Hunting Caribou

Subsistence Hunting along the Northern Edge of the Boreal Forest

Karyn Sharp, Henry S. Sharp

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780803274464
• eBook ISBN: 9780803277359
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Social Sciences

Denésuliné hunters range from deep in the Boreal Forest far into the tundra of northern Canada. Henry S. Sharp, a social anthropologist and ethnographer, spent several decades participating in fieldwork and observing hunts by this extended kin group. His daughter, Karyn Sharp, who is an archaeologist specializing in First Nations Studies and is Denésuliné, also observed countless hunts. Over the years the father and daughter realized that not only their personal backgrounds but also their disciplinary specializations significantly affected how each perceived and understood their experiences with the Denésuliné.

In Hunting Caribou, Henry and Karyn Sharp attempt to understand and interpret their decades-long observations of Denésuliné hunts through the multiple disciplinary lenses of anthropology, archaeology, and ethnology. Although questions and methodologies differ between disciplines, the Sharps' ethnography, by connecting these components, provides unique insights into the ecology and motivations of hunting societies.

Themes of gender, women's labor, insects, wolf and caribou behavior, scale, mobility and transportation, and land use are linked through the authors' personal voice and experiences. This participant ethnography makes an important contribution to multiple fields in academe while simultaneously revealing broad implications for research, public policy, and First Nations politics.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Hunt 1. Caribou
• Text 1. Hunting and Predation
• Hunt 2. Moose
• Text 2. Food Storage
• Hunt 3. Caribou: Pursuit and Risk
• Text 3. Persistence in Hunting
• Hunt 4. Caribou: Waiting for Prey
• Text 4. Weapons
• Hunt 5. Caribou: Walking, Kill Locations, and Spoilage
• Text 5. Carrion and Scavengers
• Hunt 6. Wolf
• Text 6. Camp Formation
• Hunt 7. Moose: Hunting by Habitat
• Text 7. Summer Doldrums
• Hunt 8. Caribou: Long-Distance Hunting
• Text 8. Transporting Meat
• Interlude 1. Land Use and the Terrain at Foxholm Lake
• Hunt 9. Bear: Failed Hunt
• Text 9. Looking for Game
• Hunt 10. Caribou: Calves
• Text 10. Hides
• Hunt 11. Jackfish
• Text 11. Women’s Labor
• Hunt 12. Bear: Stalking Prey
• Text 12. Prey Choice
• Hunt 13. Missing Hunts
• Text 13. Shadows of the Past
• Interlude 2. Wolves, Caribou, and Approaching Prey
• Hunt 14. Caribou: Caching in the Fall
• Text 14. Hunting from High Ground
• Hunt 15. Caribou: Failed Hunt
• Text 15. A Puzzle
• Selected Bibliography
• Index
• About Henry S. Sharp
• About Karyn Sharp
• Other Works by Henry S. Sharp
• Illustrations