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This excerpt from "The Passenger Pigeon
as they Relate to the Indigenous Tribes of the Great Lakes" published
in the 2025 Central States Archaeological Societies 2025
January Journal
Read this and mores in the Central
States Archaeological 2025
January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March
2026
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At top: Figure 1. The adze (left) and the Hardin
point (right) found in the Sargent Slough area. Collection of the Author
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On September 1, 1914, with the death of the caged passenger pigeon Martha
in the Cincinnati Zoo, the passenger pigeon faded into the past, a now extinct
species. Population estimates of this species vary considerably, but they
were thought to once number from three to five billion birds. At the time,
it was the most populous bird species in the world. The Passenger Pigeon
is rarely thought of or spoken about today. But at one time, it was a very
valuable commodity, being utilized as an ample food source (and quite possibly
for its plumage) by the prehistoric peoples of the Midwest and the Great
Lakes.
Decades ago, the author read a passage written in the remarkable 1830 autobiography,
A Narrative of the Captivity and Adventures of John Tanner which inspired
this article. He stated John was kidnapped from his father's farm in Kentucky
by several Ojibwa Indians in 1790 when he was 9 years old. For the next 30
years, he lived with his captors, the Ojibwas, along with some members of
other tribes. The passage that impressed the author described the details
of John’s first hunt, which was a very important part of the Ojibwa
culture. The hunt took place about 30 miles east of Point St. Ignace, Michigan,
near Lake Huron. While encamped there along with other Ojibwa and traders,
John states that the pigeons were very numerous and that the Indian boys
and traders were shooting them. John asked his Ojibwa stepfather permission
to hunt the pigeons, which was granted and encouraged. His step father then
handed him a flint lock pistol. “...I met with pigeons and some of
them alighted in the bushes very near me. I cocked my pistol, and raised
it to my face, bringing the breech almost in contact with my nose. Having
brought
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This excerpt from "The Passenger Pigeon
as they Relate to the Indigenous Tribes of the Great Lakes" published in the 2025 Central States Archaeological Societies 2025
January Journal
Read this and mores in the Central States
Archaeological 2025
January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2026
|
 |
At right: Figure 2. Depiction of a Passanger Pigeon
hunt in northern Louisiana by artist Smith Bennett. Published in in
the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News on July 3, 1875.
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the sight to bear upon the pigeons, I pulled the trigger, and was in the
next instant sensible of a humming noise, like that of a stone sent swiftly
though the air. I found the pistol at the distance of some paces behind me” (Tanner,
p. 16). His bruised face was taken care of and he was then given his own
flintlock rifle.
Physically, the passenger pigeon was somewhat larger than a Mourning dove
and was a bit more colorful. The males had iridescent feathers that sparkled
in the sunlight. The females were slightly smaller, with duller colored feathers
lacking the male iridescence. The Pottawatomie chief, Simon Pokagon, of south
central Michigan wrote, “It was proverbial with our fathers that if
the Great Spirit in all his wisdom could have created a more elegant bird
in plumage, form and movement, he never did” (Pokagon, p. 1).
Oak acorns, beechnuts and chestnuts were their prime food sources as well
as snails and worms. A small proportion of the bird population fed almost
exclusively on maize grown by the Native Americans.
It is well known to scholars of the Fur Trade that the traders in the Great
Lakes region hired Ojibwa and other Native Americans to hunt and provide
food for them and their workers. The Ojibwa word for passenger pigeon is,
o-me-me. During the spring migration, the Michigan Ojibwa trapped the pigeons
using boxes made from branches and twigs. The trapped birds would be boiled
in stews and soups with wild rice and other meats for flavoring. The Ojibwa
and the Cayuga of New York utilized nets as one means of harvesting the pigeons.
The young squabs ( birds usually less than four weeks old, just ready to
fledge and leave the nest) were highly desirable. The Onondaga and Seneca
of New York harvested these young pigeons, often using long poles to knock
the nests down from the tree branches, and then collecting the young. At
times, the trees were just chopped down. Nets were used too, but they were
less effective. The Seneca were known to have dances dedicated to the birds,
and of course offered sacred medicine in ceremonies prior to the pigeon harvesting.
Other Great Lakes tribes did the same. According to the Delaware tribe, there
was a taboo for harming adult pigeons for fear of frightening the birds
away permanently. The Winnebago, today known as the Ho-Chunk of Wisconsin,
held communal feasts in honor of the pigeons, and it was only after the chief
held this feast that hunting could commence. In Northern Michigan, the Odawa
man, Payson Wolf or “Mi-in-gun” was noted as the "champion''
of pigeon hunters for being such a superb huntsman and harvester.
The Pottawatomie chief, Simon Pokagon, wrote extensively of the passenger
pigeon during the mid-1800s. He stated that, “
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Read other great columns in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2025
January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2024
