DEER AND MOOSE

In winter, hunters gutted (opened and cleaned) deer or
moose where they were shot. After the animal was skinned and
quartered the parts were placed on clean snow to bleed for
approximately one half hour on each side before they were
taken home. |

Twu or three generations ago animal skins were used for
clothes and blankets. Deer skin is still very popular. The bones
of animals were used for needles and knives. Food was some-
times hard to find — game could be scarce or the weather could
make hunting very difficult. As a result all of the animal was
used; the head, tongue, intestines, fat and all the large bones.

ROAST MOOSE HEAD Charlie Drainey - Deadman’s Creek

Margaret Boyd — Anaham

The heads of many animals were used for different dishes.
Deer, moose and caribou heads were often roasted over an open
fire. The tongue was removed from the head and boiled over the
fire. The nose, often considered a delicacy, was also removed
from the head and roasted until soft.

After the tongue and nose had been removed, the head was
skinned and the eyes and horns removed. One end of a three
foot stick, large enough to support the head, was forced into
the centre of the head. The other end of the stick was stuck in
the ground, one foot from the fire, at an angle that placed the
head one foot over the fire. The head was turned occasionally
as it roasted, until the meat was tender. |

DEER SHINS

The shins of deer, moose and caribou when cooked are said
to taste like pigs feet.

The preparation of deer shins begins with the removal of
the lower section of the legs at the knee joint. The hoof was

Charley Drainey -- Deadman's Creek

severed from the leg by laying it on a rock and striking sharply
at its upper edge with a second rock. The hair was singed over
an open fire, and the remaining singed hair and scorched skin
was scraped away. The shins were boiled itn a basket one hour
and eaten with mountain potatoes, wild onions or other wild
vegetables.

BONE MARROW Josephine Jatfe, Kits; Gilpin — Anaham

After the meat was removed trom the long bones of large
animals, they were cooked to make the bone marrow available
for cating. The bones were placed directly on the coals of open
fires to cook until they cracked, and the lard-like marrow showed
through the cracks. The bones were then removed from the

fire, and the tasty marrow was eaten.

DEER INTESTINES Churlic Druiney Deadman’, Creek

The Indian people had a variety of uses for animal stomachs
and intestines. The cod fish stomach was used as a casing for
“Indian Cheese’? made from salmon cggs. (Because it caused
many people to have food poisoning, the recipe for Indian
Cheese has not been given.) The small intestine of the bear was
used as Sausage casing, and the small intestine of the deer was
dried over a fire and eaten.

The people of the Cariboo areca prepared deer intestines
in the following manner:

The small intestine of the deer was removed from the
animal, cleaned, washed well and turned inside out. Small

amounts of fat, for flavour, were retained on the intestine.

The intestines were placed on a rack about two feet above
an alderwood fire, turned frequently until dry, sliced in
strips and eaten.

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