Heart of Turtle Island Tour
Come learn how our three unique cultures — Anishinabe, Cree, and Métis– came together in the Turtle Mountains. You will learn about this rich history through guided tours of our most treasured institutions – our Heritage Center and Tribal College. A visit to the Turtle Mountains wouldn’t be complete without meeting a few of our talented artists and makers. Roll up your sleeves and join them in painting buffalo hide, one of our traditional arts, and making gullet bread, a local recipe you can take home to remember your time here.
Overview
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Learn about the history and cultural importance of the buffalo
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Make your own parfleche (painted hide) with a local artist
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Discover the cultural traditions of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and hear their complicated history from tribal elders
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Try your hand at basket making with a local artist
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Bake traditional Le Gullet bread to eat with your lunch
Highlights
Meeting Point & Time
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7:45 AM from the Lobby of Sky Dancer Resort and Casino
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Address: 3965 Sky Dancer Way NE (off Hwy281) Belcourt, ND
Availability
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June-September
Duration
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2 days & 2 nights
What to bring
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Wear comfortable clothes and footwear.
Included
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2 nights at Sky Dancer Resort and Casino hotel
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Transportation to and from all activities
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Entrance fees
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Tips for all guides
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2 Lunches
Not included
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Airfare
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Personal trip insurance
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Transport to meeting point
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Meals (except for lunches)
Tour Details
This tour starts off with a morning visit to the Turtle Mountain Sacred Buffalo who are cared for by our Natural Resource Department. Here you will learn about how the Ojibwe/Cree and Metis came together and formed a band using our different styles to hunt the buffalo in the 1800s and why we came to stay in the Turtle Mountains.
Following a visit to the buffalo pasture, we will visit Don and Julie Cain at their residence. Don works with animal hides in their backyard, cleaning them through a time-consuming process that has remained the same for hundreds of years and using them for traditional arts. Following a hide work demonstration, the group will head back to Sky Dancer Casino and Resort for lunch at Fire's Edge Restaurant.
In the afternoon, take a guided tour of the Heritage Center, which houses a collection of paintings, drawings, and sculptures representing a large number of different tribal traditions. An expert basketmaker from the community will meet the group for a hands-on basket-making demonstration to end the day.
The following morning, the group will head over to the Turtle Mountain Community College (TMCC) for a gullet bread-making lesson. Our people have been making Le Gulette (bread) since the 18th and 19th centuries, most likely after the encounters of the Scottish and French fur traders. Ojibwe (Indian) and Metis (mixed blood) families have eaten this bread on a daily basis, it is a very old bread that has been handed down through the families here on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reservation for years.
While the loaves bake, we will take a guided nature walk around the Anishinaabe campus to learn about the local flora and their practical uses in the past and present. Next, it's time for lunch on campus, when we can enjoy our fresh baked bread. After lunch, the last activity is a campus tour provided by Dr. Carol Davis, one of the Founders of TMCC. Her in-depth explanation of tribal history, from migration to treaties, is the perfect end to this rich educational experience.