3. Beaver Characteristics

• Live in colonies.
• Mate in February.
• 2-4 cubs by late May.
• Mature in 2 1/2 yrs.
• 30-60 pounds.
• Undercoat is soft barbed hairs that stick to felt base for hat making.

• Pond raises stream temperature.
• Favors plankton, aquatic insects, fish.
• Attracts water and land birds.
• Creates habitat for animals: brush, cavity trees; marsh.

• Winter and spring.
• Meat, hides, antlers.
• Separate societies.
• White leaders.
• Manitous.
• Ordained killing.
• Ritual preparations.
• Ritual disposal.

• 1580s trade begins.
• 1640s widespread.
• Trade with Indians.
• Pelts for iron knives, axes, fish hooks, kettles, needles.
• Metal replaces bone, bark, wood.
• Beaver trapped for hats.

8. Indian Trappers

• Beaver trapped in winter.
• Lured by castoreum from scent glands.
• Tricked with stakes driven through ice, blocking tunnels out of food piles.
• Iron (later steel) traps set.

• Otter
• Muskrat
• Moose
• Deer (for hides)
• Bear
• Lynx (Bobcat)
• Marten (Sable)
• Weasel

• Epidemics introduced by sailors, fishermen, missionaries, and settlers.
• Cooperative hunting patterns undermined.
• Competition between individuals and tribes arises.
• Creates dependency on trade.
• Places Indian above, not in ecosystem.

• Jesuit missionaries introduce Christianity.
• Ridicule shaman, taboos, spirits.
• Substitute baptism; claim Christian God is reason for recovery from disease.
• Teach Indians to read Bible.
• Power of written text over oral traditions.

• Equal to nature
• Mimetic and oral modes of knowing
• Face to face subjects
• Collective consciousness
• Ritual, song, rhyme, and oration

• Above nature
• Dominance of visual knowledge
• Commodity objects apart from nature
• Autonomous self; I or me
• Analytic; problem-solving; alpha-numeric literacy

• 1. "By a lockstep process, European disease rendered the Indian's control over the supernatural and spiritual realm inoperative, and the disillusioned Micmac apostatized, debilitating taboo and preparing the way for the destruction of wildlife which was soon to occur under the stimulation of the fur trade."
• 2. Apostatize: to abandon former beliefs and forsake former principles and faith.
• 3. Micmac's loss of faith enables them to turn on the beaver and participate in the fur trade.

• 1. Epidemics occurred after the fur trade began. Smallpox epidemics in 1639, 1649-50, 1669-70, 1677-9, 1667-1. Measles epidemics in 1633-4, 1658-9.
• 2. The fur trade was established in the 1580s through 1640s, i.e. before the epidemics.
• What is at stake? A materialist (sometimes Marxist) versus idealist (spiritual) interpretation of history.
• Discussion: Is materialism ("guns, germs , and steel") or ideas (religion) the driver of history?

• Bison are grass eaters; large herds; poor eyesight; bison wallows often hidden.

• Indians driving buffalo into narrow chasm prior to advent of horse.

• Buffalo jumps in same location used for thousands of years prior to horse.
• Lanes constructed of stones removed from pathway.

• Horse (18th c.) makes techniques used on foot more efficient; nomadic tribes follow herds.

Frederic Remington

• Mimetic hunting: Horse-mounted Indians imitating buffalo to enter herd unnoticed.

• Men hunt bison. Women dress meat and hides. George Catlin, Comanche Village.

• Painted by Short Bull, Sioux chief.
• Annual sun dance; summer ritual.

• Carl Bodmer painting.
• "Men of the Mandan Buffalo Bull Society."
• Indians decorated themselves in buffalo parts for the dance.

• Colt six-shooter (1835) introduced by European Americans helps to subdue Plains Indians.

• Horse mounted whites begin near extermination of bison and movement of Indians to reservations.

• "Indians and Bison on the Great Plains."
• Horse creates nomadic bands of bison hunters on the Great Plains after the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.
• Men hunt bison. Women dress meat and tan hides which are traded for corn grown by Missouri River villagers.
• European fur trade (beaver pelts for guns and kettles) is grafted onto Indian trading network after mid-18th century.
• European smallpox epidemics (1780s) devastate villagers more than nomads (79 vs. 45 percent), shifting balance of power to nomads.
• Bison hunting (nomads) is a more secure land use strategy than hunting combined with sedentary horticulture (villagers).
• Nomadism is a successful (short-term) adaptation to the Plains environment, not a step backward in evolution.

• Gutierrez: Exploration, colonization, and warfare break down Pueblo society. Franciscans introduce domesticated animals, Christian religion, and new symbols (Virgin Mary).
• Martin: European diseases cause Micmacs to apostatize allowing Indians to engage in the fur trade and to accept Christianity.
• Isenberg: Introduction of feral horse creates nomadic Plains tribes who establish trading networks with settled tribes, onto which fur trade is grafted. Disease subsequently devastates village tribes, giving nomads a temporary advantage.

• Should we hunt?
• How should we relate to other animals?
• Is (was) there an "Ecological Indian"?
• How should we think about historical causation?