As is often the case, the new campsite is near a river, and springs nearby furnish cool, pure drinking water. There are also open clearings closeby which will be utilized for gardening. The next few weeks, however, will be used for making necessary utensils and equipment needed by the tribe.
SUMMER LODGE.
ANCIENT WOODLAND POTTERY VESSEL.
One day we are interested observers of pottery making. Grandma goes to a clay bed near the river and selects suitable materials including some coarse sand for tempering the pottery paste, which is made of both clay and sand. The paste is worked into long cylinders which are finally coiled about into the desired shape. After the vessel has assumed final shape it is paddled with a cord-wrapped tool and allowed to air-dry for several days, and finally baked in a large outdoor fire. The finished pot can be used to boil water or cook food, and has the advantage of being easily replaced in case of breakage.
May soon arrives, and as this is the time to plant corn, our Indian family selects a suitable clearing for their garden. The men burn out the underbrush and the women and girls prepare for the planting itself. Grandma informs us that it is always best to soak the grains in water several days before seeding. After the seeds have been properly softened, the women and girls dig holes in the ground, place six or seven grains of corn in each hole, and then heap up the dirt over the seeds in a little hillock. Squash and beans are planted in the clearing, too.
One day we are told that the tribe is going to have a game drive, since considerable meat is needed by the village. We go along into the forest and watch the men chop down trees with their stone axes. These are all felled in one direction, the cut incomplete so that the tree is still attached to the stump, and in two rows so as to leave a gradually narrowing corridor more than a mile long. The deer are then driven towards the corridor where men stationed with bows are able to shoot them easily as they approach the narrow opening between the barriers.
A number of the animals are killed in this way and taken back to the village where their flesh can be preserved by being cut into strips and smoke-dried. We are all too hungry, however, to wait until we return to the village before eating. The chief says we can have some boiled venison stew. We are puzzled at this, for no utensils have been brought along, but we soon learn how resourceful our Indian friends are.
One of the men obtains some edible roots; another cuts the stomachs from several of the deer. Each one of the stomachs is cleaned and tied to form a pouch. The venison, roots, and some wild rice which some of the men brought along, are placed in the prepared deer stomachs, water added, and the ingenious “kettles” suspended over a slow fire. In a relatively short time a delicious stew is set before each of us, served in birch-bark dishes prepared in a few minutes by another of the hunters.