Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/514227
73 Let aboriginal legends and spirits guide you on a five-day tour of Manitoba. Start your journey in Nopiming Provincial Park north of the Whiteshell. Nopiming is an Anishinabe word that means entrance to the wilderness, and there's evidence of aboriginal inhabitation dating back 8,000 years. Legend has it that northern Cree were led to the area by a young woman with golden hair who vanished after they arrived at Rice Lake, leaving strands of her hair embedded in Precambrian rocks — later the site of gold mining. > manitobaparks.com Camp out at Tulabi Falls Campground on Bird Lake, where you can launch a canoe and fish for pickerel, pike and tulabi. Then head south to Whiteshell Provincial Park for a visit to the Bannock Point petroforms. Made from stones laid on bedrock in the shape of turtles, snakes and other geometrics, petroforms found throughout Manitoba are interpreted in many ways. Some people believe snakes were left at portages and some forms suggest aboriginal and non-aboriginal people are travelling on separate life paths that will eventually converge. It's believed the Bannock Point petroforms were left by aboriginal ancestors to pass on spiritual teachings to all who visit the site. Continue on west to Winnipeg and immerse yourself in aboriginal history at The Manitoba Museum. Spend some quality time in the Boreal Forest Gallery, which depicts a Cree family painting images on a rock face and gathering food near a waterfall. Trace 6,000 years of history at The Forks National Historic Site and settle in for a night at the Inn at The Forks, where the Riverstone Spa provides an indigenous hot stone massage developed under the guidance of local elders. Inspired by sweat-lodge traditions, the treatment incorporates a smudge of sage, cedar and sweetgrass. Start a new day at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, and get an introduction to Inuit, Métis and aboriginal concepts of rights and responsibilities in the Indigenous Perspectives gallery. Climb to the Tower of Hope for an epic view of the city and enjoy a contemporary take on bannock at the museum's ERA Bistro. Then take a leisurely drive to Riding Mountain National Park. > theforks.com > innforks.com > humanrights.ca En route, make a pit stop at the White Horse monument at St. Francois Xavier, just west of Winnipeg off the Trans-Canada Highway. According to Aboriginal legend, a jealous suitor murdered a rival and his bride long ago, and the young woman's ghost still appears in the form of a white horse. Peruse a vast collection of gifts at the Whitehorse Gift Emporium & Tea Room. Set up camp at Riding Mountain's Wasagaming Campground and rest up for a hike to Beaver Lodge Lake and the cabin of famed beaver conservationist Grey Owl. While he embraced an aboriginal lifestyle and gained fame here in the 1920s — along with his beaver kittens — Grey Owl was eventually revealed to be an eccentric Englishman named Archibald Belaney. However, the park is home to several sites that bear evidence of thousands of years of aboriginal hunters, fishers and fur traders. > thewhitehorse.ca > pc.gc.ca Complete your tour with a jaunt north of Riding Mountain to the Thunderbird Nest, six kilometres west of the Narrows Bridge, near Alonsa on the western shore of Lake Manitoba. The nest is a rock formation built centuries ago to attract the Thunderbird as a guardian spirit and it's still used for sacred aboriginal ceremonies. Explore its walking trails, which are marked with interpretive signs, then carry on across the Narrows Bridge to Hwy 6 for a scenic drive back to Winnipeg.