> The animals hunted by the Cree (found around Hudsons Bay) included moose,
> bear, ducks, geese and many other kinds of seabirds,  all very high in
> fat.  Moose was the preferred meat for pemmican because of its high fat
> level.

What % of fat do you consider as high fat? Moose is a rather lean meat,
especially in comparison to bear or beaver or muskrat. I will venture a
guess and say that moose was used most often for pemmican because:
1. it dries well in long, easy to hang strips
2. it is hunted in the fall, just as the food supply is getting short.

I do, however, see a lot of what you call "a hunter's taste for fatty
meat". The Elders I know have a particular fondness for pure bear grease -
I've seen them eat it as a treat. Most younger Cree (read: not raised in
the bush)  find the taste of bear and beaver unpleasant.

> Trying to generalize about fat consumption based on a few populations of
> HGs who have been driven into undesirable areas by civilization in not a
> good way to how man fitted into his place with the rest of the
> Pleistocene mega-fauna.

Ray, are you including the Hudson Bay Cree as HGs who have been driven
into an "undesirable" area by civilization?

Cheyenne