Chippewa Centenarian Does Own Housework


Mrs. Nancy Villebrune, 101 Years Old, Tills Garden, Fishes and Enjoys Life. White Earth, May 24 – Though she is perhaps the oldest person on the reservation, the people of White Earth do not call Nancy Villebrune "mother or auntie." They do not because they do not think of her as old, despite her 101 years. Mrs. Villebrune does not think of herself as old, so that may account for the way her neighbors regard her. She isn't old, either. By either criterion of age – the way she looks or the way she feels

– Mrs. Villebrune is not old. Of course, her face may show some wrinkles, but they came from so much smiling and laughing all through her long life; and her eyes are young, with the humor and love of life in them that sparkle today just as they sparkled a long, long time ago when debonair Maxime Venasse found time in his fur trading to court the daughter of Donald McDonald. Yes, the father of this "oldest of the Chippewas" was a Scotsman. And as to how she feels! Why any woman who does her housework every day with the diligence of youth, who cares for a garden, who fishes in season, who makes the "sugar bush" excursions and those to the wild rice fields – well, such a woman does not feel old. Supported Ancient "Plug Hat" Many upstate pioneers of 50 years' or more residence remember Donald McDonald, "Old Mac," a sturdy little Scotch-French Canadian, who drifted into the Northern Minnesota region from the Hudson Bay company's territory in Canada. He married an Ojibway maiden, whose father, also, had been a trader for the Hudson Bay Company a French Canadian named Comptois. Mrs Comptois was of the band of Gull Lake Ojibways, a subdivision of the larger band known in treaties as the Mississippi band of Chippewa Indians. "Old Mac" is best associated in memory with an ancient "plug hat" which, those who knew him well declare, was of an age equal to his own. Nancy McDonald was one of the children of this marriage. The McDonald family in early days lived in old Crow Wing, a trading post of the American Fur company. However, "Mac" broke away from corporation domination and became an independent trader in a small way. The Northwest Indian trade always drew young Canadians, and so it was wholly within reason that young Maxime Venasse, one of them so drawn should have been attracted by the roguish eyes and teasing smile of the second of the McDonald girls, and that she should soon thereafter become Mme. Venasse. Given Free Land. Children were born to the Venasses, and to the other children of the McDonald clan led by the spirit of "Old Mac" left Crow Wing for Otter Tail lake, seeking wilder country beyond the "settlements." The Hole-in- the day commotion caused the clan, with many other rovers, to return to Crow Wing, as Fort Ripley, near the place, was regarded by them as a guarantee of security. The clan returned to the lake land after peace was restored, but it went back to White Earth when the reservation was opened, as McDonald's children and grandchildren were entitled to free land under the treaty. There most of the descendants of "Old Mac" are living today. When Mrs. Venasse lost her husband after their children had grown up, she was fully able to take care of herself, having been trained to industry from childhood. She married again, her second choice a member of Chippewa Indians which had acquired rights on the reservation. Never "Lost Her Grip" As the years passed, she never "lost her grip" on the good things of life. Her vision is clear and her hearing, she says, is as good as ever. She has always been of exuberant spirit, quick to see the humorous side of things, and she still has a lively appreciation of fun. She is always ready to tell a funny story or to hear one. Nancy McDonald-Venasse-Villebrune is proud of her ancestry, of her Ojibway origin and of her command of the Ojibway tongue. She speaks French readily and understands English. She has no thought of being tired of life – her eyes laugh in all three languages.