The first day of our hunting trip was a beautiful day to be outdoors. White, puffy clouds decorated the sky. The chirping and chattering of birds could be heard coming from all directions. The forest was filled with endless pine trees, ash, and maples. The abundance of green leaves and pine needles made it difficult for me to see too deep into the woods. I began to wonder how I would be able to shoot any arrows accurately in this thick environment.
“These woods haven’t been cleared for years,” said Tisquantum. “The people who used to do the burning have all passed away from the plague.”
“What do you mean, burning?” I asked.
“They’ll burn part of the forest each season to keep it from growing too thick. If one part is burned one season, it will be left to regrow the following season while another part is burned.”
“And now there aren’t enough people to do this?”
“Not yet. And the forest can grow back quickly. Sometimes faster than a village can grow back.”
“Eat no fish today,” Quadequina told me the day before we left, “for tomorrow we hunt.”
“Why no fish?” I asked.
“The deer can smell your breath,” he said. I thought he was joking, but he was dead serious. A few other men joined our hunting party, and none of them ate fish or smoked tobacco the day before we left. We woke up early on hunting day, and I took a bath in one of the cold creeks nearby. It was cold as ice, but it sharpened my senses. Our hunting party included Quadequina and Tisquantum, three other Pokanoket men, and Oguina. I found out that it actually wasn’t that rare for women to sometimes join a hunting party. If larger animals were killed, the women would help skin and butcher the beast on the spot and then help haul it back to the village.
After our baths, we rubbed some musky-smelling leaves and flowers on our arms and legs and put on our breech-clouts. Wearing little clothing made us more sensitive to our surroundings and more apt to pay attention to rustling twigs or crunching leaves. We drank plenty of water, but ate just a small breakfast of maize and deer jerky.
“Be always on the alert,” said Tisquantum. “Look for the deer in every object you see. A hundred deer will see you before you see one. When you find that one, you must act first.”
We were blessed by the village shaman, and off we went, heading west into the trees. There was no speaking once we were far out from the village. I wore green and black face paint and had my hair and skin slicked with fresh oil to keep off the mosquitoes. We tracked quietly through the woods in a spread out rectangle formation. We used voiceless signals for communication such as sign language and low whistles. I was taught to walk with precision. Every step was checked. Every moving branch or spot of color in the forest was studied patiently, no matter how far off in the distance it was. We hunted up wind so the animals ahead couldn’t smell us while also trying to keep between the animals and the sun so we had the best light.
Tisquantum told me earlier about some of the different methods the Pokanoket used to capture deer. It wasn’t always possible to simply track one down and shoot it with arrows. Ingenuity was often required. Sometimes the Indians would cover their heads with grass or reeds and then crawl up on a deer in the open until they were within fifteen or even ten yards, and then rise up to a kneeling position quickly and fire their arrows or throw a spear. Sometimes a group of Indians would encircle the deer from various directions, herding it towards a river or lake to trap it where it might be captured in a net or shot down.
I started out that first trip with small targets. I tried hitting a squirrel. Then a bird. No success on either, but I was getting closer. We made camp on the first night in an open field and slept under the stars. We had a small fire pit where Quadequina roasted the squirrels that he and Oguina had killed. We unstrung our bows at night to keep the shape of both the bow and the sinew firm. The sinew had to constantly be checked for stretching because it was apt to loosen if it became wet or too hot. Checking our arrows each night was also a must because over the course of a day’s hike the feathers or heads might become unsettled or loose. While we attended to our gear, Tisquantum quietly told us stories about the amazing things he had seen in Europe, but I was so exhausted I fell asleep before he was finished.
TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 4
--from Time Trip #3:
Witness to the First Thanksgiving
KILLING FOR COUNTRY
Available at Amazon.com!
TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 2
A RIDE ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
TIME TRIP ADVENTURE 3
WITNESS TO THE FIRST THANKSGIVING
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