Hunting With the Native Americans by Rob Staeger

Author:Rob Staeger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hunting with the Native Americans
ISBN: 9781422288535
Publisher: National Highlights Inc
Published: 2014-08-14T00:00:00+00:00

A modern Inuit fisherman inspects his nets from a kayak. In the Far North, which is too cold for farming, native peoples survived by fishing, venturing into the icy seas to hunt large mammals such as whales, and killing land animals such as caribou.

5 Hunting in the Northwest and Far North

Farming is impossible in the frozen North. The Inuit people could gather some wild plants, but very little grew in the Arctic. People ate mostly meat and fat. Nearly everything they had, from food to clothing to tools, came from animals.

Like other native cultures, the Inuit had great respect for the animals they hunted. They showed their respect with rituals. For example, after killing a seal or walrus, hunters offered it a drink of water. When a woman butchered a caribou, she couldn’t break its bones. Inuit tradition also said that it was wrong to cook land creatures and sea creatures in the same pot.

Tribes split into small bands to hunt caribou each summer. Caribou were essential to Inuit life. Their hides were used for clothing and insulation. Spears, harpoons, and sleds were made from antlers and bones. Caribou sinew was used for thread.

Inuit hunters and fishermen shared their catches with the entire band. This cooperation was essential. Without it, a simple run of bad luck could kill an entire family. Instead, hardship, as well as good fortune, was spread out evenly.

As in the East, the most effective hunting was cooperative. Caribou drives in the North were as common as deer drives in the East. Men built corral walls out of dirt, stone, or even snow. Sometimes, they turned stones upright to form the walls of the V. These stones scared caribou, which may have mistook them for hunters. The upturned stones were called inukhuit, or “likenesses of men.”

With shouts and barking dogs, men drove the caribou to a place where hunters waited to kill them. Sometimes, it was the end of the corral. In other cases the animals might be driven over a cliff, which killed most of them immediately. Often, they were driven into a river or lake, where hunters waited in enclosed, one-man boats called kayaks. Their spears were attached to the kayak within easy reach. When the caribou hit the water, the hunters were ready. The awkward, paddling beasts were no match for the hunters’ swift boats.

Coastal tribes also used kayaks to hunt seals. Land-based seal hunters used camouflage. They wore wooden helmets carved to look like seals’ heads and slid through puddles trying to act like seals. However, they were always ready to throw their spears whenever a real seal came close.

Seals weren’t even safe below the ice. Clever hunters looked for the breathing holes seals used. They hung a feather over the hole in the ice. When it moved, the hunter knew a seal was using the hole to breathe. Without hesitation, the hunter would drive a spear through the ice and into the seal. Once the seal was dead, he would chop a hole in the ice and haul the animal out.

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