Warren County
Local History by Dallas Bogan |
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Dallas Bogan on 13 August 2004 |
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original article by Dallas Bogan |
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Without a doubt, the American Indian and his ways changed the ways of the world and its societal culture more than any other civilization. It has been estimated that one-half of the world's food supply originated with the American Indian.
One of the Indian's more skillful traits was their ingenuity and cunning for
hunting. The early European explorers were amazed at this skill, which lay in
their genius and knowledge of the animal habits. Speed and accuracy took second
place to this ability.
Many methods were employed to trick the animals. One such maneuver was to imitate
the call of birds and animals.
Most of the time the sounds came from their throat. The cupping of their hands
over their mouth allowed amplification or modifications of the sounds. Hunters
would summon a buffalo cow by imitating the amplified sounds of her young calf.
An Indian would be trained at an early age to imitate many birdcalls such as
the calls of ducks, geese, gulls, etc.
The human voice, with its limited sounds, could only range so far. Substitutes
were manufactured which consisted of whistles of clay, wood, antler, and bone.
The main objective was to produce the call of a mate in distress or imitate
a courtship sound.
A blade of grass held between two fingers and blown into would resemble the
call of a fawn in distress, thus giving a summons for the doe. Another trick
to attract the doe during mating season was by clanging deer antlers together.
Indian calls and whistles had their place, but the manufacturing of decoys to
lure birds or animals were used extensively. Archaeologists have found ancient
wooden and straw bird decoys throughout North America. These decoys were used
then the same as today. They were floated on ponds and lakes to lure the migration
of the bird's overhead.
The hunters of yesteryear also adapted a means of disguising themselves by which
they wore the skins of the animals they hunted. With this masquerade in place
they were able to sneak into the center of their prey.
The wolf did seemingly not frighten the buffalo. The Indian would slip into
a wolf skin and walk amongst his prey. With much skill he would pick out the
ablest animal and the kill would begin.
If a skin were not available the hunters would camouflage themselves with plants
that were tied to their body. A variety of dark paints were used on their bodies
for the purpose of concealment.
The recent fires in the Western states are a reminder that we as a country
are not entirely safe from this ravaging atrocity. The American Indian, through
his cultural and survival techniques, solved this problem of obliteration from
fire centuries before white man's entry into this country.
The great forests, upon the European's arrival, were not here simply because
of natural occurrences, but because of the Indian's procedure of preserving
them.
They had been living amongst the mighty forests for centuries and had painstakingly
sought to preserve them for future generations.
The Indians burned the forest every year to destroy the small brush, the reasoning
being the maximizing of the growth of the trees and plants they found useful.
One reason for this strict control allowed the large trees to survive for the
purpose of the carving out of dugout canoes.
One advantage of the cleared forests was that during warfare the enemy had few
places to hide and an ambush could possibly be averted. Uncleared land could
pose a definite threat to the village living within it because the enemy could
hide, set fire to it, and ultimately use it as a weapon.
Firing of the forests triggered new growth and logically attracted large animals,
which resulted in food and skins for the Indians welfare.
Control by fire in the plains resulted in restriction of the buffalo. Because
of this incident, this huge animal crossed the Mississippi and migrated into
the Eastern forests and took up roots. Their adaptation caused them to be called
"forest buffalo" rather than "plains buffalo."
In their annual burnings of the plains, forest and prairies, the Indians systematically
reduced the danger from uncontrolled fires set by lightning.
By the reduction of dead lumber and plants, they diminished the chances of uncontrolled
fire that could destroy their villages and croplands.
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This page created 13 August 2004 and last updated
28 September, 2008
© 2004 Arne H Trelvik
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