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Janie Riley is an avid genealogist with a habit of stumbling on to dead bodies. She and her husband head to Salt Lake City Utah to research Janie's elusive 4th great-grandmother. But her search into the past leads her to a dark secret. Can she solve the mysteries of the past and the present before disaster strikes? Available now on Amazon.com and and Amazon.ca |
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Try an Ancestry.com Free Trial and Ancestry.ca Free Trial Genealogy Mystery Book!![]() Death Finds a Way: A Janie Riley Mystery by Lorine McGinnis Schulze Janie Riley is an avid genealogist with a habit of stumbling on to dead bodies. She and her husband head to Salt Lake City Utah to research Janie's elusive 4th great-grandmother. But her search into the past leads her to a dark secret. Can she solve the mysteries of the past and the present before disaster strikes? Available now on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca Genealogy NewsletterJOIN the FREE Olive Tree Genealogy Newsletter. Be the first to know of genealogy events and freebies. Find out when new genealogy databases are put online. Get tips for finding your elusive brick-wall ancestor.
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Mohawk History & Culture
Everyone was cooped up in the village. This was the
season for merry-making, games, story-telling, conversation, etc. People who
wanted to make new tools or weapons might have put the materials aside in summer to have
something to do in winter.
Spawning season. Most of the Natives (except the young, sick, old,
etc.) left the village and broke up into smaller fishing camps (perhaps
100-200 people). Fishing consisted primarily of netting the fish. Traps
might also be constructed, by driving poles into the muddy bottom of a stream
to create an enclosure with only a narrow entrance. Two rows of poles in a
"v" shape, funneled fish swimming upstream to the entrance of the enclosure.
Once inside, they were later collected.
Another fishing technique involved boys with "scare lines" - a cord
with a weight on the end - forming a long line along one bank of the
stream and then wading and swimming across the stream. The scare lines,
dragged on the bottom beneath them, herded the fish into the shallows where
they could be collected in baskets by waiting women. Considering the water
temperature that far north in March, it is likely this technique much more popular with the boys in August than it was in March!
Everyone gorged themselves on fish at the fishing camp. Besides the
actual work of fishing, thousands of fish had to be cleaned, then smoked.
Wood had to be gathered for the smoking. Periodically, small groups of
people would leave the fishing camps with baskets of smoked fish, walkback
to the village (20 miles or so carrying 40-50 pounds...the people were used
to physical exertion), spend the night at home, then come back to the fishing
area. When the fishing camp broke up around the first of April, almost
everyone might have to make several round trips to take all the smoked fish
home. Judging from archeological finds, fish may have been as important to
their diet as venison.
The need to plant and tend the
crops kept the women and girls close to home. Men and boys brought in a
trickle of fresh fish or fresh meat from short (1 to several days) hunting and
fishing expeditions. This was also the season for commerce with other
tribes with which the Mohawks were at peace and for war with everybody else.
Hunting was in small groups, stalking deer, rabbit, squirrel or other
small game. Occasionally, men went after moose or bear. Fishing involved
hook and line (when just a few fish were needed for supper, they didn't need
mass production using a trap) or else was done by wading into the river and
spearing the fish (which required considerable skill and an ability to hold
still for quite a while).
Deer are fat and their fur is best before winter. This was
the main hunting season. Most of the population left the main village to
go to temporary hunting camps. Deer were herded toward waiting archers by
lines of women and children beating the brush with sticks. This was done
once every day or two, with the rest of the time devoted to gathering wood, dressing and smoking the meat. By about November 1, everyone was
back in the village before the real cold weather set in.
The Mohawk and other Indian peoples had fished
for Atlantic Salmon for centuries. Within one century, whites virtually
obliterated the species and its numbers have never returned.
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