DRIED MEAT — WENTWORTH 565 



There was never enough marrow fat to make the amounts of pem- 

 mican which the Indians and frontiersmen required, so this type was 

 known as sweet pemmican. 13 The ordinary pemmican was made by 

 adding the fat from the hump of the bison, from under the skin, or 

 from the body cavity. The latter was the hardest, and was preferred 

 to the fat nearer the exterior of the body. Both caribou and buffalo 

 pemmicans were formed by the addition of their own fats. Their 

 range was treeless, and the natives had to hunt as fast as their quarry 

 moved. Most of the time it was impossible to dry the meat and make 

 the pemmican while the hunt was in progress, so the meat was stripped 

 off the animals as fast as possible and cached each day. When enough 

 was secured, it was dried, assembled, and the pemmican was manu- 

 factured. 



In some cases, as a variant, wild cherries (pits and everything) were 

 dried, pulverized, and mixed with the pounded meat. Thornapples 

 were also used, as well as June berries and chokecherries, and, still 

 farther north, "sarvis" berries. While these introduced special flavors, 

 most of the trappers and explorers preferred the simple jerky and fat. 

 However, in the winter camps some squaws were said to like more 

 variety, and it was in part to satisfy the feminine tastes among Indians 

 that berries were added. Also it may have been a white man's idea. 

 Stefansson states that at the height of pemmican's use by whites 

 around 1820, from 1 to 5 percent of it was of the flavored or holiday 

 sort (salt, raisins, dried berries, sugar, etc.), the cake variant of the 

 "bread of the wilderness." 14 In many cases where the fruit pemmican 

 was prepared for the men on long or difficult expeditions, the simple 

 dried-meat and fat type was prepared for the dogs used for transpor- 

 tation. After a few weeks' experience, almost without exception, the 

 men exchanged their ration for the "dog pemmican," and the dogs got 

 the "cake" variety. 



For fish pemmican in the northwest area, salmon was dried and 

 soaked and then pounded fine in stone mortars. These dried fish could 

 be stored in baskets, or fish fats could be added to make standard-type 

 pemmican. 15 In either case it was considered an emergency food, since 

 most of the tribes (especially those of the interior) preferred the 

 product made from bison or deer meat. The sturgeon provided the 

 principal fish oil, although in some cases seal fat was used. 



The Eskimos did not produce jerky, although they were familiar 

 with the Indian product south of them. Their substitute was known 

 as akutok and was based on caribou meat, which was sliced thin and 

 wind dried until an outside crust was formed. 16 The inside, though, 



13 Hodge, ibid., pp. 223, 224. 



14 Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Not by bread alone, p. 182, New York, 1948. 

 n Wissler, The American Indian, p. 9. 



18 Stefansson to author, February 16, 1955 ; Not by bread alone, p. 37, n. 



