by Nikki Rajala | Apr 21, 2019 | Featured
Imagine the array of specialty goods from 1800 — lace handkerchiefs, fragrant tea, violin strings, glass beads, printed calico, nutmegs, lacquered boxes, powdered vermilion, shiny knives and kettles — and feast your senses. Their uniqueness, their usefulness draws...
by Nikki Rajala | Apr 7, 2019 | Voyageur
Were girls ever voyageurs? Did girls go on the fur brigades? Amazingly, yes. If you figure in all the Native American women, there are countless thousands whose assistance was invaluable. If you’re talking European immigrants or Caucasians, a bare handful. To...
by Nikki Rajala | Mar 3, 2019 | Voyageur
Roadkill can become a beautiful, valued pelt. Yes, it can. And here’s how one incident played out: After hitting a small beaver on the road with his car, my dad had it tanned as a “made beaver.” FYI: From the mid-1600s for a couple hundred years, a “made beaver”...
by Nikki Rajala | Feb 17, 2019 | Voyageur
The John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon just ended. The Iditarod is coming soon. And I’m hooked. Those pictures of dogsleds careening around sharp snowy turns get me itching to try it. But jaw-dropping scared as well. How in the world do they handle those dogs?...
by Nikki Rajala | Feb 4, 2019 | Voyageur
What’s a “voyageur”? Is it like a “voyager”? Voyageurs needed! Hardy men to paddle birch bark canoes from sunrise to sunset and haul heavy packs of trade goods or fur pelts over miserable portages. Even so, French-Canadian voyageurs were known for their...
