Michael wrote:
>I don't know if I would say "simply", because there are many other
good >reasons Indians don't hunt besides convenient doughnuts.

Thank you, Michael, for listing some of the factors in why some Natives
don't hunt as much as some think they should.

Natives make the same poor diet and lifestyle choices seen everywhere
else.  I'm not saying we don't.  But please don't judge Natives by a
different standard for not holding up some kind of 'gold standard' of
paleodiet.  Seeing as many of us Paleotypes on the list look to Native
& Inuit traditional diets for guidance, I hope we can have a little
understanding here, particularly when it comes to issues around hunting
rights.

Some other reasons why we may hunt less:
- many many Natives (like my father) were taken from their homes as
children and forced into residential schools until their late teens -
just when they were supposed to be learning how to hunt and survive on
the land.
- Hunting can be very very expensive (into the thousands of dollars if
your trapline is remote), and is no longer a viable way to make a
living, thanks to lobbying by anti-fur activists.
- Though we may have 'unlimited access' to fish and animals, we often
must limit our consumption, because they are contaminated with mercury
or PCB's or pesticides.  As a woman who may want to have children, I'm
supposed to avoid certain fish caught on my family's trapline, because
they have high levels of mercury.
- Lastly....when you are experiencing poverty, alcoholism, violence,
and illness to the degree as is so common on reserves, how easy do you
think it is to get out & hunt?

I hope I have not offended anyone on the list, but on occasion this
issue has come up before, so I felt it's important to address it.

Cheyenne

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