DCHP-3

pound ((n.))

DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

Entry from the DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

This entry may contain outdated or offensive information, terms, and examples.

1an. — Hist.

an enclosure or trap into which deer or caribou were driven for slaughtering by the Indians. Also spelled pond.

Quotations

1770
[Caribou] walk along them [hunting fences], until they are drawn into the pound. . . .
1824
In walking about at this place I saw an Old Pond for ensnaring Reindeer &c & two Winter Encampments.
1bn. — Hist.

an enclosure, corral, or large trap into which the Indians drove buffalo in order to slaughter them.

Quotations

1772
We are preparing to proceed tomorrow, to be in readiness for pounding Buffalo at an Archithinue [Blackfoot] pound.
1776
. . . the chief led his hunters to its southern end, where there was a pound or enclosure. The fence was about four feet high, and formed of strong stakes of birch-wood, wattled with smaller branches of the same.
1879
At the Crossing, about nine miles from here, the Crees have made a pound for killing buffalo, but it remains to be seen if it will be a success.
1962
The Indians built a pound, an enclosure surrounded by a four-foot fence made of birch stakes interlaced with branches. An alleyway, funnel-shaped and with a wide mouth, was built in the same way to lead up to the pound.
2n. — Hist.

a place where Plains Indians slaughtered buffalo by stampeding them over a precipice.

Quotations

1792
[We saw] an old Blood Indian Pound for buffalo.
<i>c</i>1902
The Indians hunted buffalo by driving them over a precipice where hunters were stationed on each side below, or by luring the herd into a pound or pit by means of an Indian decoy masking under a buffalo-hide.
1956
And what a sight it was to see the squaws rush in with hatchets and knives . . . until the whole pound under the precipice was wet with blood. . . .
1965
As they plunged over the bluff into the pound below, strategically placed marksmen would dispatch them with arrows at close range.
3n. — Obs.

See 1784 quote.

Quotations

1784
In the salt pile, the fish are spread one upon another, with a layer of salt between. Thus they remain till they have taken salt; and then are carried, and the salt is washed from them by throwing them off from shore in a kind of float called a Pound.