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Courtesy Feast of the St. Claire
353travelMI
Reenactors will be on hand to fire cannons and stage other demonstrations during Rendezvous in the Sault in Sault Ste. Marie, July 27-28, 2013.
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Rosanne Hostnik
353travelMI
Genot Picor, storyteller and musician, will come as “Winter Elk.”
A gentleman with a long white beard regales youngsters with tales of fur traders, their equipment and the value of furs.
Not far away, cannon blasts fill the air with clouds of smoke during demonstrations by French marines.
History will come alive when reenactors set up displays and camps during Rendezvous in the Sault, a living history festival celebrating the period of 1668 to 1840. The festival takes place on the grounds of Sault Ste. Marie City Hall on Historic Water Street, site of the first European settlement in Michigan, with the 1668 founding of the Sainte Marie du Sault mission.
One of the featured performers is storyteller and folklorist Genot “Winter Elk” Picor. Winter Elk, according to Genot, was a French-Huron Métis scout who 300 years ago disappeared in the wilderness to explore and trade. “He found his way to the Great Lakes and was taken in by the Ojibwe people of the region and became part of their tribe,” Genot’s description continues. “Now he returns to share the stories, songs and dances of the places he explored from the Great Lakes to the Ohio, Mississippi, St. Lawrence and Mohawk Valleys.”
In real life, Genot is a retired school teacher living near Detroit and was a graduate student in interpretive/performance studies at Eastern Michigan University. He also leads LaCompagnie, the music and dance group who will perform traditional French Canadian and Celtic music at the rendezvous.
“I love this type of performing,” he says. “It’s personal, warm and interactive. I am so close to my audience, I can look into their eyes, shake their hands and treat them as friends.”
Interacting with history is the point of the Rendezvous, which is an expansion of the city’s History Fest, says Angela Patterson, project administrator for the city who co-chairs the event with Ginny Cymbalist of the Chippewa County Historical Society and who was involved with History Fest since it began.
The Rendezvous is organized by the Chippewa County Historical Society with support from the city and the Sault Ste. Marie Convention and Visitors Bureau. Organizers tapped Harry and Rose Burgess, educators and founders of the Feast of the St. Claire, a living history festival in Port Huron, as consultants on the authenticity of costumes and performances and as camp hosts.
Spectators can see a puppet show and talk with artisans demonstrating spinning, candle making and needlework and other crafts. They can watch battle demonstrations courtesy of the French Colonial Heritage Society and visit Native American displays.
Structures that still exist in the Sault are part of the festival. On the Water Street Historic Block, visitors can tour the home of fur trader John Johnston, one of the area’s first European settlers, or the office of geologist/geographer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, which was also the area’s first Indian agency. Bishop Frederic Baraga’s house is here, too, along with the Kemp Coal Dock Museum.
Rendezvous in the Sault, July 27-28, on Water Street on the City Hall grounds in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. www.historicwaterstreet.org/rendezvous.