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Hilger on fishhooks

Originally published in 1951 by the Smithsonian Institution Bureau of American Ethnology as Bulletin 146.
Fishhooks, in old days, were made of bone or wood. Two old L'Anse fishermen heard of a hook 2 inches long made of bone. Both ends had been sharpened and the middle slightly grooved by means of stones, the sliced end of a stick being securely tied into the groove with basswood fiber. When fishing the pointed ends were tipped off with bait--anything edible serving as bait. With a quick and skillful movement a nibbling fish was hooked in the jaw. A Lac Courte Oreille fisherman when a boy made a wooden fishook by removing bark of a 16 to 20-foot maple sapling, about 2 inches in diameter. After hardening one end of it over the heat of a fire he notched this end in two places opposite each other, thus forming two hooks. Fish were grabbed with either hook while the fisherman stood on the shore. Some informants had heard old people tell of spearing fish with copper arrows, "such arrows as were found when digging the canal between Hancock and Houghton, Mich."
from
Sister M. Inez Hilger, Chippewa Child Life and Its Cultural Background (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1992) 127.

The Ojibwe People's Dictionary is developed and maintained by:
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John D. Nichols, Founder and Linguistic Editor

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