MOLE LAKE – Excitement filled the Mole Lake Rec Center as 13-year-old Ganebik Johnson and the other children and adults gathered around the Ojibwe tribal elders as they prepared to fillet the day’s catch of muskies for the community.
Dozens of Ojibwe from different bands in Wisconsin had spent the January day on a frozen Pelican Lake in Oneida County, telling stories around holes dug through the ice, waiting for a chance to spear a musky.
They had caught almost 10 of them that day, with many being about two feet long, during the annual Ishpaagoonika Deep Snow ice spearing camp.
After the muskies are filleted, they’ll be soaked in milk overnight to remove some of the fishy taste, then smoked and distributed to elders and the Mole Lake Ojibwe community on the reservation.
Ganebik is nearing the age when he’ll be mentoring other children and even some adults on how to spear the traditional way at these camps. That’s exactly what tribal elders and organizers hoped for when they started the camps in 2018.