by Nikki Rajala | Aug 20, 2021 | Voyageur
Have you ever done something automatically, not realizing it had amazing significance? Whenever my family headed from Bigfork to Grand Rapids, Minnesota, we took Minnesota Highway 38. Up through my early teens, I could recite all the lakes — in order — on that winding...
by Nikki Rajala | Aug 7, 2021 | Voyageur
SUNDAY, SEPT. 26 Reserve your own room at River District Hotel for the nights of Sept. 26-28 https://riverdistricthotel.com/ 608-326-7878, 130 S. Main St., Prairie du Chien, WI 53821; block of rooms is under Abby Marier/French Canadian Family Group. Rate is $129.99...
by Nikki Rajala | Jul 4, 2021 | Voyageur
In these post-pandemic days, wages and work are in our daily conversations. Both have changed, and bring up questions like: What work are people willing to do? What wages and benefits lure them to choose work? In the French-Canadian fur trade, from the 16th to19th...
by Nikki Rajala | Mar 19, 2021 | Voyageur
My question exactly. How do you figure it out? Or, backing up a bit: What goods were profitable? Early on, fur traders discovered they needed more consumable goods — clothing, blankets, other fabrics, vermilion and beads, powder and shot, tobacco and alcohol. Fabrics...
by Nikki Rajala | Feb 25, 2021 | Voyageur
I need your ideas for Book 4. (Help me, François and Françoise — you’re my only hope!) In Book 3 (in progress): Instead of paddling with Antoine’s brigade, Andre fears he must stay at home and sees his life and career disappearing. But he lucks out with a...
