A Message from Garcia – Pemmican

The term Pemmican refers to a food made of Bison Meat, tallow and berries. The name originates from a Cree Indian word Pimiikan or fat. This food was made to be stored away for future use, Having the property of lasting for years, if made properly. Twelve ounces of pemmican is equal to two thousand calories. Five pounds of meat equals one pound of dried meat. I must interject here to say that modern taste buds would not be pleased. Then there is the heart stopping amount of tallow in the recipe.

In North Dakota we have in the northeast corner of the state the Pembina River. A 319-mile river which is a western tributary of the Red River of the North, whose source is located in Manitoba, Canada. The Dakota name for this river is Wi’ateca Wakpa (Wiyateca = Cranberry; Wakpa = River). This cranberry Viburnum Trilobum High Bush Cranberry grows on a bush, as opposed to the more familiar ones we see at Thanksgiving dinners, that grow in a bog.

To make Pemmican, the meat of the Bison is cut with the grain, not against it. There are plenty of photographs showing large pieces of meat hung on a rack supported by forked poles. As the meat starts to dry from the heat of the sun or by a fire placed below, it is further cut into thin strips and placed back upon the rack for further drying. This drying process takes from two to three days depending on the weather. When dry, hard and brittle the meat is called Jerky.

While the meat is drying, the women spread out the bison hides on the ground, and peg them down or are laced into a wood frame to begin the tanning process. Bison cow hides were the best for tanning, while the bull hides were reserved for rawhide and other utilitarian articles. The women do not sit or kneel on the hides, they standup-right and bend over at the waist, and reach down to perform their work.

A hole is dug in the ground and lined with rawhide. The brittle jerky is broken up and placed in this makeshift bowl. With a heavy stone hammer the jerky is pounded to a coarse powder by the women. Near by other women are taking the leg bones of the buffalo and cracking them open and placing them into a pot of boiling water. As the bone marrow is melted from the bones, it is skimmed off and mixed with the powdered jerky in equal portions. Other women have made an earth bowl in which dried berries are placed and crushed. The berries are now added to the powder and tallow, mixed with the hands and formed into cookies to be further dried. The pemmican mixture was placed into leather bags, sewn up and loaded on a Travois. These bags usually weighed 80 to 90 pounds each.

Later at a location deemed safe, a cashe pit (Woha) was dug and the pemmican bags placed within, covered and disguised to prevent predators both man and beast from discovering the

cash location. During the winter the cashe was opened, this saved the trouble of carting around the pemmican bags and other items placed in storage. All of this work, butchering, drying the meat, tallow making, berry picking, bison hides prepared for tanning or rawhide was considered women’s work. The men had the dangerous job of killing the bison at close range and guarding the women as they worked.

This type of food lasted a long time, highly nutritious, easily portable and used as a trade item to obtain metal items from mostly French Fur Traders such as knifes, kettles, needles, scissors, awls, traps, guns and bullets.

Cranberries was not the only fruit added to the mixture, Juneberries (saskatoons) cherries, currents, chokecherries, blueberries, raisins and any other dried berries at hand. Other ruminant animals such as deer, elk, antelope can be processed into pemmican, however buffalo was the animal of choice due to their abundance. Corn is also processed the same as ruminant animal flesh. The corn is pounded into a powder, mixed with tallow and berries, and formed into balls. Early white settlers called them Johnny Cakes (Journey Cakes).

Today at special occasions and religious ceremonies half-dried jerky is cut cross-wise into small pieces, pounded until soft, and garnished with sugar. A bowl of this modern pemmican is past around, requiring each recipient to take a pinch to eat. The tallow and berries are eliminated.

Bibliography

Barkwell, Lawrence Pemmican. Winnipeg, Canada: Louis Riel Institute.

Rogers, Dilwyn J. Edible, Medicinal, Useful, and Poisonous Wild Plants of the Northern Great Plains – South Dakota Region. Sioux Falls: Augustana College 1980: 90 (Chokecherry pits are poisonous / Lakota names).

SpukaṡniWinyan Tituwan Lakota Recipes: Collected and Compiled. Privately published Rapid City, SD June 2008.

Wikipedia.org Pemmican

Glossary

Buffalo Latin name; Bison Bison . Dakota name: Tatanka (Ta ruminant animal; Tanka = big/large Bull; Deer= Taḣca the Real Ta, Antelope Tatoka = different Ta). Pte / Tapte = female buffalo Cow).

Cashe Pit An underground cellar dug by the women in a bell shape. They were 4 to 6 feet deep with a small opening at ground

level. The inside was lined with dried grass pegged to the walls with wooden pins. Rawhides were sometimes also used as a liner. Dakota name; Makadotopiye (Maka = earth; Dote = food; Opiye = store/place within). Also called a Woḣa.

Corn Ball Journey Cake. Dakota name: Wahuwapa Wasna (Wahuwapa = corn; Wasna = something fatty).

Choke Cherry Dakota name: Canṗa (Can = wood, ṗa = bitter) Scientific name Prunus Virginiana. The pits contain cyanide, by crushing makes them safe. Crushed and formed into patties, canpakaṡkica (Canpa = chokecherry, kaṡkica = press).

Cranberry Latin name; Viburnum Trilobum A small red sour berry that grows upon a bush. Dakota name: Wiateca = (looks like) a woman’s clitoris.

Dried Meat Jerky. Dakota name: Papa [pah-pah] =dried meat; Fresh meat = Tado [Tah-doe].

Hard Dried Meat Dakota name: Papasaka (Papa = dried meat; Saka = hard).

Jerky Lean meat cut into thin strips and dried. From the Spanish Charqui who mispronounced the word From the Inca Indians Ch’ark.

Meat and Fat Tado Wasna {Tado = Fresh meat, [Wasna = Wa= noun marker; Sna = fat/ grease].

Pleasant Lake Located in northwestern Benson County, North Dakota along Highway Two. Dakota name: Bde Awokape (Bde = lake; Awokape = pounding) referring to pounding while processing pemmican. Formerly called Broken Bone Lake.

Pembina River Located in Pembina County, ND. Dakota name: Wi’ateca = cranberry, Wakpa = River.

Pemmican Pimiikan, dried meat, tallow, and berry food. Name is taken from the Cree Indians, derived from their word for fat =

Pimii. Dakota name: Wakapanpi (Wa = noun marker; Kapan = to pound; Pi = they/ plural).

Rawhide An animal hide that is stretched out scraped clean of excess tissue. It is further processed and made pliable by pounding with stone hammers or the back of metal ax heads. Dakota name: Wokpan = something pounded, when finished.

Shinbone Lake Located within the town of Warwick, Benson County, North Dakota. Tacupa Ota Bde (Ta = ruminant [buffalo]; Cupa = marrow; Ota = many/ much; Bde = lake). Referring to the many buffalo bones found beneath water of the lake during a time of destitution.

Smash / Crush Dakota term: Kabdeca (Ka = hit with sweeping action; Bdeca = to flatten). Describing the use of the stone hammer.

Stone Hammer A flat headed hammer fixed to a handle, Dakota name: Pabdaska (Pa = head; Bdaska = flat).

Tallow / Marrow/ Suet The nutritious grease found with in large leg bones. Dakota name: Cupe [chew’pay]. Fat = Waṡin (wet grease}.

Editor’s note: Although accuracy is important to us, some of the words and phrases in this story may be incorrectly spelled because of the unique markings used in translating the Dakota words to English and a computer system that doesn’t recognize the difference. If you have questions, contact Mr. Garcia at Little Hoop College for the correct spellings and pronunciations.