Ojibwe Birchbark Wigwam

Nick Hockings, an Ojibwe culture educator, joins a group of primarily elderly Euro-Americans and shows and works with them to build an authentic birch bark wigwam using the materials of the north woods forest. They are volunteers in “Passport in Time,” a U.S. Forest Service archeological research program.

The forest was the hardware store to the traditional Ojibwe. Hands-on techniques learned over centuries are fused with Ojibwe cultural teachings and woven into a practical, yet spiritual

ecology of the northern hardwoods forest. Making an offering to the forest spirits before gathering its bounty, peeling birch bark and puncturing it with a deer bone awl, separating the strands of basswood inner bark to make twine, making pine pitch roofing tar: these and other techniques are demonstrated.

Volunteers tell us how they are affected by their experience of building the wigwam. We are left with an understanding and deep appreciation for the survival culture of Ojibwe.

This film was released in 2008 and is 60 minutes long.