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Sam on whitefish

The Mille Lacs Ojibwe Social Oral History Project documented various aspects of the history of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians in Minnesota. Interviews were done by Dr. Anthony Godfrey.
Yeah. We used to go out here [Mille Lacs] and get whitefish by the barrels in them days and smoke them or salt them for the winter. Used to have big barrels full of salted fish to last all winter. But not game fish, just mostly whitefish, you know? You smoke most of them. And early spring there you go put a little tepee out there and get a golden northern or a walleye. That was your meal. You didn't get a whole bunch. You just got what you needed for...It was a good life. It was a good life. I don't know. Big--the more it grew, the more the tourist industry--when I was young here, there was no resorts in the area. You could move around freely around the lake.
from
Doug Sam, Oral History Interviews of the Mille Lacs Social History Project. Minnesota Historical Society, 1992, written transcript 19.

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

with support and collaboration from the University of Minnesota's Department of American Indian Studies and University Libraries.

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