The story of a cradle-board!

This is our baby Ju Ju, our great-granddaughter.  She will capture the moment for all of us now and into the future.  I'm amazed to see her and hold here.  It's been 11 years since we had a baby in our neck of the woods.  I think it will be great to watch her grow up.  I think I'm at an age to fully appreciate this.  I will get a kick out of watching her Great-Grandma buy her things, probably dresses to dress her up like a little doll.  In some ways, she reminds me of Tara and there is no particular reason I feel that way.  I held her one day and promised to spoil her and to haul her to games when she starts playing, but maybe by then, I will have to depend on Pat ko shuk to do the driving and the old folks will have to ride in the back.

This baby cradle came from the Land of 10,000 Lakes.  We went there one cold winter to visit my brother Larry and during this particular visit we went to check out an Indian store on Franklin Street.  This is where we found the cradle-board.  This was about 20 years ago.  We bought it for Ju Ju's daddy, Nyeh waskeh. They said long time ago the Indian woman would be picking berries in the fields and these cradle-boards would be propped up, leaning on a tree, so the baby could watch the woman work.  On occasion, they would fall and the way it was made broke the fall and nobody got hurt.  Also the way the baby was bound in the board gave them a sense of security.

Jodie Little Axe put the bead-work on the cradle-board and Tara said she was going to add more.  Over the years Nyeh, Hooty, Kek, and Pat ko shuk posed for shots in the cradle-board. It hung on our wall for years and one day we came home from work and Voncile noticed right off the bat it was gone and I figured it was Ju Ju's grandma Juana who had done the dirty deed and sure enough I checked the modern day bible: Facebook and there was Ju Ju in a picture in the cradle-board.  She can use it as long as she fits in there, then I imagine it will go back on the wall for the next great-granchild.