St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-06
A DARK-SKINNED HUNTRESS.
Nancy Mckenzie Is Famous for
Her Skill With the Rifle.

Nancy Mckenzie Is Famous for
Her Skill With the Rifle.
Birmingham (Ala.) Herald.
While at Chewela recently l met
Nancy Mckenzie, a noted half-breed
woman, who is known throughout the
far Northwest, from Montana to Puget
sound. She lives in little log cabin in
one of those little fertile valleys which
abound in the mountainous districts of
Washington Territory, OH the Chill
char[a-mouse. Nancy, as she is famil-
larry known, is large-framed, tall
woman, about sixty years of age. who
takes more after her Indian mother than
her Scotch father, who, as an enlisted
man in the service of the Hud-
son Bay company, left his home
in the Orkney islands about sew
enty-tive years ago and sought wealth
and adventure in the untrOdden and I'M
known regions of the Northwest, where
his employers, the Hudson Bay CON-
pany, were seeking to establish trading
posts and gain a fOothold in the name Of
the British crown in territory that
John Jacob Aston was trying to gain
possession of as a feeder for his newly
established fort, Astoria, at the mouth
OF the Columbia river. He was one of
those wild and daring men, the records
OF whose prOWeSS are only preserved in
the oft-told legends of the past that are
narrated and listened to by half-clOthed
SavageS around their winter camp fires.
He married an Indian woman and lost
all desire to leave the wild home and
associates with whom circumstances
had thrown him. 1t is more than even
limited that he joined the savages in
some of their first wars with the whites,
and that more than once his hand was
red with the blood of his fellOw-cOun-
rymen. whose lonely cabin he had with
his SaVageS fired with the midnight
torch.
Be this as it may, Nancy grew to
WOmanhOOd under his tutelage and
around his camp fire, following him in
his migratiOns from the buffalo hunting
grounds of Montana to the salmon creeks
that empty their waters into the great
Columbia, and to Puget sound, where
the wandering tribes of SavageS would
cOngregate at certain seasons. In her
younger days she must doubtless have
been model for the sculptor in ply
steal development, for though aged and
wrinkled she is still nearly six feet in
height and straight as the typical In
dian, with strong and deeply penciled
features.
Notwithstanding her sex she became
noted marksman and hunter, which
characteristics distinguish her to this
day, She was married young, as is the
custom among Indians of her mothers
tribe, to Scotchman, who, like her
father. belonged to the Hudson Bay
company, and after buffeting with the
tide of emigration which had begun to
plough across the Rocky noun
tainS and up from California
they settled in the valley where
she now lives alone and unfriended
save by the wandering bands of In
dianS, who never pass her cabin by.
She is widow, her husband, Patrick
Mckenzie, having died of consumption
few years since, and is the last repre-
sentative of her race, for her numerous
progeny have either succumbed to con-
sumption, that Scourge of mixed races,
OF have felt the hangman's moose OF the
vigilanteS for riding off the horses and
driving away the cattle of the rancher.
Nancy still clings to the habit of her
youth. and may be seen every day rid
ing astride on her tough cayuSe pony,
driving her small band of horses and
cattle to the ranges in the mountains or
galloping away down the worn Indian
trail, followed by two powerfully knit
and deep-voiced deer hounds, as she
goes out to enjoy days sport hunting
the deer along tie mountain sides or
the black bear in the swamps. She
always carries her old-style Henry rifle
on her shoulder, and maintains her rep
utatiOn as a marksman and hunter.
She always has her meat house well
stored withl veniSOn, while antlerS,
bear-Skins and other trophies supply
| the place of furniture in her cabin.
/ was told little story concerning
her by physician who lives near by.
| He said that few days before he was
| out in the swampS back of his house
| hunting pheasantS, when he heard the
| sharp crack of a rifle near at hand.
| Thinking that it was some OF his neigh
| borS who had scared up deer in the
swamp, he fastened to the spot and
found Nancy Mckenzie with smoking
gun in hand, peering towards the roots
| of an upturned fir tree. On asking her
what she had shot she replied in French
for she only speaks Indian and French
that she had shot bear standing
against the root of the tree and was not
certain whether or not she had killed
him. The doctor admitted that his
knees smote together a little when he
looked in the direction indicated and
saw great shaggy object rolling about
on the ground. Nancy said that she
was out of ammunition and asked him
to give Bruin parting shot. The doe
| tor was frank man, and he again adj
United that he shot and that the bear
| died, but that on examination it was
found that he had not touched hair.
The untold history of Nancy's life
would fill an interesting volume with
! adventures equal to those Of Kit Carson
and Daniel Boone.