Photo By Scott Sturkol | Fort McCoy Deputy Garrison Commander Lt. Col. Mike Corkum presents Michael Charette,...... read more read more
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Michael Charette, also known as Laughing Fox, with the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa shared his people’s history through story and music during his presentation for the 2024 Fort McCoy Native American Heritage Month observance Nov. 19, 2024, at Fort McCoy, Wis.
Charette’s home, the Red Cliff Reservation, “hugs the northeastern shoreline of the Bayfield Peninsula, nestled between Cornucopia and Bayfield (Wis.) overlooking the Apostle Islands in northern Wisconsin,” states the tribe’s website at https://www.redcliff-nsn.gov.
Charette’s performance lasted nearly an hour, and he was dressed in his native clothing to enhance the performance.
During his presentation, Charette told stories and played music for the dozens in attendance.
“The last time I was here, I believe the staff sergeant had presented … that indigenous folks started coming over here some 35,000 years ago,” Charette said. “We started across that land bridge. But when I say this to my elders back home, they very much tell us that … that’s their story of how this place was populated. Because we, as indigenous people, have all of our own creation stories that were gifts from us by the creator and by the spirits to help guide us along our path.
“And a lot of times they'll even tell me that, you know, there are more tracks going the other way,” Charette said. “As they had found things like tobacco inside of Egyptian mummies, a new world crop … wild rice as well, another new world crop. So, there’s a lot of questions out there, and it seems like the more of the facts come out, the more our history changes, the more that we look at it.
“When we look at some of those other places that are populated here in North America, I had just come back from visiting Maine, where I was working with Wampanoag people,” Charette said. “And we would visit a site out there that dated back 14,000 years ago. They gave me stone tools that I held in my hands that dated back 4,000 years ago. There’s a spot up here in Lake Superior … and there’s a spot there that carbon dates back to 11,000 years ago. So people have always been living on the south shores of the Great Lakes ever since the melting of the last Ice Age. They found footprints in New Mexico, carbon dating back some 20,000 years ago. They found Lake Superior copper in Mexico, carbon dating back 5,000 years ago.”
Fort McCoy’s motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy,” on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/fortmccoywi, and on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@fortmccoy.
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
| Date Taken: | 12.02.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.02.2024 18:04 |
| Story ID: | 486448 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 12 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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