Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-08-09
NO MORE PEMMICAN.
The Passing of a Food That Was OF
Great Value Fifty Years Ago.

u
Great Value Fifty Years Ago.
Fifty years ago pemmican was to the
shifting and scant population Of the
northwest what flour is in the present
day to English-speaking people In most
civilized portions Of the globe-the sta
pie and most common food Of the coun-
try. Then it was always made from
the buffalo, which covered the western
plains The great fur corporation
known as the Hudson Bay company.
bought hundreds Of bags Of the dark,
nutritious compound annually from the
Indians for use at its trading posts
scattered over the vast wilderness
stretching from the Red River and
Hudson Bay to the Rocky mountains,
and from the two Saskatchewans to-
the Arctic sea, region then designated
Prince Rupert's land.
Pemmican (or, more properly, pimee-
kon), Is a Cree word meaning mix
ture, or something made with fat. II
was composed Of buffalo meat dried In
the sun and pounded fine. mixed with
melted fat, and was sewn up in sacks
made from the raw hide of the buffalo.
with the hair outside. 1t did not look
inviting, but was, in fact, wholesome,
strong food, which would keep for years.
If the buffalo was important to the fur
trader, the ungainly animal was life IT.
self to the red man, for 1t furnished
him with everything his heart could
desire, or with the means Of procuring
it. And as, owing to the migratory in
stincts of the herds, which took them
first to the recognized territory of one
tribe and next into that Of an enemy,
fresh meat was not always obtainab!e,
pemmican was the form in which the
Indian preserved and laid away his
store of provisions against the day of
scarcity.
Omitting the excitement Of the hunt
and substituting domestic herds for the
wild ones Of the plains, description OF
pemmican-making by the Indians a
idea of what might nave been Witness
ed at Duck Lake in the summer of 1889.
Intelligence that a band Of buffaloes
was in the vicinity threw the Indian
camp at once into state of violent ex-
citement. Men rushed from the lodges
buckling on quivers Of arrows and belts
of cartridges, women talked and ges-
ticulated, boys raced wildly about,
shouting shrilly to one another, the
horse herd was driven in, and in few
minutes the bucks, mounted on their
buffalo runners" and under the direc-
ton of the chief of the hunt, moved in
a silent body out of Tie camp. On
nearing the herd, advantage was taken
of each slight rise or dip to cover the
approach, which was always up wind,
so that the wary brutes should not
catch the scent. Stealthily they rode,
one behind another, until concealment
was no longer possible. Then, at a sig
nal from their chief, they burst upon
the open plain and dashed yelling at
the top speed Of their trained horses
at the startled herd.
Usually it was some distance away,
perhaps half mile, and it took good
horse to overhaul the buffalo. Once up
with the straining animals, however,
their pace sackened. Onward galloped
the hunters between the long, undula-
ting files of shaggy brown backs, pick |
ing out the fat COWS and young calves
at their leisure. And as a feathered
shaft left the swapping bowstring and
a stricken beast tottered and went
down, the loud, triumphant cry of the
nunter rang out, and he tossed moe
casin or a beaded fire bag beside it to
mark his kill, and then flew on.
The chase might last as long as the
horses wind. When 1t was over the
women came with the ponies and the
trailing travoys upon the field of
The carcasses were soon
stripped of their hairy coats, the meat
packed on the travoys, the bones brok-