Although Myaamia beliefs and practices have certainly changed a great deal over the centuries, there are some activities that never did suffer dormancy–they mark Myaamia life generation after generation. These include farming, gardening, gathering food, and hunting. As the Myaamia community revitalizes the practices of minohsayaki ‘painted hides,’ folks are also revisiting hunting and skin processing, both as a practice and a cultural mindset.
Hunting is ubiquitous in historical sources. For example, hunting is the assumed background activity in many stories, particularly Aalhsoohkana ‘Winter Stories.’ Characters are often hunting (or traveling or going to war) when the story begins. For example, in the story of the Ciinkweensaki ‘young thunder beings’ who go to Ciinkwihtanonki ‘Niagara Falls,’ the ten Ciinkweensaki go out to recover one of their brothers. In the text of Trowbridge: “A Miami was out in the woods and had just levelled his arrow at a fine deer, when a rumbling noize behind him caused the removal of his eye for a moment from the game, & upon looking up he saw coming towards him ten, very large, winged animals apparently half birds, half men.”[1] In another case, Elizabeth Valley began several stories with “Aalaašaaci wilakhtwa”: ‘Wilaktwa was on a hunt’[2]. In other words, hunting has been an activity that requires multiple types of other-than-human interactions. Successful hunters tended those relationships. One might offer ahseema ‘tobacco’ to solicit favorable hunting. In the winter stories, sometimes hunters (such as Kingfisher when Wiihsakacaahkwa goes visiting) could summon animals to them in order to hunt them. Hunters would also maintain a good or respectful mind. The Largillier dictionary has an interesting entry readers might find useful: “Hold your legs together! Don’t open them so much for fear that when you hunt, the animals will pass near you without your killing them. Superstition.”[3]
Even though the sources suggest hunting as a regular activity, they do not frequently detail its inner workings. When we imagine hunting, we often picture a person, alone, in the woods, perhaps with a small group of friends or a close family member. Unfortunately, the historical sources are not greatly helpful in understanding a solitary hunt, and many of the sources included below are communal. (Language sources tell us that individuals often hunted with their dog(s) as well as in small and large groups). However, one historical anecdote helps illuminate a solitary hunt while highlighting the special relationship between humans and bears. In the early 1790s, a missionary observed a young man called William Wells (who had been raised among the Eel River Miamis and is best known as the son-in-law of Little Turtle). The missionary came upon Wells, who had just shot a bear and was busy speaking to it and touching its nose with his rifle’s ramrod. The bear “cried piteously,” the missionary said. Wells explained that “I told him that he knew the fortune of war, that one or the other of us must have fallen; that it was his fate to be conquered, and he ought to die like a man, like a hero, and not like an old woman; that if the case had been reversed, and I had fallen into the power of my enemy, I would not have disgraced my nation as he did, but would have died with firmness and courage, as becomes a true warrior.”[4] Similar attitudes toward bears are found in other Algonquian communities, as well. The episode helps to contextualize, I think, the more personal aspects of hunting.
Why did and do Myaamia people hunt? This might seem a silly question, because Myaamia people have always hunted for food. But additionally, commercial hunting has been transformative, and falls into three general periods. First, Myaamiaki adapted to hunt beaver to trade to French-owned mercantile firms operating out of Montreal, during a period stretching from about the 1670s-1750. (Because French observers were more interested in recording cultural information than their British or American counterparts, and because these men were writing in the early colonial period, many of the sources that detail hunting practices are actually communal hunts for bison in the 1600s and early 1700s. For more, I recommend the work of Bob Morrissey.) Beginning in about the 1730s, Myaamia families turned their attention to white-tailed deer, finding a great demand among British trading houses particularly in Philadelphia and to a lesser extent Williamsburg. In the treaty period before removal, Miamis often hunted raccoon among other peltry. Commercial hunting intersected with the pursuit of putting the results of the hunt on the table–Miami hunters could trade the pelts and retain the rest of the animal.
Another bit of context: the sources below describe norms for gender and age. In general, young men were assumed to be the killers of animals, and women processed them.[5] In practice, these expectations were flexible. Furthermore, the kaapia (sometimes translated as ‘chief’s assistant’) was a role that distributed things. As Waaapaakikaapwa ‘Gabriel Godfroy’ said, “When the Indians went hunting, when they killed anything, they would choose one man: ‘Divide it up,’ they tell him, ‘divide equally.’ This man is called a ‘kaapia.’”[6]
It goes without saying that Myaamiaki have hunted since the beginning. What follows are a few primary sources describing hunts.
The following information was given to ethnologist C. C. Trowbridge in the 1820s by Pinšiwa (Jean Baptiste Richardville) and Meehcikilita (Le Gros).
Their laws of the chase are very liberal. When a man is hunting and kills a deer or other game, or finds a tree containing raccoons, if any one happen along while he is skinning the deer or preparing his game to carry home, he immediately offers to divide it with him, who will accept his offer unless he has already a load. And it often happens that when one has shot a deer he will see at the same moment some other hunter coming towards him, and will immediately abandon his prize, pointing to it as to the property of the person approaching, and will march off to seek some other game.
When two persons are hunting together the one who first wounds an animal is entitled to the skin, but the flesh is equally divided. However it is very common for one to kill an animal & to call the other to skin it, in which case the skin goes to the latter as a compensation for his services. They often form hunting parties, but for no other reason than mutual interest. In these cases the game is all deposited at one place until they go home, when both flesh & skins are equally divided.
There are no ceremonies preceding the departure of a hunting party, or connected with their employment as hunters.[7]
Pierre-Charles de Liette lived among the Inohka ‘Illinois” for several years. He participated in a community hunt in 1688.
The few young men who were with us while the women and girls were making the cabins went an arpent [about sixty yards] into the woods to cut three poles of which they made a large tripod from which they hung a big kettle, which they filled with water and then seated themselves around the fire which they had made underneath. My man and I settled down near them. A short time after, two men arrived each with a buck on his back. Two of our cooks went to meet them. The hunters, on seeing them approach, threw down their load and advanced proudly toward them, highly elated at being the first to bring meat to the camp. Our servitors soon had the bucks cut up and put into the kettle. When they were cooked the old men were called and came to eat. We were the first served and got the best there was. I noticed that this happened every day, and that some young men always came by turns with the old men. They are called guards, and prevent anyone from separating from the band and going off alone, because this frightens away the game. A man and woman once tried to escape from the band while the guards were busy gathering strawberries; one of the guards saw them and ran after them, took away the man’s load, cut the collar and the bear skins which they used as a mattress, smashed the kettles which the woman was carrying, and came near killing a child, which she had upon her load, by pulling it from her head; and all this happened without the man or woman saying a single word. [note: Largillier’s dictionary includes a detail about hunting guards, including that their yell to stop hunters from proceeding was “oa, oa” or something like “wah, wah.” See https://mc.miamioh.edu/ilda-myaamia/phrases/140508]
The next day we saw in a prairie a great herd of buffalos. A halt was called and two old men harangued the young men for half an hour, urging them to show their skill in shooting down all the buffalos that we saw, and to manage so as to make all those that they could not kill move toward us. After removing us to the nearest spot, they started out in two bands, running always at a trot. When they were about a quarter of a league from the animals, they all ran at full speed, and when within gunshot they fired several volleys and shot off an extraordinary number of arrows. A great number of buffalos remained on the ground, and they pursued the rest in such manner that they were driven toward us. Our old men butchered these. As for me, I did not shoot. Their appearance filled me with terror, and I withdrew from our troop when I [saw] them approach; which set all the [people] laughing, at which I was not a little mortified. It is certain that those animals are frightful looking and usually terrify people who have never seen them.
The cows are as big as the big oxen here. They have a hump about eight inches high which extends from their shoulders to the middle of their backs. They have their whole heads covered with fine hair so that their eyes can hardly be seen. They have short hair in summer, but from the month of September until June they are covered with a very fine wool.
We remained a week in this place in order to dry all this meat. They make for this purpose a kind of cradle ten feet long, three feet wide, and four feet high, which they call gris, upon which they spread out their meat after preparing it. Under this they kindle a little fire. They are at it for a day, ordinarily, when they wish to dry a flat side. There are two of these in a buffalo. They take it from the shoulder clear to the thigh and from the hump to the middle of the belly, after which they spread it out as thin as they can, making it usually four feet square. They fold it up while still hot, like a portfolio, so as to make it easier to carry. The most robust men and women carry as many as eight, for a whole day. This is not possible in autumn nor in winter, however, as the cows are then very fat; they then can carry four at most.
To return to the hunt in which [the people] engaged, they killed 120 buffalos from which they brought back a hundred tongues. The people from my cabin smoked these and distributed them among themselves to carry to me.
The drying of this meat by the women and girls does not prevent the young men from going to the chase every day each for himself, for it is only when they all go together that they have guards. If anyone has no luck (which rarely happens in buffalo hunting), his relatives contribute from their share. These little hunts are ordinarily for bucks, bears, and young turkeys, on which they feast, not failing to invite the strangers whom they have among them (a very frequent thing), such as Miami, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Kickapoo, and others; so that there were days when I was invited as many as ten times. We did not dare to refuse, having learned that they were grieved if anyone who was among them did not come.[8]
French Jesuit missionaries lived among Miami and Illinois communities, and therefore offer fairly accurate and detailed observations in their letters to their superiors. Fr. Julien Binneteau wrote this to another Jesuit in 1699.
The life led by [the people we are trying to missionize] is as follows. They start on their hunt about the end of September. All walk, or proceed in pirogues [large dugout canoes], to the wintering-place. From there the most active men, women, and girls go into the interior, to seek the ox [bison]; this animal is dangerous, and boldly rushes at him who attacks it, especially when wounded; it snorts furiously, and its glaring eyes are terrible. When [people] have killed one, they remove the flesh, especially that from the ribs, and divide it in halves. This meat is afterward spread for some time on a wooden grating, three or four feet high, under which a bright fire is kept up; it is then rolled; and, dried in this manner, it keeps for a long time without becoming tainted. These pieces are called the tenderloins, and are in great demand in the village when the hunters return. This hunt ends about Christmas. [Folks] come back loaded with these tenderloins, and it is wonderful what heavy loads the men and women carry on the march. The remainder of the time until the month of march is passed in the winter quarters, where the women are continually occupied. The men go, from time to time, to hunt for deer or bear, and spend the rest of the time in gaming, dancing, singing partisque fruuntur [“and the groups enjoy themselves”]. They are all gentlemen, the sole occupation of whose lives consists in hunting, in fishing, and in war.[9]
The following perspective was recorded by Antoine-Denis Raudot in 1709. Raudot was an administrator of New France.
These Ilinois [people] leave their village in winter; there remain only a few women and some old men who absolutely cannot march. They go to hunt buffalo, deer, wapiti [elk], beaver, and bear. They camp always in the prairies far from the woods, to be in a position to discover from farther off those who wish to attack them and to be able to pursue them more easily, and use mats of rushes tied together to cover their cabins.
When they have perceived a herd of buffalo the young men jog toward them and when they are about a quarter of a league away they run with all their strength, they come up to them soon, discharge their guns, and shot an infinite number of arrows. Several buffalo fall from these shots, and the young men always pursue those who remain and make them pass by the old men who are ambushed and who make a great killing of them. They take the tongues of the buffalo and the flat sides, which they keep to carry to their village. It is the women who have the care of gathering this meat and smoking and preserving it.
Toward the end of April they return to their old village to do their sowing; they remain all summer, from time to time going on small hunts, but without going far away.
For their hunts of summer and winter they use large canoes of wood in which they carry all their baggage. One of these canoes would not dare separate from the mass, for immediately some guard canoes would run after it and break it and all that was in it. Likewise, one of these [hunters] would not dare separate from the mass to go and hunt when they are on land, for immediately a band of young men who are guards would run after him to make him return, break his arms, and tear off all that he had on him. These [people] have established this kind of law among themselves because those who go in advance would cause the animals to flee while killing only a very few of them, which would oblige them to go much farther to find some.[10]
Jesuit missionary Gabriel Marest wrote the following to his superior from Kaskaskia, a mission on the lower Kaskaskia River near its junction with the central Mississippi River, in 1712.
As [the Illinois] seldom live upon anything but the smoked flesh of animals, which they kill in the hunt, there are times during the year when all the people leave the village and scatter through the forests, to pursue the wild beasts. This is a critical time, in which they need more than ever the presence of the Missionary, who is obliged to accompany them in all these journeys.
There are mainly two great hunts: that of summer, which seldom lasts longer than three weeks; and that which takes place during winter, which lasts from four to five months. …
Although the summer hunt is shorter, it is nevertheless more fatiguing. …
During the winter, the [Illinois] separate into many bands, and try to find the places where they think the game will be most abundant.[11]
[1] C. C. Trowbridge, Meearmeear Traditions, ed. by Vernon Kinietz (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1938).
[2] The Story of Wilakhtwa and Wilakhtwa Aalhsoohkaakanemali ‘The Story of Wilakhtwa’ in David J. Costa, As Long as the Earth Endures: Annotated Miami-Illinois Texts (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2022), 83, 89.
[3] Largillier Dictionary, entry in Miami-Illinois Indigenous Languages Digital Archive (https://mc.miamioh.edu/ilda-myaamia/phrases/23673)
[4] John Heckewelder, History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations who once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighbouring States, revised edition, (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1881), 255-256.
[5] William Wells, “The Emigration of the North Western Indians, and their general conduct,” Indian Documents, Chicago Historical Society.
[6] Aalhsoohkaalinta Kaapia ‘Story of Kaapia,’ Version 2, in Costa, As Long as the Earth Endures, 279-80.
[7] Trowbridge, Meearmeear Traditions.
[8] Pierre-Charles de Liette, “Memoir of De Gannes (Deliette) Concerning the Illinois Country” in Theodore Calvine Pease and Raymodn C. Werner, eds., The French Foundations, 1680-1693, vol. 1, Illinois Historical Collections 23:309-312.
[9] Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland: Burrows Brothers, 1900), 65:71-73.
[10] Raudot in Vernon Kinietz, Indians of the Western Great Lakes, 1615-1760 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1940), Letter 71.
[11] Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (Cleveland: Burrows Brothers, 1890), 66:253.
Aacimotaatiiyankwi 