Spring finally arrived, and after the last of the snow had gone I looked outside the kitchen window one morning and there was another feather hanging in my apple tree! I went outside and there was Odo by the turkey pen with two companions. He had come to let me know that his small group would be leaving soon, and he had come with a special request of me? He was wondering if his party might be able to acquire one of my turkeys for their journey?

I told him I would give them one, but not my June Bug. I let one of the other turkeys out of the pen and Odo’s partners made some sort of noises and that turkey followed them off into the woods! 

A little over a week passed and there was another feather! I went outside to find Odo and his group on the edge of the woods behind my garage. The whole group was carrying little bundles. Odo said they would be leaving as night time came. 

I asked Odo where they would journey to? And he just said to the north where there are no people like me. He said that his people have been in this place for many generations.

Now having worked throughout my career all over our state I knew that the only place my kind didn’t live was the Boundary Waters area and there were massive quantities of land deeded to the natives near Canada.

Odo said they would use old roadways and trails to stay hidden while they journeyed. Then before he left for the woods he told me he had a gift for me for being kind to his group by giving them a turkey. He told me if I should ever happen to journey north to bring this gift with me. If I ever hear of or see a turkey feather tied to a tree branch I should use the gift he had given me this day. 

Well I waved farewell to my little friend and the group disappeared into my woods. I hung the gift he gave me on the wall above my desk. I often wondered if the little group made it to their destination?

Well 8 years had passed and my wife and I had taken a trip to where I lived when I was growing up. We were visiting some friends and we camped at the Kawishiwi River.

We were listening to some other campers who had been hiking a fire road up Highway 1. They said that the roads they had taken end at the Boundary Waters reserve area and they happened to see a turkey feather hanging in a tree?

My wife and I looked at each other and I had to ask them which fire road they had taken? I knew that I would be making another trip up north in the future. You see that gift that Odo had given me was a small whistle on a cord and he said if I ever found a feather that I should blow it. It made a chirping sound and he would know that this was me and that I had found him again!

Well we ended our vacation and all the way home I had a grin on my face as I thought of my next trip up north! That fire road where the campers found a feather in a tree was Number 42, so I knew exactly where to go.  

Everything I have told you in this story is true except for the parts that are not!