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Deer Found in the Longleaf Pine Forests Were Highly Valued by Many Indian Tribes

(bolded words in text indicate key words and concepts)

Student Information:

To the Indians of the longleaf pine forests, deer provided the convenience of “one stop shopping” of todays grocery store. From a single deer, clothing, tools, and food could be found. A park-like longleaf pine forest with lots of green grasses growing was very important for deer.

Teacher Information:

About 15,000 years ago, in the colder climate of the ice age, megafauna like mastodons, wooly bisons, and mammoths roamed throughout the southeastern United States. To hunt these large creatures, the native people would hide around watering holes with spears in hand, wait for an ambush, and thrust their weapons into the creature’s vital organs. More simply, it was neither a productive nor a wise hunting technique to stalk a 4-ton creature. As climate began to change over thousands of years and the megafauna died off, smaller animals like white-tailed deer began to radiate out throughout the landscape. Unlike the extinct megafauna, deer traded size for speed, a good sense of smell, and great hearing. More simply, deer are more alert and not easily ambushed by clumsy humans. To hunt these fast, skittish creatures, hunting techniques evolved.

As many land managers understand today, the Indians realized that fire was a powerful tool that could be used to manage habitats suitable for preferred game animals. Purposely burning the forest not only attracted deer to areas of lush, new growth but also made it possible for deer numbers to expand by increasing their food supply. Human-induced fire was also used to corral fleetly animals (like deer) into open areas where hunters waited to shoot them. The use of fire kept the longleaf pine forest open, giving hunters better shooting access. However, because the forest was so open it would have been difficult to get close enough to an animal to kill it by hand. For this reason, hand held spears where abandoned and bows and arrows were adopted. Veins of native flint rock made surgical sharp arrowheads and staves carved from hardwood trees made precise bows.

Deer was an important resource to many tribes throughout the Southeast. Among other things, deer hides provided clothing, antlers were used as tools, hooves worn as ornaments, and venison consumed as food. Some estimates have suggested that venison comprised about 85% of these people’s protein intake. When Europeans arrived, deerskins (buckskins) were used as a trade item. Deerskins traded to English tanners purchased “modern” tools, weapons and clothing for the Indians—things the longleaf forest could not supply. A conservative estimate of buckskin production in the late eighteenth century suggests about 1.5 million pounds of leather per year were supplied to the market (about 1 million deer). As the trade intensified, deer populations became depleted and eventually the markets shifted to other products like cotton textiles.

Key Words and Concepts (click on for glossary definition): human-induced fire, hunting, Indian, megafauna, white-tailed deer.

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