Hunting

14 thousand years ago when people first arrived to the New World from Siberia many regions of North America were a hunter’s paradise. Here lived horses, mammoths and mastodons that became extinct 11-12 thousand years ago. In the Plains region people hunted bufalos, in the forests of South-East – deer, in taiga – elks, in mountain regions – argali, antelopes, rabbits and marmots.

 In the 7th millennium BC there were sufficient climatic changes. It became much warmer and drier than it is now, and the Great Plains partially turned into desert and buffalos became almost extinct. To the east of Mississippi, however, wild nature resources became as plentiful as ever.

In the Arctic regions people preferred to hunt large forest animals, including caribou – a type of reindeer which does not come under domestication. Animals were hunted mostly in the spring and autumn during seasonal migrations when they got across rivers. Californian Indians would wear deer skins and sneak up to the animal on the lee side. On heat elks were lured with decoys. When a hunter traced a deer he would approach him at an arrow shot distance. Deer did not feel the smell of a man and could take him for a tree: having shot a deer the hunter froze. Animals did not understand where danger was coming from and would run in circles exposing themselves for further shots. Florida Indians hunted in the same way.

Hunters’ implements were diverse: bows with arrows, snares, traps, nooses. Northern Athabaskan used tomahawks made of caribou horns as a special hunters’ and battle weapon – they were used in hand-to-hand fights or to finish off an injured animal. In the winter hunters used skis of special construction and protected eyes from snow blindness with special goggles. People’s life depended on successful hunting and, therefore, it was accompanied with numerous magical rituals.

Model of kayak with figurine of hunter.  USA, Russian America. The Norton Sound Eskimo. The first half of the 19th cent.		The Timucua Indians, Florida, deer hunting. Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand. American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South, Richard F. Townsend, general editor. Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago.		The Eskomo of Kodiak island at hunting.Drawing by M.Tihanov. 1918
The Aleutians in canoes at off-shore hunt. Drawing of the early 19th century.		Trap for  wild hogs. South America. The Carib Indians by 1933.