Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-13
10 HUNTS TO LIVE


TO the Indian 1t is mystery why SO many
white men kill game chiefly for the sake
of the killing. When he goes fishing it is
because he really needs fish for eating; when
he stalks a deer it is because hunger has
driven him toit. Consequently, the methods
the white man has devised whereby the
greatest sport can be derived from fishing
and hunting hold no charm for the Indian.
Whipping a stream with fancifully colored
flies at the end of a string attached to bam-
boo rod isn't his idea of trout fishing; and
when he wants a deer he will use his init
mate knowledge of the deer's habits, and
corral him, possibly, without an arduous
tramp of many miles and hours across heavy
mountain trails.
The rabbit drive is a rather common
method among a number of Indian tribes to
secure supply of meat for the fall and Win
ter months. In the open country the Indians
build a V-shaped fence, preferably of woven
wire, four or five feet high. Sometimes it is a
in the direction of the open end a number
of the Indians-in the hundreds, often
form themselves into line, each about ten
feet from his neighbor, and then start off
slowly toward the fence.
Armed with club, the hunter beats the
crossword and sage grass about him, start
ing the rabbits from their resting places.
The men at the ends of the line work in
slightly toward each other and so reach the
fence first, the rabbits thus being forced into
the open end of the V. AS the animals
reach the fence the men close in on them and
beat them to death with their clubs. Two
and three thousand rabbits are sometimes
secured in single drive The ba .ue over,
the Indians jerk the meat. They eat it
every bit. The word waste has no place
in their vocabulary.
Perhaps the following method of duck
hunting in years gone by was unique among
the BannOcks and ShoshOnes in the great
Northwest. Along the river bottoms ducks
principally malard and teal, focked in great
numbers during the fall. The Indian would
select some favorable spot along the bank of
the stream, and when a flock of ducks had
settled on the water below him would begin
operations A pumpkin was quietly launched.
AS 1t t1oated down the stream and among the
ducks they would rise in great excitement
For a time they would hover over the water,
then settle again or its surface. A second
pumpkin was launched. The ducks fut-
tered from the stream; but they soon re-
turned. BY the time four pumpkins had
f1oated down the river the birds had become
SO accustomed to them that they no longer
noticed.
Then the Indian buck placed over his head
a shell of a pumpkin with peepholes in it,
and, slipping quietly into the stream, waded
or trod water, being careful to keep the
pumpkin in an apparent floating position on
the surface of the water. Coming among the
ducks, he seized the nearest one by the neck,
dragging it under. Frequently he could get
four or five before the rest of the flock would
realize that this pumpkin was more danger
Gus than the others had been, when they
would fly away. But there were always
other f1ocks just little way down the river,
and if the Indian wanted more ducks, he
could get them. And he did get them, without