“First Chance to Deer Hunt”

November 15, 1763, a Wednesday:Oak leaves clung tight to branches, despite gusty winds. A late afternoon still-hunt brought Mikinaak, the Snapping Turtle, close to the nasty thicket in his simple pursuit of venison. But alas, that day the French fusil spoke not. At dusk, the gray-haired woodsman who spent his youth among the Ojibwe returned to the aging wigwam, just over the ridge from the River Raisin…