CRPA Jan-Feb 2016

Reading with
REDCORN
BY GUY NIXON (REDCORN)
Why Do We Hunt?
The question you and I are often asked that
honestly deserves a good explanation.
For many of us the question (Why
do you hunt?) is asked as a way
of raising our ire —to get at us—
yet sometimes it is truly meant to find
out what drives us. As for any “Group”
there as many answers as there are individuals.
For some it is part of their family upbringing
while others have found it on
their own, yet both become just as passionate
about it. Why?
In the shortest line possible, it is because
of what we are.
The explanation is actually very simple,
yet very deep. What do we admire
about a wild bighorn ram that we do not
admire about a domesticated sheep, or
the wild turkey versus the white domesticated
one? The answer is everything
that has meaning in life.
The wild non-domesticated type of
any species has the attributes we admire.
It can make its own living, make its own
life, and makes its own decisions.
As hunters we are that part of the
population that is not “domesticated,”
we are as we were meant to be. My
grandfather pointed out that as Cherokee
we were Civilized but that is
entirely different from being domesticated.
The domesticated live
their lives by the handouts
of others, they do not have
the initiative to make their
own decisions. They may
complain about their predicament,
but they lack the
inner force to try to make decisions
on their own be they
sheep, turkeys or people.
For those who then begin
to argue that we should be
vegetarians it often works to
point out that primates hunt
as well as gather. Our fellow
omnivores the bears may eat
honey and berries but also
take down (hunt) deer as
well.
The typical argument
then goes that the world is
not the same as the one our
ancestors lived in and we
cannot live off wild meat
alone. My response is that,
even if we may not be able
to live as we once did, this does not
mean that we have to, or even that we
should stop practicing our ancestors’
values and cultures—our values our
Drying buffalo meat.
One of the author’s grandfather’s
cousins setting up his camp.
cultures. What is the idea behind “range
fed” or “cage free”? Why do people
want “Organically raised and “hormone
free”? Are they not trying in some way
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JAN. / FEB.