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109
use of iron. Prior to that date the only means was doubtless the trap or shooting them with the bow and arrow. At certain seasons of the year in the spring the accumulation of fish in obstructed places is such that they can be caught in the hand. an indian standing in the stream could literally pick up all the fish he needed and many more.
When a fish is captured and taken to the wigwam it is put hole [sic] and undressed into a pot or kettle and boiled and eaten. every thing except the bones and scales and fins. a fried or brilled [sic] fish the indian never dreampt of and in many cases fish are and have from time immemorial been eaten raw by this savage nation. The Ojbway indians eat the raw flesh of the deer and moose. At Lake Winnibigoshish in Minnesota in A.D. 1891 the writer saw the Ojibway eatting the raw flesh of a freshly killed moose and the children cracking and gnawing the marrow bones. The Ojibway so far as we know is the only indian race addicted to eating human flesh but they tell within recent times did do so. and it is possible that even at this date in the more distant districts in extreme situations it may be resorted to. It is said that within the century a family in great destitution living in the north were reduced to such strayghts that the mother killed her son a boy sixteen years of age and the father and she ate him. She decoyed the boy into putting his head in her lap for the purpose of searching for vermin and while in that attitude poured molten lead into his ear and so killed him. We have known of instances of cruelty practices among the indian upon their enemies and will have ocasion to relate some of them but there are few cases on record to equal this. The fact of this horrid proclivity existing among the Ojibway would it seems point to a reversion in these practices to an earlier race from which they were derived, the heart of an enemy was frequently eaten by them to engender bravery. There is no reason for the necessity to eat human flesh. animals and fish are as a rule very abundant in the Ojibway and Dakota country and in the absence of animal diet the supply of vegetables is plenty as the Ojibway has learned to eat all varieties of flesh. The bison, otter, porcupine, musk rat and other animals are all eaten and our friend the Honorable Henry M Rice told the writer that he partook of a very satisfying meal made of Musk rat stewed with the bark of the maple tree. The writer ate porcupine cooked by a squaw in the indian fashion and while it would no doubt sustain life and may [?] to the indian palate been delightful, these and other articles of diet and methods of cooking we prefer the meat beside being tough were very astringent owing the fact that the animal fed on pine cones and sweet from the administration of maple sugar introduced by the "chef".