The Past
Strike ye our land with curved horns! Now with cries bending our bodies, breathe fire upon us; now with feet trampling the earth, let your hoofs thunder over us! The buffalo I’ve taken and I lift up my voice; strike ye our land with curved horns!
SIOUX BUFFALO CHANT (UNDATED)
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We cannot but pity the boy who has never fired a gun; he is no more humane, while his education has been sadly neglected.
HENRY DAVlD THOREAU
WALDEN (1854)
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I have carried out my official duties as long and as faithfully as I can, and for the rest I have lived in such fashion as seemed most agreeable to me … convinced that a good day’s shooting is second in point of pleasure to nothing else on earth.
LORD WARWICK IN
THE BIG SHOTS—EDWARDIAN SHOOTING PARTIES BY JONATHAN RUFFER (1977)
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Of the strength and ferocity of the animal [grizzly bear] the Indians had given us dreadful accounts. They never attack him except in parties of six or eight persons, and even then are often defeated with a loss of one or more of their party.
MERIWETHER LEWIS AND WILLIAM CLARK
THE JOURNALS OF LEWIS AND CLARK (1805)
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The pleasure of the sportsman in the chase is measured by the intelligence of the game and its capacity to elude pursuit and in the labor involved in the capture. It is a contest with sharp wits where satisfaction is mingled with admiration for the object overcome.
JOHN DEAN CATON
THE ANTELOPE AND DEER OF NORTH AMERICA (1877)
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The legend of Lord Ripon rests simply on the fact that he could kill more birds than anybody else … At Sandringham he once killed twenty-eight pheasants in a minute. On another occasion he shot so quickly and accurately that he had seven birds dead in the air at once. His talents aroused some jealousy.
JONATHAN RUFFER
THE BIG SHOTS—EDWARDIAN SHOOTING PARTIES (1977)
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What of the hunting, hunter bold?
—Brother, the watch was long and cold.
What of the quarry ye went to kill?
—Brother, he crops in the jungle still.
Where is the power that made your pride?
—Brother, it ebbs from my flank and side.
Where is the haste that ye hurry by?
—Brother, I go to my lair to die.
RUDYARD KIPLING
“TIGER-TIGER” IN THE JUNGLE BOOKS (1894)
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The caribou feeds the wolf, but it is the wolf who keeps the caribou strong.
KEEWATIN ESKIMO SAYING (UNDATED)
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I can truthfully say I know of no other recreation that will do so much toward keeping a woman in good health and perfect figure than a few hours spent occasionally at trap shooting.
ANNIE OAKLEY
“ANNIE OAKLEY RULED THE TRAPS” IN
SPORTS AFIELD (AUGUST 1915)
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Having prepared from the skin an apt resemblance of the living bird, they [Cherokee hunters] follow the turkey trails or haunts till they discover a flock, when they secrete themselves behind a log in such a manner to elude discovery, partially displaying their decoy and imitating the gobbling noise of the cock.
ALBERT HAZEN WRIGHT
EARLY RECORDS OF THE WILD TURKEY (1914)
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It has always seemed to me that any man is a better man for being a hunter. This sport confers a certain constant alertness, and develops a certain ruggedness of character that, in these days of too much civilization, is refreshing; moreover, it allies us to the pioneer past. In a deep sense, this great land of ours was won for us by hunters.
ARCHIBALD RUTLEDGE
WHY I TAUGHT MY BOYS TO HUNT (EARLY 1940s)
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Wilderness is the raw material out of which man has hammered the artifact called civilization.
ALDO LEOPOLD
A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC (1949)
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As all hunters, the people of the Americas relied on the skills of stalking, tracking and trapping to get close to their quarry, so the range and power of the weapon were not so important as the craft of hunting.
ROBERT HARDY
LONGBOW: A SOCIAL AND MILITARY HISTORY (1976)
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These bears, being so hard to die, rather intimidate us all. I must confess that I do not like the gentlemen and had rather fight two Indians than one bear. There is no other chance to conquer them by a single shot but by shooting them through the brains.
MERIWETHER LEWIS (1805)
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What is religious about hunting is that it leads us to remember and accept the violent nature of our condition, that every animal that eats will in turn one day be eaten. The hunt keeps us honest.
DUDLEY YOUNG
ORIGINS OF THE SACRED (1991)
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One morning … he heard a wild cacophony, a rumble which seemed to move the earth yet came from the sky, and he roused out to see descending toward his marsh a veritable cloud of huge birds, all of them crying in loud voices, “Onk-or; onk-or!” And in that first moment of seeing the geese he comprehended them totally: jet-black head and neck, snow-white underchin, beautiful cream body with brown top, black tail, raucous, lovable, fat and constantly shouting to each other, “Onk-or!”
JAMES A. MICHENER
CHESAPEAKE (1978)
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Whoever consider themselves beautiful after seeing me has no heart.
“SONG OF THE ELK”, ACCORDING TO THE SIOUX ELK SOCIETY, IN DOG SOLDIERS, BEAR MEN AND BUFFALO WOMEN, BY THOMAS E. MAILS (1973)
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