Snow Moon Islands of Coherence in and around Great Lake Michigan
Hello friends of bioregioning in the Lake Michigan and Upper Mississippi River Drainages!
 |
| Downstream flow path for a drop of water traveling from Oconomowoc River, through Rock River, to the Mississippi River |
This Snow Moon has me dreaming up stories of coherence.
One story is of the coherence of the river systems of my personal life story. I was born in and spent my first seventeen years in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, a small town between Madison and Milwaukee on the Oconomowoc River, which meets the Rock River near Watertown and continues southwest to meet the Mississippi in the Quad Cities, on the Iowa/Illinois border, where it will continue to New Orleans and eventually the Gulf of Mexico. I now live in Milwaukee, just on the other side of a subcontinental divide, meaning the water in Oconomowoc and most of Waukesha county drain west to the Mississippi while water in Milwaukee drains to Lake Michigan.
This drainage separation happens to reflect racialized cultural separations related to the growth of the White-exclusive suburbs in the 1900s, which is part of my family story of some of my ancestors who lived in the city of Milwaukee and who opted to move to the suburbs as part of white flight starting in the 1960s.
I mention these contexts because I have the opportunity to host friends Penny and Joe, whom I visited in Colombia this time last year, as they plan an extended tour this June around the multiple major river systems which make up the Mississippi. While I'd love to monopolize their entire month, realistically they may be able to spend a day or two in the area, so I am dreaming of how to share both the stories of Milwaukee and the stories of the Oconomowoc and Rock Rivers to contribute to their honoring of these great waters which while seemingly separated are always connected and are connected through me and my little life story.
 |
| Bridgid's and my toes in Lake Michigan in October |
In October I had the opportunity to host some people in Milwaukee for some water, forest and garden walks. We began with our toes in the water to symbolically greet our sturgeon kin and ask blessings for the time we would spend together. Later we shared a meal then walked through the Urban Tree House on Lynden Hill and two nearby community gardens, closing with a story circle. Because I know and love these places, I often introduce friends to them when they are interested to learn the bioregional stories of Milwaukee.
Regarding Oconomowoc, I realized that in all the river trips I have made, out west in Utah and Colorado, out east in North Carolina and in Florida, I have not explored the river in the literal back yard of my youth. My sister and I co-wrote a book about easy walks and paddles in the Milwaukee parks and waters, and neither of us know where to put in a kayak on those waters.
The hosting opportunity has prodded me to research an easy family-friendly paddle. I have been working with design school classmate Elizabeth to develop bite-sized permaculture lessons for her home school group, and we are crafting a series of Wednesday events, the first of which will be a day trip on a section of the Oconomowoc River to introduce how it is connected to the larger systems. I will collect a small amount of water to share with Penny and Joe to carry with them on their pilgrimage, as they did during a similar journey of the length of the Colorado River a few years ago.
 |
| empty glass vial with cork, ready for collecting a bit of water from Oconomowoc to travel to the Mississippi. |
I am realizing that the Rock River is not necessarily as navigable as it was centuries ago, even though the Public Trust Doctrine, enshrined in the Wisconsin constitution and based on Roman law traditions, states that all waters must remain accessible to the public. This doctrine is being tested by a legal case near Milwaukee related to a person being fined for trespass for walking along the Michigan Lakeshore.
So this journey begins as a journey of the imagination, imagining and remembering that Native peoples navigated from near present day St Louis (Cahokia) north, south, east and west, portaging and otherwise moving over land throughout Turtle Island via these river systems. Whether we are able to make the entire trip, participate in one element, or only imagine what it may be like, we can invite into our imagination the journey by water across these spaces.
 |
| Image of the network of major river systems which make up the Mississippi Basin, from Joe Brewer's Design School for Regenerating Earth post announcing the June pilgrimage into the heart of Turtle Island. The major settlement of Cahokia was in the center of this web and was active into the time of westward expansion/seizure of the US empire. |
The second stop on this imagined journey along the Rock River makes more sense to drive to, if people wish to make a day trip and be back to Milwaukee for kiddo bedtime. The Crawfish River, which runs parallel to the Rock in this section before it meets in the nearby modern town of Jefferson, passes through Aztalan State Park, which is a site of ancient pyramids, stockade, spring and settlement. Visitors will find lots of self-guided educational signage, including a hand cranked audio player with recorded stories. Children and adults can dip toes in the waters, and imagine paddling the rivers connecting these places.
 |
| Grassy pyramid and shrubbery at Aztalan State Park |
The third stop along the Rock River I wish to share is in Milton, WI, home of the Milton House Museum. The Milton House was a stagecoach stop in the mid-1800s and was a place where people escaping enslavement were protected during their journey through the network of the Underground Railroad from enslaver-run states to freedom in Canada. The museum has excellent exhibits about the abolition movement and the moving of bodies from danger to safety. The highlight of the tour is navigating a passageway which connects the main building to an outbuilding, which had been used during the time of sheltering people on their journey to freedom. I can still feel the tightness in my chest of the embodied experience of crouching through the tunnel as others did a century before.
In addition to these three stops, I shall make a pilgrimage to Itasca/head waters of the Mississippi, and also nearby White Earth Nation, where my Godmother was born, later in the summer. Fans of the Indigo Girls will remember that the "true head" of the Mississippi river (in Latin, the "veritas caput") is "in Minnesota, at a place that you can walk across with five steps down," steps I will make when I visit Itasca State Park (the name of the park comes from the Latin, ver"ITAS CA"put)
If you wish to geek out on finding how a drop of water in your backyard will find its way to the sea, play around with this interactive map: https://mghydro.com/watersheds/
Maybe you're wondering, where is all the bog witch content this month? Fear not, the stories of the enchanted bog continue to emerge for me like undigested bog bodies floating to the surface, like the feelings we push down until we are safe enough to examine them to figure out what they mean. Some stories are spoken at the monthly Milwaukee Area Story Tellers meet-ups, which are the third Fridays at Mount Mary University. Some are being collected through my interviews on RiverwestRadio.com. Others are musical song-prayers I record and send to individuals. Many are landing in the MetaChrysalis space in the design school and MetaChrysalis.org. Now there is a hand drawn map, and more characters. When I bought a second-hand paddling shirt to be adorned with ribbons for these ceremonies from local outfitter MKE Outdoor-Indoor exchange, I told owner John Cameron what I'm up to, so now his outfitting shop is on the map and he's a character in the real life story as well as in the Enchanted Bog. I expect a grand structure for representation will reveal itself to me as I continue to collect the sounds and texts of these stories of the bog witch, a time traveling ancestor from seven generations in the future who asks me who is doing what around here which enables people like her to have survivable conditions.
THINGS I'M READING:
https://substack.com/@adrianlambert/p-184108596
The Peoples' Audit https://powerwisconsinforward.com/peoples-audit/
OTHER EVENTS I'M PLANNING:
Bog Slogs with Permaculture Principles Scavenger Hunts
MetaChrysalis game play sessions in Chicago, Milwaukee and more
Weaving with League of Women Voters organizations around Lake Michigan/Upper Mississippi
DATA CENTER INFO/Zooms:
Healthy Climate Wisconsin- Advocacy Day (February 10th): Registration & Details
We Energies Data Center Rate Case Hearing (February 10th at 1PM and 6PM virtually): Registration & Details
- Join Healthy Climate Wisconsin and Walnut Way-WEBB at Riveredge Nature Center on February 2, 2026, at 6 p.m. to learn more about what this data center energy proposal means for Wisconsin residents and small businesses and how you can make your voice heard. Register here.
- Join Sierra Club’s webinar “No Discounts for Data Centers” on February 4, 2026 at 6 p.m. to learn more about data centers’ massive energy needs and the major decisions the Public Service Commission (PSC) is making to determine if it could cost ratepayers. https://cleaneconomywi.com/
Comments
Post a Comment