30 The Book of Woodcraft 



learned to emulate the white man, and slaughter game for 

 the love of slaughter, without reference to the future. Such 

 waste was condemned by the old-time Indians, as an abuse 

 of the gifts of God, and which would surely bring its punish- 

 ment. 



When, in 1684, De la Barre, Governor of Canada, com- 

 plained that the Iroquois were encroaching on the country 

 of those Indians who were allies of the French, he got a 

 stinging reply from Garangula, the Onondaga Chief, and a 

 general statement showing that the aborigines had game- 

 laws, not written, indeed, but well known, and enforced at 

 the spear-point, if need be: "We knock the Twightwies 

 [Miamis] and Chictaghicks [Illinois] on the head, because 

 they had cut down the trees of peace, which were the limits 

 of our country. They have hunted beaver on our lands. 

 They have acted contrary to the customs of all Indians, for 

 they left none of the beavers aUve, they killed both male and 

 female." (Sam G. Drake's "Indian Biog." 1832, p. iii.) 



Hunter says of the Kansas Indians: 



"I have never known a solitary instance of their wantonly 

 destroying any of those animals [buffalo, elk, and deer], except 

 on the hunting-grounds of their enemies, or encouraged to it by 

 the prospect of bartering their skins with the traders. " (Hun- 

 ter's "Captivity," 1798-1816, p. 279.) 



"After all, the Wild Indians could not be justly termed im- 

 provident, when the manner of hfe is taken into consideration. 

 They let nothing go to waste, and labored incessantly during 

 the summer and fall, to lay up provisions for the inclement 

 season. Berries of all kinds were industriously gathered and 

 dried in the sun. Even the wild cherries were pounded up, 

 stones and all, made into small cakes, and dried, for use in soups, 

 and for mixing with the pounded jerked meat and fat to form a 

 much-prized Indian delicacy." ("Indian Boyhood," East- 

 man; pp. 237-8.) 



