by Mitch Lee
As a kid I was fascinated by all sorts of multicultural images I found in the National Geo-graphic magazines piled in the back of our 5th grade classroom.
I loved to read the articles that featured tribal peoples from all over the world.
The stories and the amazing photographs of the so-called “noble savages” described their culture passed on thousands of years earlier, leaving only their art works and religious artifacts behind.
As an eleven-year old boy I could not fully wrap my mind around items such as totems, effigies and religious icons that were ten to twenty thousand years old.
Masks and ceremonial items decorated with feathers, jewels and what were once brightly colored paints became a focus of my research whenever I visited the Bookmobile.
I copied them in my journal sketchbook wherever I could find them.
On my daily walks in the woods surrounding my Limekiln Lake home with my dog Mutt, I found so many interesting tree knots, rock outcroppings, and rotting stumps that seemed to take on the image of magical tribal effigies.
Each time I came across one I could almost see the story of some ancient race of people who must have resided in my woods at one time.
Here in the dark glacial spill of stones and creeks I found different tribes that only I could see and understand.
There were the giants who rolled the large glacial erratics into place and carved rudimentary path markers for weary travelers.
There were also the tree people who carved intricate portraits, that after hundreds of years had somehow grown layers of bark and merged into a more organic image of a face.
Last were the stone pile people who would leave small piles of round smooth river rocks as point markers to hidden chambers of treasure.
These were the imaginary tribes I loved to scout the best.
For most of my youth I even tried to help these stone pile people by re-erecting their small totems.
This soon led to my own creations of totems and effigies in the woods.
I would take pinecones and branches and make faces with ornamental headdresses to mark out the waypoints of my own journeys.
Making effigies and totems from natural materials has now become part of my adult ritual when I visit special spots I hike to.
We are, after all, a full product of the things we found special as children.
We cling to these moments and memories and find a special happiness in recreating our youth.
—
Mitch Lee, Adirondack native & storyteller,
lives at Inlet. ltmitch3rdny@aol.com