Hunting large game

Deer Elk

The Takelma used several techniques to hunt deer. They wore a deer head disguise to stalk and get close enough to the deer to spear them with an atlatal or use a bow. Dogs and fire were used to corral deer into an enclosure. The trapped deer were then killed with clubs (Gray 1987:33). Elk were too powerful to be snared easily so herds were driven into passes or ravines where hunters waited to kill them. Traps and pits were also used to capture elk and deer (Pullen 1995:IV-6).

Gray, Dennis J.

  • 1987 The Takelma and their Athapascan Neighbors: A New Ethnographic Synthesis for the Upper Rogue River Area of Southwestern Oregon. Eugene, Oregon: University of Oregon Anthropological Papers No. 37.

LaLande, Jeff and Reg Pullen

  • 1999 Burning for a ‘Fine and Beautiful Open Country’: Native Uses of Fire in Southwestern Oregon. In: Robert Boyd (ed.), Indians, Fire, and the Land in the Pacific Northwest. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis.

Atlatal

Atlatal
Hunting tool

 Arrowheads

Arrowheads

Collection of Southern Oregon University
Department of Anthropology

Fire - Hunting Tool

Fire
Hunting Tool

 Spearpoint

Spearpoint

Collection of Southern Oregon University
Department of Anthropology