PRINCESS SUMMER-FALL-WINTER-SPRING

There must be a gene that compels kids to build forts, hideouts, and tree houses, to throw a blanket over a card table in a pinch or hide behind the long dresses in the closet. I myself moved into a well-house when I was peeved. I was 3-yrs. old.

I suppose most kids outgrow this compulsion when they get an actual house or apartment. Not me. When we moved out of town, there was this flat spot along the south fence that was begging for it. So I ordered it. It was my own tipi. At last.

This was no sissy tipi; it was made by the people who made the ones in Dances with Wolves. They work out of Bend, Oregon.

A very puzzled looking UPS driver backed up to our garage and unloaded 16 lodge pole pines, each one 16 ft. long. There also was a very large box with the rest of the tipi ingredients. I read that two Native American women could put one of these things up in 1-2 hrs. Piece of cake.

The first step is raising the poles. Thing is, they go in a very particular order. And in a very specific position. At exact angles. That seemed easy enough. Bruce and I got started, and when all of that was accomplished, we noticed one little problem. The bottoms of the poles were not at the assigned distances apart. We moved one pole. That threw off all the angles and began an afternoon that made one yearn for a card table fort. Next day we completed the task and wound the rope around the poles near the top to secure them.

Next came the canvas. Spread out in the field, it was the size of Philadelphia and weighed about the same. The tipi was going to have a 16-foot diameter if we managed to get it up. One attaches the canvas to the last pole and then rolls the canvas around it. Next step is to raise that pole into place. Of course that pole with the canvas attached is not easy to lift into a specific notch 16 feet in the air. Two Native American women? Come on!

We wrapped the canvas around the frame, which was not coincidentally shaped like a tipi. It was as beautiful as I’d imagined. The canvas had to be laced together, and this was akin to lacing Kate Smith into Kate Moss’s corset. This had to be done while standing on the top of an 8 foot stepladder, and yes, I know those other two women did not have a step ladder. This is a delicate moment in the life of a tipi. It’s fully upright but not yet staked and tethered to the ground.  It is a bad time for a wind to come up. The one that did was not just any wind; it was a terrific gust, and it lifted the tipi straight up like Apollo 13. The ladder was half in and half out of the tipi so it went right along for the ride. And on the ladder, one old squaw from Iowa County rose into the air about 8 feet before crashing down on the concrete base.

 The tipi did eventually go up, and it lasted a long time. It was beautifully painted with buffalo all around. One white buffalo was added as a symbol of peace and harmony. A soaring eagle was painted near the top and was silhouetted by the setting sun.

Little friend Jake and I burned our smudge sticks made from homegrown oregano and lavender  wrapped with dental floss. We had a secret box with treasures in it. We had a not-so-authentic Tupperware box full of books on Indian life and a not-so-authentic futon with an Indian blanket on it.

We shared the tipi with countless mice, a few reptiles, and on many occasions felt as though we were starring in  Dances with Mosquitoes. But there was nothing like seeing the sun rise in the door, just as it’s supposed to do.

And then the flood came and the tipi blew down. We couldn’t reach it for weeks and the canvas succumbed.

Truth is, I can’t quite let it go. A little piece remains in our front yard, decorated with red, white, and blue lights, an irony not lost on anyone.

I haven’t ruled out another such fort. Seems to me the older you get, the wiser it is to have a hideout handy.