Excerpt from Reminiscences of the Early Days of Minnesota

The presence of faribault being required at his trading post on the Cannon river, he departed in company with two young Indians, leaving me alone with the two hired men. I made it a practice to hunt with the Indians every day, except on Sunday, when I remained in my lodge. The Dakota mode of hunting deer is to form an extended line with intervals of eighty or a hundred yards between the hunters, and then ad vance at a rapid pace, completely scouring the country on their way. Any one falling in the rear has but a poor Chance for success. When an animal is killed, the carcass remains on the spot until the return of the owner, after the conclusion of the day's hunt. The skin is then taken off, and with a portion of the hind quarters, is the property of the man who shot the deer or elk, and the remainder is equitably divided among such as have been less successful, or to the widows and orphan children in the camp. The rule is, that while there is any food on hand, it must be distributed to all alike. There was a great abundance of game in the country where we were encamped, so that from twenty to thirty deer were an average day's hunt besides the elk, bear, and other animals killed with fire arms, and beaver and otter taken with traps by the men who were past the age when they could endure the exhausting exercise of deer hunting.

I left the camp at an early hour one day to still hunt in a direction different from that to be taken by the Indians. I was successful, and returned to my lodge bearing upon my shoulders the greater part of a young buck. I soon ascertained that there was quite a commotion in the camp. One of the women came to inform me that all the men except five old fellows, who could not travel, had gone down to the forks of the Red Cedar, more262 minnesota historical collections.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.