Learning about Indigenous culture and environmental preservation on Iowa waters

The sound of paddles dipping in and out of the water is calming as we row to the center of the lake. The construction of the canoe is simple, and though it wobbles with the shift of our weight, it is stable. This experience, happening today, is similar to how it was centuries ago for Indigenous Americans. But in that time, many cultural practices of Indigenous people have been lost — systemically dismantled through colonialism and assimilation.

Bill ‘Nąąwącekǧize’ Quackenbush is working to restore and keep those ancient practices alive and part of Indigenous communities today. Quackenbush is a Ho-Chunk Deer Clan member and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin.

As part of his work with the historic preservation department, he was asked to create educational materials based on Ho-Chunk culture that had been lost through time. Several years ago, Quackenbush and his collaborators discussed teaching how to make Indigenous watercrafts.

“That was becoming something we talked about in the past tense, and we thought there was some value in bringing back some of these cultural practices that we had lost... whether it was through the assimilation forced upon us or through, just... trying to, you know, live in today's society,” he said. “Whatever it was there, we decided that one of those processes was the creating of dugout canoes.”

Maritime archaeologists have discovered the remains of nearly a dozen dugout canoes at the bottom of Lake Mendota in Wisconsin. Two canoes have been recovered. One is approximately 1,200 years old and the other is around 3,000 years old. Another canoe still on the lake bed likely dates back 4,500 years. Quackenbush said that while he can read and listen to stories about his culture, connecting to the practices and techniques in a hands-on way is especially impactful.

“If we didn't know how to adapt to pick up the new tools of technology that changes through time, we wouldn't be here today,” Quackenbush said. “And so that resilience as humans living in those ancestral areas of ours, well those humans are us, us Ho-Chunk people.”

Around 2017, Quackenbush spoke to the Dane County planner about a trail project in Madison, Wis. The city was planning to cut down several large cottonwood trees as part of the project. Members of Ho-Chunk Nation requested the county set two of the logs aside so they could use them to make dugout canoes.

"We had this oral gentleman’s handshake there that if we made these cottonwood dugout canoes that we would take our first journey, of all places, down the Four Lakes in Madison... in recognition of Dane County gifting the logs to us.”

Since then, the canoes have traveled across several states, and Quackenbush’s passengers have had the unique opportunity to ride in a dugout canoe while learning about Indigenous practices. Last year the canoes went down the Missouri River, and this year they paddled on the Mississippi River during flooding.

Quackenbush recently brought one of the cottonwood canoes to Lake Darling in Washington County, where Talk of Iowa host Charity Nebbe joined him for a ride.

The cottonwood canoe was constructed during the pandemic. Quackenbush and his collaborators took the tree logs around on a trailer to many Wisconsin communities where Ho-Chunk people were living. Youth of the nation wore masks and sat six feet apart while working to turn the tree into a boat.

“[We] worked on it in our communities so that the youth and those family members in that area could gain ownership of this dugout canoe. So when it was finally completed I was able to invite those families back that helped make that dugout canoe for this first journey down those four lakes in Madison.”

By teaching traditional techniques to the Indigenous youth, Ho-Chunk Nation has been able to connect with their ancestors’ experience in a profound way.

“Those pieces of puzzles that help us put back together our history that was taken from us through assimilation, and through the process where they take all of our youth, you know, from their parents, right, and put them into mission schools and boarding schools and industrial schools, and tried to make them, you know, good little Americans really. Well that stripped us of a lot of that knowledge and culture.”

While the dugout canoe was able to float on Lake Darling that day, harmful blue-green algae prevented adults, children and pets from swimming in the lake. The toxic algae blooms are caused by warm water, sunlight and nutrient-rich waters — which are often made nutrient-rich by farm run-off.

Water quality issues such as agricultural pollution can feel overwhelming to address, but some Iowans concerned with environmental preservation have made it their mission to take out all the harmful materials in Iowa waters that they can. Back on the shore at Lake Darling, Nebbe spoke to organizers with Iowa Project AWARE (A Watershed Awareness River Expedition), who were camping at Lake Darling while removing trash from the Skunk River.

Project AWARE has been organizing volunteers to clean up Iowa waters since 2003. Every summer participants spend a week going out in canoes to pull trash out of the water.

“We’ve got a fleet of canoes and people sign up to take vacation to get muddy and dirty and hot and whatever Mother Nature provides for us, to pick up garbage,” said Brain Soenen, founder of Project AWARE. “What a vacation right?”

After 21 years of collecting and sorting garbage, the group has collected almost a million pounds of trash from Iowa waterways. Every year the project tackles a different river, so the action isn’t confined to one part of the state.

“In my interactions with volunteers, they had oftentimes indicated, ‘It'll probably be in Des Moines, you know, that's where everything happens.’ ... We said we want this to be in everybody's backyard at some point in time,” said Soenen. “I mean, Iowa has 72,000 miles of rivers and streams and different landforms and different histories and cultures. And it's just an amazing place. And by being to everybody's backdoor, not only can we learn about all those things, but nobody has an excuse not to try Project AWARE at some point in time — because we'll be there.”

Project AWARE used to be funded by the Department of Natural Resources, but in 2017 they lost that funding. The DNR still partners with Project AWARE, but as a nonprofit they are challenged with fundraising to support their preservation efforts.

Liz Mass, chair of the fundraising committee for Project AWARE, has been volunteering on the river cleanup for ten years.

“I'm a teacher so I have a more flexibility during my summertime to be with my daughters and camp and paddle, get dirty. And our family motto is learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable.”

As an environmental science teacher, Mass said protecting creeks and streams is one of the most important things to her.

“Sometimes I feel very depressed about all the state of things that are happening,” she said. “And so this is one time during the year where I know that there are people that still care and are interested... trying to make a difference. And that gives me a lot of hope.”

To hear more of these conversations, listen to Talk of Iowa , hosted by Charity Nebbe . Sam McIntosh produced this episode.