Native american hunting methods
 

Does anyone know what methods the original bowhunters used for deer hunting?
I always think of them while hunting and admire their skill. I know I would have starved by now, even with all of this fancy new hunting gear.

RE: Native american hunting methods
 

They had the best "Natural Gear", they used the deer hide as camo!!

RE: Native american hunting methods
 

I know one method that we cant use that they did , they skined out a deer and draped the skin and head over top of themselfs and stalked on hand and nea to shooting range . I have seen guys out west do a sneak behind a pronghorn decoy before though , kind of dangerous nowadays .

RE: Native american hunting methods
 

dang farm you beet me by 2 minets

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RE: Native american hunting methods
 

if the message is not to be believed or at least appreciated than why post it and get angry when someone choses to disbelieve you

RE: Native american hunting methods
 

I can tell you this from experience, Do NOT try this. Especially while wearing doe estrous as after shave. I did not get my buck, but he got me!
I wonder if he'll call me?

RE: Native american hunting methods
 

Huntingirl89,

I am jealous of you and the Indian ways. I wish I could do the things
you and your family do. You are very special for learning the ways of your
elders. [:-]

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Thanks much huntingirl89. I enjoyed learning about your ancestors culture/methods etc. Info like this is why I joined the club. I shall try to become ONE with the deer this late bow season in NY. If I succeed I will forever send thank yous to land in the sky New York. Where is this land in the sky?

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Thank you huntingirl89,
It was your signature on a different post that prompted me to ask the question.
Now tell us more about "charming the deer";)

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philbert8

I would think they taste like a rabbit? Or maybe a deer? Maybe peanut butter...

RE: Native american hunting methods
 

I'm thinkin they taste like nuts

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There was an article in a hunting magazine that talked about "A man who touches deer". The man is Tom Brown Jr. and was taught by a Native American about the art of camoflauge. They must do a lot of hunting in warm weather because he talked about covering your whole body with ashes from a wood fire, then using charcoal to use blotches and then matting natural debris on you, like moss and mud and twigs in the mud, etc.

He also talked about a stalking walk, where a normal step takes 80-90 seconds. He mentioned that many of today's hunters take today's pace into the woods with them, and move entirely too fast. If you estimate a stalking step being roughly 2' in distance, one step every 85 seconds means it would take you 3 hours and 20 minutes to move 100 yards.

Another thing to keep in mind is that they had 365 days a year to hunt, the deer were not as pressured as they are today and therefore likely did not have as much of a natural fear of man as they do today. Also, the Native Americans may have been hunting something entirely different when a shot at a deer presented itself- they didn't have to worry about it being in season or not.

They really did have a lot of things in their favor, although I'm not saying it was a walk in the park for them, either. However, I think these things were more of a factor to their success than bathing in a deer's blood, which is more ritual than anything else.

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Philbert8...I hope your bum don't hurt no more. :)

Huntinggirl89, that was very interesting and infomative. Thanks. It's great that there's still people who study or live the traditional life...not just hunting....but anything...i.e. making candles, woodworking, making paper, sew their own clothes etc.

RE: Native american hunting methods
 

by23865

I read that article. Said the kids would pull hair from the tail as the deer walked by. wow...

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ditto

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Thank you for sharing the ways of your ancestors. I think we could all learn a lot from the ways of the past.:)

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Every deer hunter should read Tom Brown Jr's book about touching deer. He is not Indian but his friend from young childhood was. The stalking/touching deer was taught from his friends grandfather. One of their tasks was to come home with a handfull of hair that they got off a live deer. He talks about stalking deer that are looking right at you, moving so slowly that the deer does not even see you move. His friend and him would have contests who could touch a deer first. One (I forgot which) was a faster stalker (could move standing still, faster), but would sometimes get busted by the deer. He tries to explain the feeling of putting out your hand and running it down a deers back as it walks by you.

Tom aside, all of us would be much different hunters if we relied on it for our sole means of survival. Some Indians also used a lot of snares, traps, pits, etc.

RE: Native american hunting methods
 

Most Native Alaskan methods were far less spiritual...to a white guy.

One method of killing polar bears used a piece of baline (spelling?..it's the strainer from a whales mouth) rolled into a sping shape and placed inside a big chunk of fat. The bear would eat the fat balls whole and when digested the baline would tear up the bear's stomach causing an agonizing death. They would follow the bear from a safe distance until he croaked.

A tremendous amount of caribou hunting was done in lakes and rivers when the caribou swam across. Natives in boats with spears would harvest them quickly.

Ducks, geese and swans were harvested during molt when they could not fly. Herded into shallow inlets they were netted or clubbed to death.

Seals were clubbed to death and speared when they poked up out of the ice.

When you have only so few months to secure food in the arctic you did what you had to.

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All of our ancestors were substance hunters at one time or another and I think it would be a completely different story with all of us if there weren't a sandwich and a thermos of coffee waiting in the truck for lunch.

I believe that in a day when there were no record books or game laws that things were alot simpler. Notice that I didnt say easier but they were simpler, animals were food on the move.

In eastern Oregon pronghorn were routinely herded into brush enclosers. The antelope were then run to near exhaustion until they could be clubbed to death. After all even then arrows were valuable.

And dont knock the effectiveness of the stone arrow heads, recent studies have shown that the cutting width of a obsidian head is 5 microns, surgeons scalpels are 25 microns, so the stone heads were 5 times as sharp as todays scalpel blades.

As far as the ceremony goes I dont know what to think. I have witnessed on more than one occasion where a ceremony was performed for a sucessful hunt and seen animals almost willingly give themselves to a hunter. I have been told that this is not that uncommon and that the hunter must take the animal that has chosen to give them selves. I know what your thinking it sounds crazy to me too but if I hadn't seen it I wouldn't believe it either.

All in all I think that we would all be more sucessful if our next meal depended on what we killed. I dont know about you all but i'm sure that I would have been eating alot more squirrels than deer this year.

good hunting

Rogue

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Huntrgirl, you little bit of stereortypical dribble would be more believable if you could keep your facts straight but thanks for submitting that little piece of fiction. I'm not even going to bother pointing out the spots where your facts just don't jive. Well maybe one...you said "every year BEFORE DEER SEASON my aunts, uncles, cousins, and me and my father all gather and become "one with the deer" by drinking the blood of a deer that a youngster has just killed. Problem here is if deer season hasn't started yet, how is it one of the youngsters managed to bag their first for this ritual? And the rest of your 2 postings is filled with similar discrepancies. You paint a pretty picture. Too bad it's mostly Fantasy (aka BS)

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Sorry for the WR post my 2 year old got on here and now she has to stand in the corner.

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The times they are a changin'--The natives i know are all too lazy to get off their butt--let alone learn the ways of the elders.jmho.

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WhiteRaven,

I thought today was the annual kindergarden field trip, how come you stayed home:(?

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Yes the American Indians would wear a deerskin and sneak right up on deer. They knew that the tarsal gland would cover their scent and sometimes stood in a wood fire smoke to cover their scent.

They had to live off the land so they were very efficient. In my area they made very clever fish traps just using sticks knowing that herring and shad were coming up the creeks to spawn. They caught them by the thousands. They also caught crabs and clams and oysters by just sending the women and kids out into the shallow creeks.

They would float pumpkins down the creeks and rivers and once the ducks and geese got use to seeing that they would carve a big one out and swim with a pumpkin over their head looking out through slits and they swam right up and grabbed them by hand. Thats efficient.

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LOL:D

Four generations of my family concealed their heritage out of fear and misplaced shame because of hatred and bigotry. I envy those who were free to learn the ways of their people from their Elders.

RE: Native american hunting methods
 

RE: WR ravens rant about seasons etc.

are game-laws different on resevervations? My great, great grandfather married an indian woman. There's not connection with that side of the family anymore that I know of but it would have been cool. I like hearing about their hunting strategies... very learned in what they did.