Caribou Meat
4:59 min. - The caribou’s head has always been the most sought-after part, the part we give to guests. To make the meat easy to carry, we dry it and grind it into a powder.
Transcription
Narrator - The caribou's head has always been the most sought-after part, the one that's offered to visitors.
Zacharie Bellefleur - Some people were very skilled at cutting up the caribou, drying its meat, turning it on the drying rack and grinding it into a powder. By doing this, we lightened the load of meat we had to carry.
Other people were expert at the fair division of a catch of meat after a group hunt. They summoned everyone, never forgetting a single person.
In August, the partridges had grown to adulthood, and we were allowed to hunt both males and females.
On the way to our land, we attempted to hunt mainly porcupine and beaver. The females were very fat at that time, and excellent to eat. However, during the summer, we spared these small animals, as we did the caribou. That's why we were taught to recognize the females. For example, in the case of porcupines, the male tends to urinate while it walks, and its manner of eating tree bark is different from that of the female.
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Caribou Meat
4:59 min -
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- atan
- smooth rock
- atsheu
- he crushes the bones with a mortar and pestle
- mamatishakanua uina
- they cut the marrow into slices
- mameshinikutakan
- sculpture of two males in heat
- manaipimeu
- skim the fat from the top of the bone broth
- minuassukaimu upimim
- we mix the fat with the marrow slices
- mushkami
- bone broth
- natshi-minu-akutau ushkanima
- out of respect for the caribou, he’ll place the bones in an elevated spot
- nipishaputshenanu
- we make tea
- nutapuenanu
- skim the bone broth
- panishauenanu
- they cut the meat in large, thin slices
- pashtatashkuaikanu mak massekushkamiku ashtakanu tshetshi mamuashkatik
- we place wooden blocks and moss on top of it so it will all freeze together
- pitaikanu umiku uinashtakat
- they add blood to the stomach
- shiutau uiashinu
- he salts the sliced meat
- tshishtaimu uiashinu
- he grills meat on a stick
- tshissakanua uina
- we cook the bone marrow slices
- uikutaimu uina
- he extracts the bone marrow
- uina
- marrow
- ushakanana
- boiled bones
- ushikaneu
- he boils the powdered bones
- ushkan
- bone
- ushkan-atiku
- caribou bones not used in the fat-making process
- ushkuai akunaikatshenanu nakatuashun
- the food packets are covered in birch bark
- utapiukatiapia makupitakatsheu nenu utipatshipishikan
- he uses roots to tie the dried meat of an entire caribou into a bark container
- utapuinakan
- bark container
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