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My version of the past
Posted by bushrat on Feb 22 2006
Phil,
You'd have to go back more than a hundred years, before the arrival of the white man and well before the arrival of all his diseases that made their way across Alaska on the Native trade routes. Back to a time when most everything was made from local flora and fauna and rock/mineral.
I think if we use plain ol' common sense we can derive an inkling that indeed it was a feast-or-famine lifestyle for Alaskan Native peoples a few hundred years ago. A semi-nomadic existence. Purely subsistence hunting was basically centered around efficiency. Herding caribou into enclosures or surrounds, snaring caribou, pit traps for caribou and moose, driving animals off cliffs etc. A moose swimming across the Yukon in summer was an opportunity...if the hunter could paddle to the swimming moose in his slim birchbark canoe, it was a fairly easy way to kill a moose by jumping on its back and slitting its throat. All these methods would probably be considered unethical by today's newer standards. A Gwitchin elder from the Fort Yukon area relayed a story about when as a little girl she and her family were floating down the Porcupine river. It was circa 1902. Apparently the caribou hides on the skin boat were old and at some point they gave out. The only fix was for the men to hunt caribou to replace the hides. They couldn't take all the meat with them that time. But they cached it. She didn't recall whether it was still there when they returned. Did they "waste"? Yes, in times of plenty I suppose they did. And maybe the meat wasn't always what they were after, as in the other example someone gave about killing so many caribou only for the leggings (though I don't really think that was a normal or common practice pre contact, because caribou hides are invaluable and they commonly wore out and were always needed for everything from boats to shelters to clothing and sleeping pads etc. But...on a high caribou cycle, with a small population of humans...it could be that Natives considered them limitless when 100s of thousands were around. We don't know).
My own experience living in the bush for so long, through some times that were incredibly lean, taught me to "never waste." I can't help but surmise pre-contact Native peoples also felt this way. I think many of us may take for granted the little things. Rope, twine, sewing thread, needles, knives, jackets, pants, parkas, shoes, rain gear, pots, pans, matches, rifles, modern bows and arrows, binoculars, lightweight tents, coolers, and on and on and on. And we also take for granted how good we've got it. Most of us don't eat grubs, warble-fly larvae, brains, eyeballs, tongues, organs, intestines, "green" meat, sour fish, intestinal contents. Most of us aren't gathering sedge, bluebells, labrador tea, fireweed sprouts, wild rhubarb, lichen etc. Nor are most of us gathering materials like birch bark and spruce roots in order to fashion boiling vessels or baskets or bowls. I think you can tell a lot about a culture by the food they eat, or used to eat, and the amount of "cargo" they have and use. It defines them. Just at it defines me, and you. Why would I waste food if I knew I'd be eating grubs at some point to survive, or chewing the cambrium layer of aspen or spruce, or scrounging for lichen like the caribou? To hunt hungry is truly to hunt. It puts a whole different spin on things...for me it isn't about fun or a vacation, just really a chore, just another chore that is a part of where and how I live. An enjoyable chore for the most part. But certainly at times a very stressful chore.
One thing that is clear is that Native peoples had a higher degree of respect for the animals than we seem to have today. The animals weren't an "it." They weren't "neuter." The line between human and animal was not as clearly defined. Humans back then did not consider themselves superior to all other life on earth. They were just a part of the great circle of life. Somewhere along the way humans jumped far over the line that separated us from the animals, and in doing so I think in some ways we lost a big part of who we are. I think this is something every hunter intuitively knows, and I think a large part of why we hunt is that it is still a part of who we are, who we were; it is imbedded in our genes, a part of our very makeup. Struggle as they might, many don't know why they hunt or what draws them to kill a wild animal. For some, it gives understanding, grace, teaches respect. It completes a connection to everything else. But for others it does not. (I worry about those others!) Did our notion of "don't waste" come from the deep past, or is it borne of a more immediate cultural ethic? My experience tells me it is based in the past on the root level. Because it's just common sense. And even though some will say common sense is no longer common, I like to think many of us still have it.
Best, Mark
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