As I sat down to eat, Esiban and Agwingos came running up to me. “Uncle, we have news of many pijakì!”
18
The PijakÌ Journey
THE PIJAKÌ ARE ANIMALS that the Omàmiwinini rarely get a chance to hunt. Only once did my father ever say that his people hunted this great beast, and he was a very young boy at the time it happened. These beasts were only able to come near our hunting grounds when the big lake completely froze over during the winter. This enabled the animals to walk across the ice from the south, looking for grass and salt licks. They then would be here until the next winter, disappearing from our hunting grounds when the lake froze over again. When the big animals appeared, it was a time of great happiness. Slaying these huge beasts would keep many stomachs full over the winter.
The women dried the meat over fires and then mixed it with berries. We then stored the food in baskets for later use. The Omàmiwinini always considered the coming of the buffalo a reward from Kitchi Manitou.
Esiban and Agwingos said that they had talked to a Wàbanaki (Abenaki) warrior who had come to tell us of a great herd that was near the big lake. He was now eating in our village and the man said that he would lead us to where the herd was. His people had sent him to ask for help in herding the great beasts into a wìbwàte (corridor) and then into an enclosure where they could be killed by the warriors. The corridor would be made of fallen trees and rocks built along two sides tapering into the enclosure, backing onto a large hill with stone on all sides. Once the animals were in the penned area, we would shut the entrance.
Buffalo supplied many things for our people. The animal was bigger than a moose or a wabidì.
Besides the meat and the hides, we used the sinew for thread, bowstrings, and sewing. The people used the bones for tools, knives, arrowheads, and pipes. Horns were used for eating utensils, the hair for rope, the brain for tanning hides, fat for hair grease, and the stomach and bladder for water containers and cooking. Nothing went to waste.
With so many families encamped for the summer, there would be many hands to help in this hunt. Upon talking with our visitor, we decided that the main body of the village would leave in a week. It would take us that long to make the wìgwàs-chimàn (birch bark canoes) that we would need to transport the people there. Then after the hunt, we had to bring the meat back. It will take only four or five suns to reach where we had to go. As many warriors as possible would leave the next day. Then, once they arrived, they could help in the making of the corridor with our Wàbanaki allies. When the women and the rest of the men arrived, the hunt would be ready to commence. We would need the skills of the women to cut up the animals and prepare the meat and hides for the journey home.
First we had to make the birch bark canoes that we needed to transport us. After the two-day game with the Nippissing, about thirty of our warriors had suffered enough injury to prevent them from taking the journey. They would stay with the elderly and the young in our summer encampment, while the rest of the village participated in the hunt. Among all the family units we had fifty-four canoes that were available to leave immediately. With a hundred and thirty warriors and another two hundred and twenty women and children to help with the slaughtering of the animals, we would need a hundred-and-twenty-five canoes. With what we had already, we still needed another seventy vessels.
The next morning a hundred and sixty warriors, women and children left on the journey accompanied by the Wàbanaki warrior. The rest of us would follow as soon as we made the remainder of the boats.
We started immediately to build them. All the other family heads except for Minowez-I and me had left with the first group. Wàgosh, Kàg, Mònz, and their families had also gone with them.
Mitigomij had stayed with me and we would travel in the second group.
The remaining men were gave the task of cutting cedar for the framing of the boats and large birches from which we would peel enough bark to cover each canoe. They would then build the vessels on a sand beach near the village. The women and children had the assigned job of digging up the spruce roots that we needed to bind the wooden parts of the canoes and the sewing of the bark skin.
Once all the materials were collected over the course of a couple of days, the men started to make the gunnels, ribs, and plankings from the cedar using an axe and a crooked knife to shape the curves in the ribs. The bark and the spruce roots were then placed in the river to keep them fresh.
The ribs that we had cut from cedar also had to be soaked for a couple of days and then boiling water poured over them to help with the bending. The people next rolled the bark out on the level beach, the frame weighted down with heavy rocks, and then the bark sides turned up. Afterward we set the assembly to the proper height and had everything lashed together with the spruce roots. To seal the canoes, we used spruce gum and animal fat.
While the canoe building was going on, the young boys, under the direction of Mitigomij, cut trees down and took them to the elders and the injured warriors who then made paddles. Everyone worked from sunrise to sunset to get as much done as possible. On the days that it rained, we still worked on the boats.
After nine days, we had sixty-eight boats finished and ready to float. We were ready to leave. Two-hundred-and-eight of us prepared for the journey.
Because Wàbananang was with child, I decided that she should stay behind. Thirty-one warriors who had varying amounts of injuries but nothing life-threatening, forty-two elders, twenty-five pregnant women, and the young children would be staying behind. We would be gone for at least a moon on this trip. I hoped that all would be well with the people that we had left behind.
I turned to Mitigomij and Minowez-I. “The time has come to leave. We must get everyone organized and the canoes loaded. Mitigomij, will that wild cat of yours be able to keep up on the shore?”
“No problem brother. I hope that wolf cub of yours can swim if he has to!”
We decided that we would take the Wajashk Sàgahigan and Sìbì (Muskrat Lake and River) system down to the Kitchi-Sìbì and miss the biggest onigams (portages). We would come out to the Kitchi-Sìbì before the big bend and have to portage there. We would have seven sets of rapids to go around and one set that we could ride through. This would take us four to five days to reach our destination.
When we left, Mitigomij, Ishkodewan, Minowez-I, his son, and I were in the lead canoes. After we had been on the river for a while, I looked back at the boats; it was an amazing sight to see sixty-eight boats and all the people. If this hunt were successful, our winter would be one without hunger pangs and starvation for the old, the weak, and the young. The hunt would strengthen the Omàmiwinini for years to come.
Travelling with this many people, we had to be concerned with feeding everyone. A decision was made that when we did an onigam, the women would prepare food as the men portaged. After all the canoes had cleared the portage, we created a pagidjiwanàn (resting place on a portage) and ate.
Minowez-I and I had also decided that while we were travelling on the river, all of the women and children who were not paddling were to troll for fish. Anything that they caught would be filleted right in the boat. They then used the entrails for more bait. This gave us enough food to eat, along with any roots and berries they found when we stopped.
At the end of our first day, we had made two portages. On the first one the women quickly got cooking fires going and the children who we had brought with us foraged for berries and roots. By the time the men had finished the portage, we could eat and rest. The women also made everyone lots of hot kìjik anìbìsh (cedar tea). This drink kept everyone
