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Good luck and take a good look at the picture of how and where a bear's parts are located. Like an old rancher told several of us when hunting on his place in northern Colorado, "when the shooting stops, the work begins", and believe me in bear hunting that is so true.

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#7 Make that one shot count when hunting mule deer, this fellow is a fairly sturdy animal, but solid hits in the chest cavity with proper ball - charge combinations will take effect quickly. The best hold claimed by many is a center of the lungs, since shots tend to go high, low, forward, or backward of the vital areas (I have used this same thought on buffalo over the years, taking 8 out of 12 with lung shots). Using a lung shot the chance of the ball moving from there into other vitals such as the spine, liver, heart or a shoulder can also help you. All of these locations are excellent hitting areas as is the neck or brain, provided the rifleman is capable of such pin point accuracy. If the animal is of trophy size you may want to stay away from the head and cape area; a few nice racks have collapsed like fallen trees when the old boy's were punched in the back of the head, brother does that make your day.

A lung, heart, or liver hit mulie may drop on the spot, but it's just as likely he'll go on a short "death run" without sign of being hurt. Brain, spine and shoulder shots usually stop a mulie instantly. I'm sure someone will have a different story or situtation that they have experienced, remember this is general information, nothing special. After hunting and killing white, black and mule deer since age 12, and loosing count after 50 plus animals (legal and questionable), in the 50's party hunting was legal in some eastern states. That's where the faster hunter usually filled everyones tag in their camp, that was fun as long as they did the work of cleaning and moving animals after the shooting. Tracking a wounded mule deer can be very easy or very hard, depending on the terrain, time of the year, and how hard hit. Mulies inhabit a variety of country, rocky to level, wet to dry areas. The ruffer and dryer, the easier to see and follow in most cases, no real sure and great way like many write. Alot depends on the country and your knowledge of the terrian, animal habits and so on, an endless list, all depends on who you talk to. As winter sets in a mulie's hair gets thicker, and stops the blood flow easier than when thinner in warmer areas. If you think you have a hit on your deer, can not find blood, look for tell tale gray hair in the area of the shot - this hair often will be found in his leaving tracks. Always follow a deer believed hit.

Within the last few years I have seen mulies act more like their brothers from the east (white tails) in escaping hunters. A good example was above Ft. Collins Colorado, we knew a small mulie was hiding in this creek bed, lots of brush, I was on a small hill and could really see what was going on in the area. a couple of friends went down into the brush to work the buck out, or so they thought. After an hour I had counted seven times he ducked my friends and finally got away, (could have shot him but he earned another day with his cleaverness). Two times by standing still they walked by him within a few yards, laying down worked several times, crawing down the creek bed past one friend worked once and a few other slick moves sure made my day, not so good for the friends.

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#8 Simple mountain garters, copied from a ragged pair at the Museum of the Fur Trade years ago while visiting Charles E. Hanson, Jr., close friend, history teacher, researcher and just plain fun to be around. "Us mountain men is always huntin' fur a new place to hang a nuw foo-fer-aw or perty-up his skins fer struttin' in front of thee squaws and pilgrims" believe it or not a quote from Mr. Hanson in a rare mode on afternoon in his library. It was so surprising to have this gentleman say something so off the wall, I wrote it down, and would remind him from time to time of his "off the wall" statement in fun.

Back to the "how-to" of this article, a place most neglected, has great potential for fancying up, is a set of fur garters. Worn below the knee and above the calf, it's a natural place to show out a little bead work, or a special bead. One draw back is, its not a practical item worn when on the trail or making a trek (hate that word) trip in long grass or brush, good way to become ground tied. The pair I copied this pattern from looked to have had fur on them at one time, with some bead work (greasy yellows) and nice red thread stitching. This would be the makers choice in what was to his liking, personally I would think these could be very fancy for use in the settlements or at a rendezvous with different colors of trade wool, bead work, quill work or just beads hanging on leather thongs dangling down the calf.

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#9 Making your first coonskin hat Davey. First determine your hat size, this is to be the diameter of your hat. Next lay the hide on the floor with the fur side down, hide side up. Now draw a circle the size you want so that it comes around just behind the ears of your animal (on the floor). One of Ma's pot's work pretty good to make the circle. Using a razor blade or sharp knife, cut along the drawn line until you come up to the animal's head or ear on each side. Next cut a strip from the remaining piece of hide about 3 inches wide, leaving the tail attached. This width can vary depending on how deep the hat is desired. On the hat's I have seen worn by some the rear legs with feet are left on. Now the use of Ma's pot comes in handy as a form to help in putting this fur together. Lay the top piece on the kettle which is turned upside down. The head on the hide now becomes the front of the hat as it folds down the side of the kettle. Place the other piece around the kettle and pin in place. Also, cut a "V" notch along side the tail on both sides and lace or sew together. This is so the back will be at right angles to the top. Now lace or sew the top starting at the tail. Start at the tail first so you will be sure to get it in the center. When you reach the head, the sides are laced or sewed to the cheeks on the hide. Fit the hide on your head first and adjust the sides to make for a tight fit. Then cut off any excess and lace or sew down the cheeks. I have seen old coonskin hat that have an old work hat without the bill attached to the inside if a liner is desired.

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#10 How many articles have you read on using natural dyes from plants, trees and the earth to color your favorite shirt, or how great walnut dye is. Seems everyone is into early camo, or would like you to believe that anyone in the woods from the Native American to the woodsman or long hunter were. Funny when I read the half dozen original "Pennsylvania Gazettes" from the mid 1700's or the three original "New York Tribunes" from the late 1700's; the advertising and the "wanted" lists for run-aways, show items for sale or being worn by this period of folks as being pretty damn colorful. Having read them many, many times and haven't found the dark brown and blacks some write about ? Lots of bright colors, stripes, plaids, checker and calico patterns, maybe what they are referring to is the original garment has gotten real dirty ! I have talked to many in the garment and cloth supplies and asked them about this, usually I get a smile and not much feed back as to the dark colored clothes we read about. Most of the time the subject is changed to what they have available, this is where the old saying comes in: "you never hear a huckster cry rotten fish" seems to fit very nicely doesn't it. I won't go any further on this subject, as several of our brothers have gone into great detail about what colors were available. At our last camp we got to talking about what the Native American had available to them in the way of color, then our editor was asking for articles of different things so I thought we would do a little lookin' and see what was around in native dyes. After looking over a half dozen books that cover "Native American Dyes" and figuring it would take something the size of a Sear Catalog (Spring issue) to cover this, plus it has already been done. So in a feable attempt I have shortened what information available at hand, to try and not make you to bored. The Ojibwa and the Chippewa tribes seems to have had some of the easier uses of dye: in making the dye and the process of dying the item. Most of the plants, tree root - inner bark, earth, and rusty iron depots they used were prepared by boiling the plant, root, etc. until it had released all the juices it had held previsouly. The removal of the resource material was the next part, at which time it maybe dried and reused at a later date. The liquid containing the juices (dye) from the first boiling was then the agent used for dying the articles to recieve the coloring, this may take from a short period a few hours, or soaking from a week to several or even a month to get the desired results. After the wanted color was achived the use of a securing agent was needed, so all your work wouldn't be washed out with the first rain or washing. This usually meant another boiling of your garment or article to set the color from the previous operation. So you can see to have an item with a wonderful color was not an easy task and may take quite a long period to get what you fancy. Some tribes didn't get as involved or just traded with ones that did to get what they wanted for color, then produced their personal article from the material traded for. It seems many of the tribes had like uses for different plants, trees and earth in the manufacturing of a dying agent. After comparing a dozen tribes across this great land I put together a list as follows.

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#11 Common Name Part of plant used Article dyed Color

ALDER inner bark porcupine quills red & yellow w/blood root, w.plum, dogwood mix

BLOOD ROOT root / inner bark porcupine quills,wood red w/other plant mix

BUR OAK inner bark porcupine quills black w/hazel, butternut mix

BUTTERNUT root / inner bark wood, cloth brown w/hazel mix

CEDAR-RED inner bark wood, grass mats mahogany w/other plant mix

CHOKEBERRY inner bark securing agent for: red

DOGWOOD inner bark porcupine quills ight red w/birch, oak, cedar mix

GOLD THREAD root porcupine quills dark yellow

HAZEL inner bark securing agent for: black w/butternut dye agent "rushes" black w/hazel, oak dye agent "cedar" black

HEMLOCK inner bark porcupine quills, matting med. mahogany w/rock dust to set color

LAMB'S QTR whole plant securing agent for: green

LICHENS whole plant porcupine quills med. yellow

MAPLE rotted wood porcupine quills purple

PUCCOON dried root porcupine quills, face paint red

SUMAC inner bark / pulp porcupine quills, matting light yellow

WHITE BIRCH inner bark porcupine quills medium red w/dogwood, oak, cedar ash

WILD PLUM root porcupine quills bright, dark red w/blood root, dogwood, alder mix = bright red w/blood root alone = dark red

Please note; most are shown as being used for porcupine quills (most easily dyed), grass matting, or as a securing agent to keep dye in material dyed. I have tried several of these on cloth items and found that you have to let your article soak for a period of time to get the wanted results in the color wanted, don't forget the securing agent for a lasting color.

A few formulas for dyes are shown below, a Dr. G.P. Merrill of the United States National Museum in Washington had made tests with many recipes and found these to work as good as any tested.

RED DYE

White birch. Red-osler dogwood / outer and inner bark. Oak. Ashes from cedar bark. Hot water. Boil the barks in the hot water. Prepare the ashes by burning about an armful of scraps of cedar bark. This should make about 2 cups of ashes, which is the correct quantity for 2 gallons of dye. sift the ashes through a piece of cheesecloth. Put them into the dye after it has boiled for a period, then let it boil up again, and then put in the material to be colored. Do not let a man or any outsider look into the dye.

BRIGHT RED DYE

Puccoon, nine inches of dried root - pulverized. Hot water, 1 quart. Ochre, 1 teaspoonful. If being used for dyeing porcupine quills, let it boil up a little, then put in the quills, which have previously stood for a while in hot water. Let the quills boil half an hour to an hour, keeping the kettle covered, then remove from the fire and let the quills stand in the dye for several hours. If they are not bright enough they may be redyed, letting them stand in the dye as before. The process is substantially the same in dyeing other materials.

DARK RED DYE

Bloodroot, 1 handful of root. Wild plum, 1 handful. Red-osier dogwood, 1 handful. Alder, 1 handful. The inner bark of the trees and the root of the bloodroot were used, all being boiled before the quills were put in the dye. Let the quills boil half an hour to an hour, keeping the kettle covered, then remove from the fire and let the quills stand in the dye for several hours. The list of formulas is endless with just about any color one could think of, processes are from simple ones like just shown, to ones that one would need the patience of a saint to perform. Go to your local library, you'll be surprised at the amount of titles covering natural and native dyes. 

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#12  In the last couple centuries one of the simplest business operations that still works closely to the original plan is the growing and preparation of wild rice (manomin) in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Wild rice grows in lakes, ponds, and slow moving stream in these states and in the Atlantic and Gulf states, in the Mississippi Valley sloughs, as well as along the shores of the Great Lakes. The wild rice for many natives has become one of the staple articles of diet, along with maple sugar, water fowl and venison in these regions.

The presence of wild rice in the Great Lakes was cause for war between the Sioux and the Ojibwa, it made possible the extention of the fur trade in that region with the available food source for traders and trappers. The expansion of settlements and development of other resources where helped with the wild rice production throughout the area, as a food source, a trade item and an income source.

The preparation of wild rice has always been one of the most picturesque activities of the Native American and has been a cooperative enterprise by families, tribes and neighborhood groups.

The rice was gathered in the early fall just before maturity in canoes poled by women. With a pole or forked stick the kernels were knocked down from the stalks into the canoes, where blanket had been spread to catch the grain. Since the rice is being gathered before maturity it is necessary to cure it before removing the hulls, this is done by spreading it on the rocks and drying it in the sun or over a slow fire, or parching or popping it in large iron kettles while being stirred with paddles. In the old days the parched rice was then placed in a skin lined holes in the ground, a skin placed over the rice and "new" moccasined footed men tramped down the rice breaking the hulls. Today modern threshing machines do this part of the operation.

The rice was then winnowed by the wind as the women shook small quantities in birch bark trays, the clean rice was then stored in woven bags of cedar bark with a layer of hay placed over the top and sewed down to the bag. It was also packed in skin containers and put in caches for long periods of time.

The collection and preparing has changed to modern equipment with todays demands, still being conducted under the shade of the trees, but if one looks hard enough "old ways" harvesting can be found, even today, usually by small operations.

A word to the wise, I have gotten some wild rice done the old way and have found it to be of poor quality - do to having fine sand mixed within the bag of rice. Apparently when drying on the rocks or when being shaken in the birch bark trays the wind has blown in the fine sand. If you don't mind grit with every bit you eat, then I quess that's OK - does keep you regular.

So to our modern day adventurer, traveler and writer, yes wild rice is correct and was traded from the Great Lake states long before a white man ever came into this land, and yes it would have been in the diet of the trapper, trader and long hunter. It was listed on trade lists of supplies in St. Louis warehouses, on menu's of the hotels and found in the small settlements up and down the major rivers from the north.

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As we find more we'll place them here in the NAF "SMOKE SIGNALS".

Elmer Pope & Buck Conner

I'm the original Elmer (damnit).

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updated  07/10/2010