The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-08-25

1t Is Pemmican, an Invention of the
Indians.
From the Canadian Magazine.

From the Canadian Magazine.
Fifty years ago pemmican was to the
shifting and scant population of the
Northwest what -four is in the present
day to English speaking peoples in
most civilized portions of the globe
the staple and most common food of
the country. Then it was always
made from the buffalo, which COW
cred 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 Ru-
pert's Land.
Pemmican Cor, more properly, pimee-
kon) is a Cree word meaning a mix
ture or something made with fat 1t
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 buff
falo, with the hair outside. 1t did not
look inviting, but was, in fact, whole
some, strong food, which would keep
for years. If the buffalo was impor-
tant to the fur trader the ungainly
animal was life itself to the red man,
for it furnished him with everything
his heart could desire or with the
means of procuring 1t. And as, owing
to the migratory instincts of the
herds, which took them first into the
recognized territory of one tribe and
next into that of an enemen, fresh
meat was not always obtainable, penn
mican was the form in which the In
dian preserved and laid away his store
of provisions against the lay of
scarcity.
Omitting the excitement of the hunt
and substituting domestic herds for
the wild ones of the plains, deserip-
ton of pemmican making by the In
dams a quarter of a century ago will
| give an idea of what might have been
| witnessed q Duck Lake in the summer
| of 1879. Intelligence that a band of
buffaloes was In the vicinity threw
the Indian camp at once into a state
of violent excitement. Men rushed
! from the lodges buckling on quivers of
| arrows and belts of cartridges. women
talked and gesticulated, boys raced
wildly about shouting shrlly to one
another, the horse herd was driven in
and in a few minutes the bucks,
mounted on their buffalo runners
and under the direction of the chief
of the hunt, moved in silent body
out of the 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 bfutes should not catch the
scent. Stealthily they rode, one behind
another, until concealment was no
longer possible. Then, at signal 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 a mile, and it took a
good horse to overhaul a buffalo. Once
up with the straining animal, however,
their pace slackened and the rest was
comparatively easy. Onward gallop-
ed the hunters between the long, I'M
dulating files of shaggy brown backs,
picking out the fat COWS and the
young bulls at their leisure. And as a
featbered shaft left the swapping bow
string and a stricken beast tottered
and vent down, the loud, triumphant
cry of the hunter rang out, and he
tossed a moccasion 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 it was over the
women came with the ponies and the
slaughter. The carcasses We're soon
stripped of their hairy coats, the meat
packed on the travoys, the bones brok-
en- and the marrow extracted, and,
loaded with the red spoil tine whole
party returned to camp. Here, In an
incredibly short time, the meat was
cut into wide, thin sheets and hung
upon pole frames in the sun and wind
to dry. After a day or two these sheets
were removed and spread upon the
clean prairie grass, where, if the
weather continued fair they soon be-
came as hard as shingles. They were
then placed upon a hide threshing floor
with the sides elevated on short pegs
to form a sort of basin, and beaten
with fails or between stones until the
meat was reduced almost 10 a pow
der. The strange thing vas that, If
properly handled, the flesh seldom, IL
ever, became at all tainted, though in
any other than the dry, pure atmo-
sphere of the Northwest such a meth
cd of preparing 1t would doubtless be
impossible.
Meanwhile the marrow and other
choice fat had been rendered, and
bags, some 2 by 1k feet of raw buffalo
hide, doubled over at the bottom and
sewn up at the sides With the sinew
of the animal, made for the rece ption
of the pemmican. The melted fat was
next poured over the shredded meat
in the threshing basin. and the whole
mixed to the consistency of paste. That
was the pemmican. 1t vas shoveled
into the sacks, pounded down and, af-
ter the tops had been sewn up and the
bags jumped to make them aat, the
cooled pemmican packages we're solid
and almost as hard as so many boul-
ders. When you desired to eat penlmi-
can you chopped piece Off with an
ak, sack and all. The meat was al
ready cooked I'M measure BY sun.
wind and hot fat. but II you preferred,
after tearing off the adhering hide,
you could try 1t in a pan or boil it in
a pot.