This is the magical Blue Earth. I hope no one reading this has heard of this place, or ever been… because my soul cannot take sharing this place with people who do know what it means.
I should start with my INITIAL story on how I found out I had found my lens. I was in a class with Lisa Cooke, and she uses an activity to teach about the making of Indian Reserves. She gets you to fill up an entire sheet of paper with your most precious place, and then she becomes an Indian Agent, or Joseph Trutch (horrible person), and she takes scissors and cuts a small piece of your paper, takes the paper and gives you a tiny corner, and that is your reserve. Well I drew Blue Earth, and all of my memories and emotions connected to that place came rushing back.
I have brought people here before, and many other people come here. But I believe they respect it the same as I do. When I was ending high school, I brought people here. They were my sister’s boyfriend’s friends. What you cannot see, is in front of me and to the left, there is a little creek that runs into another small lake. Baby trout hatch and grow in the creek before exiting to either lake.(I think that is the process, I should research the cycles and timelines of lake trout) Anyways, it was the season where the small fish hang out in the creek. And of course I show these guys, because life is fascinating.
So time passes and we look around, skip rocks, and then, “boys being boys” start to play around and try and catch the small fish with their hands. At first I did not mind, then they started running in the creek bed, trying to stomp on the fish and kill them with their hands, and then throw them off to the side of the bank. I was COMPLETELY disgusted. I did not understand what the heck was going on in their heads?
Clearly this was a pristine, respected landscape, that was not theirs, so one would think they would be respectful in the area. Nope. I was so surprised I immediately told everyone to get in the truck, and that we were leaving. That day was the first day I realized people had a different lens than me. I had believe everyone respected the earth and its beings. I do not know what their intentions were, clearly they did not have intentions. But with that, I realized not everyone will see something and think it deserves that much respect, or that the lands and wildlife deserve respect and care.
These boys were non-Indigenous, but I refused to believe that was why they were so ignorant, I still do not know. (Again, just reflecting, of course I questioned whether their disrespect was because they were non-Indigenous, because that is where my mind goes to first, but it wasn’t, their just assholes.)