PAPA AND KEEWAYDIN ( THE NORTH WEST WIND - THE ' HOME ' WIND )

THE TWILIGHT OF THE ERA OF THE WOOD AND CANVAS CANOE

From 1961 to 1980 Paul Hammersten canoed throughout New England and Quebec and Ontario,Canada with Keewaydin Camps,Vermont and Keewaydin Wilderness Trips Quebec,Canada. This was back in the twilight of the era of wood and canvas canoes.

Keewaydin Canoe Camp in Ontario had hoped to return to the pre-1980's by once again tripping entirely with wood and canvas canoes. However it is no longer possible to re-capture what Keewaydin in Vermont and Keewaydin Wilderness Trips in Quebec has lost... only in a " living history way " can one experience what it was like to canoe during the golden days of classic wilderness tripping with wood and canvas canoes...for...the 'old time' North, of waters absolutely unpaddled by white men and woods and portage trails on which only the feet of Indian families have tread,is no more. Now that Keewaydin Canoe Camp,in 2001, has come under the ownership of the same foundation that runs Keewaydin Camps in Vermont and Keewaydin Wilderness Trips in Quebec , the era of wilderness tripping, done exclusively in wood and canvas canoes, has most assuredly come to the end for all of the Keewaydin Camps.

The first rough draft of * ASANTE PAPA! * was completed in late August of 1999 on Devil's Island in a cabin called Refuge by the shore of Lake Temagimi in the heart of the Ojibway country of Ontario,Canada.

" DEVIL'S ISLAND "

While at Ojibway,Hammersten was working on a painting for his friends whose tents and cabins were nestled in the stands of Jack Pine and Cedar trees growing on the island.

The word " devil " is a misnomer and refers to Gitchy Manitou,the trickster God of the Ojibway.

Tradition has it that the mountain,northeast of the island,is the home of Gitchy Manitou. The place of refuge when,in the Ojibway flood myth,he turned himself into an eagle to carry his people on his back to safety.

" TO THE REGIONS OF THE HOME-WIND,OF THE NORTHWEST-WIND,KEEWAYDIN..."

These two lines from Longfellow's " Hiawatha " and the art of the great Frank E. Schoonover inspired the making of " God's Country ".

Ernest Hemingway's favorite poem was " Hiawatha ". As a child,dressed in his Indian costume,he liked to enact passages from the poem. Every year with his family,he would see the outdoor productions of " Hiawatha " at Wa-Ya-Ga-Mung on the lake in Northern Michigan and would watch his Indian friend sail off into the sunset in his birch bark canoe.

* ASANTE PAPA! * is the first and only book to explore Papa's relation to Keewaydin - the Northwest Wind.

In his book Hammersten writes how Papa Hemingway knew ' THE KEEWAYDIN WAY ' was, is, and always will be ' THE WAY ' of the Gospel of Jesus Christ...something the historic Keewaydin Camps of North America are in danger of losing sight of.

"FOR PROMOTION COMETH
NEITHER FROM THE EAST,
NOR FROM THE WEST,
NOR FROM THE SOUTH.
BUT GOD IS THE JUDGE:
HE PUTTETH DOWN ONE,
AND SETTETH UP ANOTHER."

Psalms 75:6,7

HOLY BIBLE

old King James

" Thus departed Hiawatha,
Hiawatha the Beloved,
In the glory of the sunset,
In the purple mists of evening,
To the Regions of the Home-wind,
Of the Northwest-wind,Keewaydin,
To the Islands of the Blessed,
To the Kingdom of Ponemah,
To the land of the Hereafter. "

" The Song Of Hiawatha"
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"IF PROMOTION DOES NOT COME
FROM THE EAST,SOUTH,OR WEST,
BUT FROM THE LORD
( OR THE NORTH ),
THEN ONE'S JOURNEY WITH GOD
TOWARD HIS HEAVENLY HOME IS
' TO THE REGIONS OF THE HOME-WIND'.
THIS IS CONFIRMED IN ISAIAH 14:12-14. "

from the personal hymnal of
A.S.Gregg ( The Commodore ) Clarke,
founder of the Keewaydin Canoe Camps, and given to Paul D.Hammersten by the Dunmore Keewaydin great - Charlie Horner