Spirit Moves At Native Camp
Cabins built as young minds find their paths
By Patti Brandt Of The Enterprise staff
BRANDON AHMICASAUBE Smith, left, director of Spirit Journey, Kemo Ahmicasaube Smith, his father, and Brent Ahmicasaube, his brother, spent last week helping to build three cabins for use by the non-profit organization during its summer camping event. About 30 volunteers from two Methodist churches — one in Ohio and one in Birmingham — converged on a four-acre campground in Leelanau Township last week to build three cabins for this year’s Spirit Journey summer camp.
Spirit Journey offers children from 8 to 14 years old a week-long opportunity to swim, do crafts, take part in a talent show and immerse themselves in the Native American culture as they gather around a fire in a large tepee each night for teachings and music.
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Last year, the first year of the camp-out, more than 50 children, counselors and staff slept in tents and tepees.
“We had 50 kids here and another 50 knocking at the door,” said Brandon Ahmicasaube Smith, director of the non-profit Spirit Journey organization.
BRANDON AHMICASAUBE Smith is the director of Spirit Journey, a non-profit organization that offers tutoring and cultural programming, as well as a summer camp to Native American children. Spirit Journey focuses on the needs of Native American youth and throughout the year offers after-school tutoring and athletic, music, art and programs, though the camping event, which starts on Aug. 17 this year, is by far the most popular. Another 50 or more children are expected this year, Smith said.
The cabins were built by groups from Mentor United Methodist Church in Ohio and First United Methodist Church of Birmingham.
Rob Pauley, who belongs to the Mentor church, said the group of mostly high school and college students were building the cabins as this year’s youth service project, something the church has done for the last 43 years.
EAGLE HEADS carved by Kemo Ahmicasaube Smith of Grand Rapids grace the front and back peaks of three cabins built last week for Spirit Journey, a non-profit organization that holds an annual children’s camp-out in Leelanau Township. “It’s one of the church’s core missions,” Pauley said.
In a tag-team effort, the Ohio group started working on Monday and finished on Friday, while the group of volunteers from the Birmingham church showed up on Friday to take over, getting the cabins finished by Sunday.
The cabins cost about $5,000 each to build, said Kemo Ahmicasaube Smith of Grand Rapids — Brandon Smith’s father — who was also helping out.
“They have a well-oiled machine,” Kemo said.
Each cabin will be stained a different color. Each also has eagle heads on the front and back peaks that were carved by Kemo, who said an eagle flew over the camp while they were working.
DANIEL MARTIN, left, and Steven Berch cut boards for three cabins being built for the annual week-long Spirit Journey camping event in Leelanau Township. The teens were part of a group of volunteers from the Mentor United Methodist Church in Ohio, which helped fund and build the cabins. “I looked up and there was an eagle that came by to check us out,” Kemo said. “That happens wherever we go — these eagles come by to check us out. It’s like we’re in tune with them.”
Last year, the Birmingham church group built five tepees used at the camp-out that are more than 15 feet across at the base, Kemo said. They will be used again this year, he said.
Each cabin sleeps eight, and all are built on skids so they can be moved when the Spirit Journey organization finds a permanent home. For now, the group meets on the campground located on Camp Haven Road off M-22.
The campground is part of the Northport Indian Mission United Methodist Church and is the historical site of the Summer Camp Meeting, an annual Native American tradition.
It was at that event that Brandon Smith, then a young teenager, was first exposed to a large gathering of Native Americans. He went to the camp meeting with his family for several years after that.
“That was a big part of my life,” said Smith, 31. “As the years went on it was very special to me.”
Smith, who graduated from East Kentwood High School near Grand Rapids, said he was the only Native American student at the large school. His family practiced their cultural traditions, he said, but they were different than those prevalent at the camp meeting.
The Ahmicasaube Smith family belongs to the Little Traverse Bands of Odawa Indians. Their beliefs were solid, Smith said, but the family never attended Native American ceremonies like those held at the annual camp meeting.
“There was a lot of life to this campground,” he said, adding that it was a place that got him in touch with his Creator.
Smith moved to the Northport area when he turned 18 and lived there and in Peshawbestown, spending time coaching pee wee football before moving back to Grand Rapids to work for his brother, a general contractor. He hadn’t been to a camp meeting for about 10 years, he said, until three years ago.
“When I came to the camp meeting it was dead,” he said. “That really scared me. This is a very sacred place for our people.”
There were only a handful of elders there, he said, with no campers and no children running around. It wasn’t at all what he remembered and he realized how important the event had been in his childhood and in his life.
Smith also heard that the boys he had coached when he was younger were getting into trouble. “That made me sad,” he said. “When I met those boys they could have done anything they wanted to do.”
As he sat around the campfire with his parents three years ago, he realized what he wanted to do. His family has many talents and abilities to share, he said, and he wanted find a way to help Native American children to stay on the right path.
“I knew I wanted to work with the kids, I knew I wanted to be around them,” he said. “I felt that we could fulfill some of their needs and bring some life back to this camp.”
Smith wanted it to be more than a ‘Bible school,’ which he said is a term that doesn’t really embody his vision for the camp.
So Spirit Journey was born.
“That’s a great name because it’s antiquated and it’s contemporary,” Kemo said. “The whole philosophy is about teaching our kids the teachings of our people.”
There are four tenets to those teachings, Kemo said — respect for the Great Spirit or God, respect for yourself, respect for others and respect for the environment.
“That’s what our culture really is about,” Kemo said. “There is no swear word in our culture. There is no word for ‘goodbye,’ it’s ‘I’ll see you again.’”
Smith said the camp is meant to help children find their path in life.
“I feel that every day that we are here we are on our own special journey to find out who we are,” he said. “If these kids can connect they can have a clear vision of where they want to go. They can see their path.”
And getting them prepared for the future is what Spirit Journey is all about, he said.
“We need to be there for our kids. Nothing else matters except for our future — not just to survive, but to get stronger. We owe that to our ancestors and we owe that to ourselves.”
Spirit Journey leaders plan to build three more cabins as funds become available. Donations may be sent to Spirit Journey, P.O. Box 455, Traverse City MI, 49685.
