Nookomis importance of kettles

Long ago I tried to find out everything. So I asked the old lady: "Where did they get the kettles from the legged kettles, long ago?" This is what she had to tell about that: "Long ago they were traded for things. They must have traded pelts for the things they wanted a long, long time ago. At one time the legged kettles too must have been given to them. If someone has a legged kettle, she holds on to it always. When an old lady becomes elderly or perhaps is dying, she gives the kettle to her oldest daughter. And so on; that one too, when she becomes an old lady or is dying, might be dying, it is to her daughter that she gives the kettle. Maybe if the kettle is too heavy, they dig a hole for it somewhere after they boil sap. They use the kettle there again when they parch, when they parch wild rice. If they move camp a long way and can't carry it along, they just pack it carefully on someone's back. If they want to leave it behind somewhere, they dig a hole in the ground. They put the kettle in. In the spring again, they take the kettle to use.

from

Maude Kegg, Nookomis: What my Grandmother Told Me, ed. John D. Nichols, 2nd ed. (Bemidji, Minn.: American Indian Studies Center, Bemidji State University, 1990), 88.