Omaha daily bee., 1903-01-13
THE HASH OF BYCONE DAYS
Royal Feed for. Indian Chiefs, Paleface
Explorers and Hunters,
PEMMIcAN APPLAUOED IN BORDER ANNALS
Sample of the "DrcnkflEt Food of the
AbOrigineS from the Arctic Circle
Trimmed with POesy and
Evergreen "Reminiscences.

On the cold wave of Christmas time,
bearing a pungent odor as penetrating as
the frosted breath of Calgary, came a relic
famous in the days Of Indian primacy In
the west and northwest. 1t was a tiny
sack Of reindeer pemmican, Cncased In holt-
day gilt and bearing the greeting and good
will of the Winnipeg Free Press. The
sample received at The Bee Office was a
robust one. Dark brown in color, 1t re-
sembled the remnants of a bygone feast
skilfully macerated by a kitchen artist, and
generated an odor that would give a de-
serted fish market a hard run for first
money. There was strength in every fiber
Of the mess. Although 1t had travelled from
beyond the Arctic circle to Winnipeg, a
distance Of 2,97S miles, and from Winni-
peg to Omaha, in all kinds of conveyances
and in all kinds of weather, 1T seemed 20
have lost but little Of it's fragrance. for
.heir was enough left to satisfy the curious.
Pemmican was the royal dish of the
aborigines, the favorite standby Of p~aleface
voyageurs. Longfellow mentions It In "Hia-
watha," Parkman, in THE oregon Trail"
tells HON "a wooden bowl was set before
me filled with the nutritious preparation
of dried meat called pemmican." In the
early days Of buffalo hunting on the plains
pemmican made Of buffalo meat was the
hunters chief reliance. The flesh OF the
buffalo was cut into slices, dried and
beaten or failed into powder. 1t was then
packed In bags Of rawhide, Unto which hot,
boiling fat and marrow of the buffalo
| carcas was poured. Thus 1t became air
proof. and without salt or other preservaS
tive, the bag being closely sewed up, could
be thus kept for years.
when the BunaIo Disappeared.
with the Disappearance Of the buffalo
the making of pemmican was transferred
to the far northern posts of the Hudson
Bay company, deer's meat being used in
place of buffalo meat, and abe total guam
tity made yearly amounting to little in
comparison to the great stores of pemmican
made in the days OF the buffalo hunts.
Pemmican Is still made every year at those
Hudson Bay company's posts for use by
trappers and voyageurs who penetrate be-
yond the Arctic circle, and whom the out
side world thinks OF, when 1t thinks OF
them at all, as being neighbors TO the
Esquimaux. To the average person now
adays. pemmican is known only as a thins
read Of. 1t is a word bringing to mind
something OF the romance OF the fur trad
ing days as pictured in Ballantyne's stories
or in the pages Of the writer of THE
Lords of the North" One associates IL,
80 ~ hN~
too, with the search for the pole. 1t is as
remote from ones everyday life as tho
Esquimaux Is his kyack amid the Arctic
burgs and foes.
The Free Press pemmican was prepared
by an old trapper Who has been for many
years in the Hudson Bay company's serv-
ice, and who in his time has made many
hundreds of pounds OF buffalo pemmican
Fort Mcpherson, the Hudson Bay com.
pany's post, where 1t was made, is or
Peel river, a few miles from its junction
with the Mackenzie river. To be exact
Fort Mcpherson is between parallels 81 ant
6s Of north latitude and a short distance
east Of the 135th meridian. 1t is siXty-hvC
miles within the Arctic circle, and eighty,
five miles from the coast OF the Arctic
ocean.
From North TO south.
The pemmican was brought from For
Mcpherson down the Peel river to thu
Mackenzie, and up the Mackenzie in tn
Hudson Bay company's steamer Wrigle.
to Great Slave lake. across that lake ant
up Slave river to Fort Smith. a distanc,
from Fort Mcpherson OF /, 299 miles. From
Fort Smith IT was taken by the company
steamer Grahame up Slave river, acros
Athabasca lake and up the Athabaska rive
TO Fort McMurray, a distance OF 300 miles
From Fort McMurray fiat bottomed boats
or batteaux, usually in a brigade Of twelve
carried it 252 MILESTONE ninety miles o
rapids, which necessitate many portages
being encountered on the way-to Atha