 |
|
|
 |
Muskrat A Fish? |
 |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Muskrat A Fish? |
|
|---|---|---|
|
HOW THE MUSKRAT BECAME A FISH:
A legend persists in Monroe that local Catholics, forbidden to eat meat on Fridays, successfully petitioned the Pope in Rome to declare the muskrat to be a fish, since it seems to live mostly in or around water. The relatively inexpensive meat thus could provide greater variety in Friday fare, without being a strain on the pocketbook. At a 1938 meeting of the Monroe Exchange Club, several members claimed the local arguments were powerful enough to gain a special dispensation from the ecclesiastical authorities to permit the eating of muskrat in the Monroe vicinity on Fridays or fast days, right up to modern times. No papal document has yet come to light in support of this legend, but not for lack of believers. According to Boyez Dansard, several of the French trappers here asked the priest whether muskrat was fish or not. The priest was frankly puzzled and called a town meeting where the biological classification of the muskrat was debated long and hotly. Finally, one respected elder rose in the meeting to declare: "The rat, he live in water - he no animal. The rat, he walk on land - he no fish. He mus' be vegetable." A tradition in the Reau
family states that the practice dates from the winter of 1813, when
their family members were driven from their homes during the
aftermath of the Battle of the River Raisin. Fleeing across the ice,
they ended up on Guard Island in Maumee Bay. When
Copyright 2004 Grassley Productions |
French
Pete was once quoted in the Cincinnati Times Star inviting people to
his Grosse Pointe home where his "ole womans" would cook mushrat for
them. It would be so good they would say, "dat de mushrat is de
fines' fish w'at swim de lac."
Father Gabriel Richard found them huddled together in some native
huts, they were starving and asked for a dispensation to eat
muskrats on Friday. Father Richard granted their wish. Since then,
settlers in the Bay area have claimed the dispensation applied only
to them, not the rest of the French of Monroe or Newport. In more
recent times, one local priest, Father Lambert LaVoy, said he had
been asked hundreds of times in the confessional whether muskrat and
diving ducks could be eaten as fish. While not claiming a
dispensation for them, Father LaVoy simply asked if the person
really believed it was fish or flesh. Those who considered it a fish
were told they could eat it as such.
Up
in Lansing, Bishop Kenneth Povish recalled that the muskrat question
was finally settled in 1956 when it was agreed that eating muskrat
dated back so far that it had become an "immemorial custom," and
therefore was allowed by canon law. The bishop apparently was not a
muskrat connoisseur, since he reportedly added that "anyone who
could eat muskrat was doing penance worthy of the greatest saints."
Regardless of individual beliefs, it remained a wide-spread practice
before WWII for housewives to call on local trappers to provide
muskrats through the season for regular Friday fare. In 1987, the
Archbishop of Detroit appalled many local Catholics by declaring
muskrat could no longer be eaten as fish. Although no longer tied to
fasting on Fridays, several Catholic churches in Monroe County carry
on the tradition by holding annual muskrat dinners for their
parishioners. Unlike the Catholic churches and many secular
organizations, protestant churches in Monroe County have not
traditionally held muskrat dinners, although many of their members
eat muskrat and have even been seen partaking of the dinners
sponsored by the Catholics. Not to be outdone, however, a number of
protestant churches do hold annual game dinners, at which muskrat
may be included on the menu.