'Heaven is going to be when your hair smells like lake water'

A view of calm water and green
Fish Creek is calm Friday, July 16, 2021 near Ashland, Wisc. This summer scientists are intensely studying Lake Superior to try to determine what's causing a spike in blue-green algae blooms in one of the world's deepest and cleanest lakes. Researchers have now identified six in the past decade, including one a couple of weeks ago in Duluth.
Derek Montgomery for MPR News

Minnesota is known as the “Land of Ten Thousand Lakes.” Water is in our makeup. Not only is it life-giving, majestic and calming — it’s also fragile.

Emily Buermann was born and raised on the White Earth Reservation, and she has a water story to share. It’s about her great-grandmother, who was born Sept. 8, 1918, in a wigwam on the shores of Basswood Lake, and a beautiful vision of heaven.

This water story is part of the Minnesota Humanities Center’s We Are Water MN project, produced in partnership with the State of Minnesota and the Minnesota Historical Society. Funding for the project is provided in part by the Clean Water Fund of the Legacy Amendment.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full story.

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