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Historians have long debated the impact of European technology, firearms in particular, on native peoples in North America. Roland Bohr's Gifts from the Thunder Beings is a promising new entry into this field. The heart of the book is a comparative analysis of “Indigenous and European distance weapons in big game hunting and combat from the beginning of the fur trade in the Hudson's Bay Company territory” over roughly a century from the late eighteenth century to the 1870s (p. xi). The primary subjects of the book are the Omushkego (Swampy) Cree, a subarctic native people, and the Blackfoot peoples of the northern … Language: en

THE DAY WAS SUNNY AND CLEAR, NOT TOO WARM, with a slight breeze from the west. It was midmorning in August in the coastal foothills of Marin County in California. Below, the valleys were still shrouded in fog. Mount Tamalpais to the east and Pine Creek Mountain to the northwest were visible in the distance. I was picking my way over a small hilltop, through stiff, waist-high, clawing branches of chaparral when suddenly a large, black insect took flight in front of me. It was about the size and shape of a bumble bee. I had seen several bees earlier but this one flew differently. It circled me a few times, then landed in plain view on a manzanita bush. Cautiously, I moved in to get a closer look. Again, it took flight, circled a few times, and landed. This time, I could see it clearly. It was black with white sides and large erect wing lobes; it was a rodent bot fly, a Cuterebra ! Again it flew, only this time a second similar fly joined in the circuitous flight path. After a brief pursuit, both landed nearby. I was delighted. Adult bot flies are rare in nature. Collecting a rodent bot has been likened to the bagging of a big game trophy. With net in hand, I stealthily stalked the first fly and, taking careful aim, swung the net and caught it. This trophy now was mine. As I stalked the second fly, I discovered several more in pursuit flights. Suddenly, I realized that the hilltop was an aggregation site. This chance encounter led me on a 30-yr sojourn into the study of the fascinating mating behavior of bot flies.

This article examines gender formation. It argues that big game hunting in British Columbia constituted its practitioners as masculine and bourgeois, while simultaneously racializing and sexualizing them. The same activity also constructed an alternative masculinity for aboriginal guides, one inspired by the Trickster figure and centered on deception rather than confrontation.

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Rocky Mountain mule deer ( Odocoileus hemionius hemionius ) on the National Bison Range, Moiese, Montana were shot at monthly intervals as part of another study. It was felt desirable to collect blood and p H data when possible from a wild ruminant in this refuge area. Very little is known about blood values, the p H of the gastro-intestinal tract, and other vital physiological data about our native big game. This investigation was made possible through the cooperation of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Montana Fish and Game Department, and the Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit. The deer were hunted on the range, and care had to be taken to shoot only selected animals. When shot at long range animals bled themselves out. In rocky, hilly country more than 15 minutes may have elapsed between the shooting and our arrival at the carcass. Only those blood samples are included in this report that were collected less than 15 minutes after the animal was shot. Blood was …

The discovery of uranium ore in Haliburton and Hastings counties will have far-reaching effects. Up till now, the human population, except in summer, has been low, but the finding of the metal has changed the picture and more and more people are staying throughout the year. With this in mind the changes in the fauna, particularly the game animals, will be drastic and these notes are being placed on record to show something of …

Theodor Haltenorth, Werner Trense. Big Game of the World and Its Trophies. Bayerischer Landwirtschaftsverlag GMBH, Bonn-Munchen-Wien. Pp. xii + 436, 264 figs., 12 color pl., 6 maps. 1956. (In German, with English and French descriptions of the illustrations.) Cloth. Price DM 56.—($13.30). As the reader is informed in the authors' foreword, this book has been written at the suggestion of the Counseil International de la Chasse (CIC), Paris, in order to meet the needs of persons whose field of interest includes the evaluation of trophies of big game animals. It is meant, therefore, in the first place for trained hunters and game wardens. Closer acquaintance with this work, however, indicates its usefulness to a wider range of people. It has been pointed out by the authors that the purpose of the book is not to stimulate the reckless killing of animals in a search for record specimens. Together with a standardization of the scoring system for trophies, they emphasize the necessity of better protection of game animals by informing the reader that the existence of a particular species is endangered. With these ideas in mind the authors have presented the material in the following chapters: Foreword; Big game and man; The history of the development of …