Our sites that we consider sacred often offer views of particular landscapes, mountains and rivers. The trails between sacred sites are also sacred. Our portage trails are sometimes a foot deep from being walked by generations of our ancestors. So it is also the paths between sites that must be protected, the steps of our fathers and mothers and grandparents along a river or a lake, because they connect the places they chose to live: the cemeteries, the camps where they performed ceremonies, the places along the path where different family groups met when they moved in the spring. Each of these places was their home, up there in the inland. When they left again in August, they would say, “We’re going home”. The sacred includes everything that can be said about these places and all the names that were given to them. Mushtamun is the name given to the great lake where the salmon go to spawn. So we honor the lake where the salmon come to spawn, and in doing so we honor the spirit of Mother Earth, the spirit of life. This is the power of these places. The sacred is also perceived in the sounds and smells of our land, the wind, the rain, the water of the rivers.
