Journeys to the Far North

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Olaus J. Murie. Journeys to the Far North

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JOURNEYS TO

THE FAR NORTH

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This was only one of the many superstitions the Cree Indians had. Several times an Indian would bring Mr. Moore a beaver to eat. Later the Indian would return to get the bones, which he tied in a bundle and hung above the ground in a willow.

Then I learned about their behavior toward the bear. If an Indian came upon a bear while hunting, he would first make a little speech, which I cannot give verbatim, but which was essentially an apology to the bear for the necessary killing. When the bear was killed, its body was carried in on a blanket. The cleaned skull was decorated with black and red bands painted across the forehead and hung in a tree. Such were the bear skulls I had noted along the east coast during the summer. One white man in the village smiled at this custom of making a speech before shooting a bear. But does not this represent a stage in human appreciation of our associated environment, which has widespread expression as Albert Schweitzer’s thought of “reverence for life”?

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