PREFACE 



For over twenty-five years I have been giving the talks and 

 demonstrations that are gathered together in this book. Many 

 of them have appeared in magazines or in the "Birch-Bark 

 Roll" that has come out annually for ten years. But this is 

 the first time in which a comprehensive collection has been 

 made of the activities, customs, laws, and amusements that 

 have been developed in my camps. 



Some of the related subjects I have treated at too great length 

 for enclosure in one book. Of this class are the ''Life Histories 

 of Northern Animals," "Animal Stories," "Sign Language" and 

 "Forestry," which appear as separate works. All are merely 

 parts of a scheme that I have always considered my life work, 

 namely, the development or revival of Woodcraft as a school for 

 Manhood. 



By Woodcraft I mean outdoor life in its broadest sense and 

 the plan has ever been with me since boyhood. 



Woodcraft is the first of all the sciences. It was Woodcraft 

 that made man out of brutish material, and Woodcraft in its 

 highest form may save him from decay. 



As the model for outdoor life in this country I took the 

 Indian, and have thus been obliged to defend him against the 

 calumnies of those who coveted his possessions. In giving 

 these few historical extracts to show the Indian character, it 

 must be remembered that I could give hundreds, and that prac- 

 tically all the travelers who saw with their own eyes are of one 

 mind in the matter. 



Commissioner Robert G. Valentine, of the Indian Bureau, 

 the first Indian Commissioner we have ever had who knew and 

 sympathized with the Indians, writes after reading my manu- 

 script: 



