] What a beautiful music you're singing.

"Hey, I heard that way back," he said.

"I'm a good singer too," he said.

"I wanna join you.

Can I come in?"

he said.

"No, you can't come in.

You're too big.

You can't come in."

Unktomi said, "No, I wanna come in.

I wanna join you."

- So all these Unktomi stories have little things.

So this one was about, you know, not being lazy, listening, and then the telling of all the different trees, the names of 'em.

(upbeat music) For that research, I ended up just writing a big long adult version of "Grasshopper Girl."

And I wanted to include not just the Unktomi story but a story about storytelling and the importance of it and when it occurred.

And so that's where my mother's story comes in about when she heard stories when she was sick in bed.

And so "Grasshopper Girl" is in bed with achy legs 'cause a storm is coming.

And "Grasshopper Girl" is my mom's Dakota name.

Psips'icadan Wicinyanna That's her Dakota name.

(upbeat music) So then eventually, that became my research and a dissertation and all of that.

And then at some point, one of my mentors and professors, Dr. Tom Peacock and his wife Betsy, started Black Bears and Blueberries Publishing in an effort to have more Dakota and Anishinaabe stories, children's stories, told by Dakota and Anishinaabe people.

(peaceful music) When that call came out, then I was like, I sent it to Tom and he said, "Yes, yes, you can do it.

Let's do it."

And he said, "You'll have to decide what grade level you wanna make this."

And of course it has to be shortened 'cause it was several pages long.

So I decided on second grade and then I learned from him how you can use different tools to make it at a second grade level.

And then I went back in and then added the Dakota in there, sprinkle it in.

So that's how "Grasshopper Girl" came about.

(peaceful music) Jordan Rogers, who is Lakota, which is this fantastic young person, agreed to do the illustrations for this.

So what I did is I sent her the long version because that has all of the description in it that she can pull to create the illustration.

And then I sent her photos from my family of long time like what my grandma and grandpa looked like in the sixties and some photos of my Aunt Deb, who's now passed away, when she was young.

So "Grasshopper Girl," she modeled her after my Aunt Deb.

(peaceful music) She did a fantastic job.

And there was one thing I had said to her was, "The one thing about Unktomi is no one really knows what he looks like."

His face is never really revealed 'cause it doesn't matter.

What's important is what he does.

His actions are what's important.

So, and I love the way that she made him out to look like.

(piano music) You know, when I was growing up, you know, Dick and Jane and whatever, you know, I couldn't even relate to that.

So you know, how do we inspire and fuel that interest and spirit of being curious and creative?

Well part of that is how things are presented.

People have to connect to it, have some connection to it.

(piano music) You know, they say this when an elder passes away, a whole library goes with them.

And you know, all of the problems and issues we have in our world aren't going to be solved by just one view, one perspective.

We all have something to contribute.

So it's important that we really hold up and value diversity.

(piano music) - I was just gonna say, I think I enjoy, you know, going out and getting the wood as much as making the things that I make because you never know what you're gonna see.

(upbeat music) (snow crunches) - See like this.

(upbeat music continues) Here's a good one, I think.

Yeah, that's got a good branch right there.

(upbeat music continues) (tree snaps) (upbeat music continues) (peaceful music) (tool scrapes) My venture into craft work started when I was seven, actually.

And when I made my first spoon, I buried the hook that was used to carve out the bowl in my thigh, but I kept going and as I got older, I made more and more spoons and also things like birch bark boxes and learned how to do birch bark weaving.

I've just done so many different things, and it's, I never am bored.

I don't even know how to be bored.

(peaceful music) (wood thuds) I've always been interested in history and actually, the main thing that got me interested in wanting to do what I do, the mentor or teacher that I was learning from said there's a fellow up the road that has a carriage shop, and he's looking for an apprentice.

So at age 14, I ended up signing a seven year apprenticeship with him, building carriages and building wheels for carriages.

That was really my big adventure into the world of craft and learning how to use hand planes and hand tools and make things.

(upbeat music) When I was taking apart a carriage, and there was a a little ticket down inside a door and on the ticket was written, "Meet Mr. So-and-so at the opera," and it was from the St. Paul Opera.

And I wondered for a long time, you know, who that might have been and what that meeting was like and that was a person's life that was connected to that little piece of trash that they just dropped down in between the door and the window of the carriage.

And so it's that kind of thing that connects me to the past.

And I've always been interested in traditional everything, folk costumes and traditional woodworking and what people, you know, how they lived and that sort of thing.

So it's all part of the same thing.

(peaceful music) I've always made things like these birch bark boxes.

This is just a small snuff box basically.

And then recently, I've made these knot baskets which you see around my shop, and they are made of four pieces of bent willow.

They interlock together in this amazing way.

They are specific to an area in Sweden and also in Finland.

They're also from the area of western coast of Norway.

And a lot of other places too including the other Baltic states.

And they're everyday baskets.

They were just like a tote bag that we have today or a shopping bag.

So they were used for everything.

So this is one I made in France when I was teaching.

So this one's modeled on this one, and it's, you can see how different they are but similar.

And I got this one in Holsing Lauden, an antique store, and this one is about 150 years old and the inside painting was done probably later, but this is typical Sweden where they have a black frame and a painted body.

(upbeat music) I don't think most people would realize how much work it is to make these baskets.

They're much more of a woodworking project then they are a basket project, in one sense.

I'll make some splints like this with the draw knife at the shaving horse.

(knife scrapes) And then I want to split these with the bend so they go this way so I can get the flattest piece out of it.

(knife scrapes) Sometimes they split nicely like this.

(knife scrapes, gentle music) (knife clatters) (wood cracks) Yeah, I'll only get a short one outta that.

And a little bit longer off that one.

(tool scrapes, gentle music) Such a great sound.

(tool scrapes, gentle music) So that's where I need to work on this one a little bit.

(gentle music) (spoons clatter) Spoons are an interesting object because they were used for courting.

If I were interested in some woman somewhere, I would make a spoon, and if she accepted this spoon, then she would reciprocate by giving me maybe an embroidered handkerchief or something like that.

And everybody had very few objects that were theirs.

They often belonged to the farm.

And so a spoon was something really personal, and it's kind of an intimate object in a way.

In teaching, we call them a gateway drug to woodworking.

(gentle music) (axe thumps) I mean, I do think of myself as a craftsperson or a craftsman, but my, I've always really thought of myself as more of a teacher.

And so I teach at lots of different schools around the Midwest and at events and do demonstrations and things like that.

Then, my spoon blank is kind of done, and then I go and I'll start trimming up the sides.

(axe thumps) Approaches, this is the way.

- Oh, okay.

- My teaching experience is directly tied to the notion of kind of paying it forward.

I was given a lot of knowledge by a lot of different people growing up to do all this craftwork.

And so I feel in a way obligated to return that knowledge.

You're only working from about two-thirds up, (axe thumps) then down.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

(axe thumps) It's really wonderful to connect on a deep level with these people and help them discover their inner creativity.

And 'cause a lot of people say, "Well I can't do any of this work."

And the fact is that they can.

I've really met very few people who can't do craft work.

(axe thumps) You've got a good rhythm going.

(axe thumps) The best thing is to find out that you can do these things and it provides such an amazing amount of satisfaction and joy in your life outside of, you know, all your other things that people do.

If you have something to really look forward to at the end of the day when you come home and can make things that are wonderful and you wear them or use them to eat or drink out of them, you know, it's pretty amazing.

(car whooshes) (accordion music) One of the best, I'd say probably once in a lifetime projects I've ever had was working at Waldmann, which is a 1857 lager beer saloon.

It's the oldest commercial building in St. Paul.

Here we go then.

The owner there, he said, "I want it to be done like it was done in 1857."

I was in charge of doing a lot of historic paint research and figuring out, you know, how people worked back then.

Yeah, this is, it's, you know, all original paint and finish.

The bun feet have been added to give it a little height.

So those are new, but they look like they're old.

- [Person Offscreen] This table is from where?

- It's from Sweden.

It's from 18, probably the 1860s or 1780s, probably.

(accordion music) The Scandinavian furniture that's in Waldmann, there's a little bit of it.

I've had the great opportunity to flip them over and repair them so that they're, I got a good chance to see how they're put together.

The tavern table has lots of initials carved in the top of it and, you know, it was used and it's still being used as a part of that continuing tradition.

I call it the highest form of public art 'cause it's totally usable.

(peaceful music) So in 2008, I had the opportunity to go to Saterglantan, which is the craft school in Sweden.

I was there for five and a half weeks, and I took three different classes, and I went with my friend Bill Yeager.

So he's really tall and I'm really short and he does flat plane figure carving.

And we had an amazing time.

That's when I realized I was on the right path.

That was what I really wanted to do.

And I was meeting the people I wanted to meet.

I was doing the things I wanted to do, and I was learning continuously, and I was doing blacksmithing, and I was doing basket making, and it was just perfect for me.

And all the teachers and all the students were so generous and in, you know, a matter of weeks, I had made a whole network of new friends that were just, that are still my friends.

(peaceful music) I'd always learned all this, about this in books and from talking to people and to have it all come to life is really quite something.

And then to bring it back and share it with other people.

It was a magical, magical experience.

(peaceful music) (violin music) (wood thumps, hand scrapes) (hammer thumps) I've had the opportunity to do a lot of traveling and a lot of study and meet a lot of people, and if I hadn't started making spoons at age seven, absolutely none of it would've happened.

So that connection and that sense of community is very real for me.

And I can travel all through Europe and visit friends who make spoons, and because of that greater circle of craftspeople, I feel welcome everywhere.

(axe thumps, violin music) So back 16 or 17 years ago, a fellow named Frank Foltz decided that he wanted to start this gathering for spoon carvers.

And so he asked a number of us to meet.

It didn't originally happen at Milan, but that's where it ended up.

And we had this spoon gathering.

And so being a founding member of that was quite something.

And it's grown and grown and now they're spoon festivals all over the world, and they all can be traced back to the one in Milan.

(violin music) As a craftsperson, the time that we're living in right now is really interesting to me because I've been doing this long enough to see how crafts and how handwork has changed and COVID had this unforeseen gift, I think, that despite all the tragedy of it, there was this explosion of handwork and interest in handwork and the handmade.

I think that sense of community that a lot of us crave is not being met with technology.

You know, we all have cell phones and there's a certain connection that happens from those but it's the real interpersonal connection and finding new friends and making new connections with people that I think is more validating on a human level.

Craft is actually a really wonderful tool for social change.

It's a human connection to a world in the past, but it has a meaningful connection to what we do now.

(triumphant music) (upbeat music) - [Narrator] "Postcards" is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the Citizens of Minnesota.

Additional support provided by Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, Mark and Margaret Yael Jolene on behalf of Shalom Hill Farms, a retreat and conference center in a prairie setting near Wyndham, Minnesota.

On the web @shalomhillfarm.org.

Alexandria, Minnesota, a year-round destination with hundreds of lakes, trails, and attractions for memorable vacations and events.

More information @explorealex.com.

The Lake Region Arts Council's Arts Calendar, an arts and cultural heritage funded digital calendar showcasing upcoming art events and opportunities for artists in West Central Minnesota.

On the web @lrac4calendar.org.

Playing today's new music plus your favorite hits, 96.7kram, online at 967kram.com.

(upbeat music)