The Bruce peninsula, with its unique world class biosphere, remains one of the most beautiful and pristine areas in Ontario. While the waters of Lake Huron lap sandy, wooded western shores, waves from Georgian Bay caress the ancient limestone spine that arches across the landscape on its eastern reaches.

As camping is popular on the Bruce, there are a number of facilities. But none equals the type of camping experience that Sidney and Brenda Nadgiwon, and friends offer. From May through mid-September people can immerse themselves in Native culture at. Cha Mao Zah. The name, Ojibwa for A Long Time Ago, is appropriate for the unique campgrounds near Tobermory. Only at Cha Mao Zah can you sleep in a tee pee while learning first-hand about native ways.

Campers can participate in Full Moon and New Moon celebrations. They can enjoy workshops on wood carving, make a medicinal pouch and a drum; learn about the Seven Teachings of Grandfather and take a medicinal plant walk. Visitors are invited to find their spirit guide and to experience the medicine wheel. These timely workshops are presented by knowledgeable people who have always immersed themselves in the traditional native way of living close to, and in harmony with, nature and the land. Most workshops do require a minimum of six people and have a fee for supplies. You should book in advance. Non-campers can take advantage of the workshops too as long as there’s room. Drum circles are held most Saturday evenings. If this interests you, and it should as it gives an authenticity to your camping experience, check to make sure that a drum circle is planned during your visit.

Sleeping in a tee pee has to be the best thing about staying at Cha Mao Zah. Tee pees, decorated with native symbols, sleep two-to-ten people and are given the names of First Nations tribes. Foam mattresses and sleeping bags can be rented if you don’t have camping supplies of your own. As this form of camping is popular, especially with European visitors, if interested in sleeping in a tee pee, you really should reserve well in advance of your visit.

For those who enjoy the outdoors and the opportunity to learn native culture, but who find ground-camping difficult, Cha Mao Zah offers comfortable beds in rustic cabins. Each cabin is done up with decorative touches appropriate for Cha Mao Zah’s focus. Please don ’ t expect that these cabins are full housekeeping units. They are not. You do have the benefit of sleeping in a comfortable bed but your working “ kitchen ” is outside - rustic clothes rack, a fire pit, picnic table and benches, and work area, just like those provided at each tee pee - all in keeping visually with the camp’s theme. Tee pees and cabins are tucked among mature cedar trees and are clustered around the Gathering Place where most special events and presentations take place. A screened Gazebo acts as a meeting place where you can play games, eat, relax with a book, chat with fellow campers. Coffee is served at the Gazebo around 8:00 a.m. in the morning on a first-come, first-serve basis.

What makes camping at Cha Mao Zah even more special is the large number of species of wild birds - cedar wax wings work at removing horse hair from tee pee decorations, cardinals and blue jays call from nearby trees. A pileated woodpecker hammers at a nearby tree. Cheeky Chickadees scold from cedars. Wild finches feed off thistle seed. Humming birds frequent strategically placed feeders. Wild geese fly overhead.

Sidney Nadjiwon can usually be found at Cha Mao Zah, surrounded by his work - carved wooden totems, eagles, braves & ancient folk and unique one-of-a-kind dream catchers. Sidney ’ s original work is a far cry from the “ churn ‘ em out ”, mass produced off-shore so-called “ Indian crafts ” found in some gift shops and flea markets. Each of Sidney ’ s creations carries a documentation tag and is a highly collectible work of Indian art. Speaking of gift shops, Cha Mao Zah ’ s is chock-a-block full of interesting items - clothing made of soft deer and buffalo hide, suede and moose hide moccasins, books, carvings, porcupine quill boxes, woven baskets, Indian dolls, beaded jewellery, all in keeping with our native heritage.

Sheila Elliott is an important assess at Cha Mao Zah. Sheila accompanies herself on a drum, sings traditions songs and tells wonderful stories. She loves visiting individual campfires and is always part of the workshops at the Gathering Place. As Sheila appears out of the dusk at your camp fire, you can almost believe that you have stepped back into a time-long-ago.

Be sure to book your campsite over a weekend. The highlight of a camping experience at Cha Mao Zah has to be the traditional native feast which is served at a very reasonable price every Saturday night. Typical fare might include buffalo or venison, lake trout or white fish, corn, wild rice, fry bread or bannock, berry pies. Fish for the feast comes from the on-site store where both fresh and smoked fish can be purchased. This outlet is handy as the nearest grocery store is in Tobermory.

If you’d like to take a break from your own camp cooking, and wash-up, slip across the road to the Stone Orchid for a meal. Joanne, the owner, was born in Indonesia and enjoys introducing people to the pleasures of Indonesian food. If you’ve never tasted this type of cuisine, take the opportunity to enjoy Joanne’s fare. Not sure what to order, leave it up to the chef! Also take time to browse through Joanne’s adjoining antique shop which has a good selection of vintage clothing and unusual items.

“Cha Mao Zah” is centrally located to a number of attractions and amenities. Tobermory, a bustling, compact, charming community on the tip of the Bruce, two miles from the campground, offers restaurants, accommodations and specialty shops. The town is the southern terminal for the Chi-Cheemaun - Ojibwa for “Big Canoe” - Tobermory to Manitoulin Island ferry service. It is also the terminus for the 465 mile long Bruce Trail that begins in Niagara Falls. A plaque, on the heights overlooking the harbour, marks the trail’s end - or beginning, depending on which way you’re hiking. The harbour area which is used by both working and pleasure boats, is always busy in high tourist season.

Follow signs for Big Tub Harbour where a lighthouse sits on a rocky point, surrounded by ancient rocks that are typical of the Bruce Peninsula. Amazing wave action has piled huge boulders, one on top of the other, and ended-on-end, to reveal interesting and unusual marine fossils. This particular area of the lake is the watery graveyard for a number of nineteenth and early twentieth century ships that either lost their battle with Huron or were intentionally sunk in sheltered bays. You can see the skeleton of one ship - the “John & Alex” in the outer harbour but to fully appreciate the significance of the area to shipping, the Great Lakes and storms, take a glass-bottomed boat ride out of Tobermory harbour. As lake water is crystal clear you can see the wrecks quite well. Tobermory is also well known for it’s off-shore Flower Pot Island, Fathom Five National Marine Park and its great scuba-diving opportunities.

Take some time to explore back roads lined with tiger and twelfth-of-July lilies, Bouncing Bet, Monk ’ s Hood and wild roses. Bi-ways lead to beautiful sand beaches and spectacular sunsets in the west; rugged limestone bluffs and magnificent sunrises to the east. Bruce Peninsula National Park which includes Cypress Lake Provincial Park and the Bruce Trail are within a half hour’s drive of Cha Mao Zah. The Bruce has more than five hundred miles of shoreline just waiting to be explored. Villages are refreshingly devoid of the usual twentieth century strip & mall desecration. Forest trails lead to spectacular views from soaring headlands. Rare wild flowers, including more than forty species of the elusive orchid species, known as lady slippers huddle in mosey glens. This is one of the places where the rare pitcher plant grows wild. This is Ontario’s magnificent Bruce Peninsula. “ Cha Mao Zah ” is an integral part of what is truly unique and spectacular about the area. Experience it soon!

IF YOU GO:
Cha Mao Zah
Prop #7111, Hwy #6
R.R. #1,
Tobermory, Ontario N0H 2R0
#1-519-596-2708
Camp@indiancarver.com
http://www.indiancarver.com/

If you’re game for a different kind of camping trip this summer, look at going to Tobermory at the tip of Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula for a stay in an Indian teepee.

Sidney Nadjiwon, who served as councilor of the Chippewas of Nawash for 9 years, is now operating Cha Mao Zah TeePee Campground on Highway 6, three km south of Tobermory. His aim is to give campers and groups, including school classes, a taste of North American native culture and in many ways what he offers is a bargain.

You can rent a five-meter teepee which will’ easily sleep six people for $65 a night or six-meter teepee, accommodating eight, for $75. Inside, campers place sleeping bags on top of buffalo, or bear hides and furs.

Visitors can also sample authentic native foods, like deer meat, corn soup and bannock, gather around a campfire to hear native storytelling, learn crafts such as woodcarving and leather work and enjoy native entertainment, like dancing and drumming, on weekends.

There are 15 teepees for rent at the campground, which covers about two hectares next to the Tobermory Settlement United Church and is partly in a cedar grove. As well Sleeping bags can be rented and are cleaned after each use, rental fee $10 per use not per night.

Brenda who is Nadjiwons wife and’s partner in the campground, says she knows nothing like it anywhere and it had about 1,000 visitors during the three months it operated in 1998.

The total includes groups participating in special programs. "Some people made return camping visits two or three times," Brenda adds. "And we had campers from all over the world including Britain, Germany and Poland."

She says that the campground opened an Internet Web site at www.indiancarver.com last October and it has already recorded more than 25,000 hits.

The campground has showers and washrooms, a nine-meter stone barbecue, individual fire pits for teepees and tents, a pond and rest area, a screened-in gazebo and an Indian drumming arbour built around a silver birch tree with cedar sprays covering the roof.

Most campers bring their own food and camping supplies if renting a teepee, although meals can be provided.

There are special rates and programs for groups. The campground operates from May 1 to Thanksgiving.

Nadjiwon, a renowned woodcarver, was born and raised at the Cape Croker Reserve on the Bruce peninsula but has lived off the reserve for 12 years, largely making a living as a woodcarver.

He started planning his "heritage" type campground four years ago. It opened late last summer but this year marks the first full season.

"I am a strong believer in preserving the culture and heritage of my people," Nadjiwon says. "I feel that what’s offered in this campground can be valuable from the education aspect."

Moreover, Nadjiwon adds, an Indian land claim involving large parts of the Bruce peninsula is causing some tensions in the local community and he hopes his venture might help resolve some issues.

"If we can talk about it and what might happen, then things might be resolved a lot better, he adds. "I try to get local residents and business people to come here and discuss things because it’s reality."