April 06, 2006
Turtle Mountain: Off Season Tourism
The Chippewa People offer this appealing invitation on the Turtle Mountain Heritage Center web site:
The staff of the Turtle Mountain Heritage Center would like to help you plan your next vacation to the Turtle Mountains. If you need travel information, lodging information, or other information, contact us. We can also conduct tours of the area by special appointment. We look forward to seeing you soon!
It's 32 degrees Fahrenheit there at the moment but I'm going to take them up on the offer the day after tomorrow.
The Turtle Mountains, Chippewa Reserrvation, and nearby Intrnational Peace Park on the Canadian border can be reached several ways.
The day-long drive from Minneapolis airport passes over the flooding Red River. Been there. Done that. Not this year, thanks.
Northwest has a flight, the only commercial option to Minot, which is my choice for this trip. AMTRAK has a night run that takes about 10 hours to Minot, ND which leaves roughly 3 hours remaining by car.
The final leg of the route doesn't take me through Fargo and reviewing its namesake movie is not on my trip preparation checklist but, if I can find the copy she gave me, I want to reread Kathleen Norris' Dakota: A Spiritual Biography
Local Sites:
See Rolette County Tourism
http://www.rolettecounty.com/Tourism.htm
A Resource by Paula Giese:
http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/dakotas/nd.html
Famous Chippewa (AKA Ojibway):
Sam English
http://www.hanksville.org/artists/english.html