Historic Crafts & Skills

A Guide to Outdoor Heritage Skills

General Instructions and Projects

Note to teachers and youth leaders: For instructor lesson plans of these materials, contact the Department's Outreach and Education Division.

Why study historic crafts and skills?

THE LURE OF THE PAST

For many people, outdoor skills such as hunting, trapping, fishing, canoeing and backpacking are more than recreation. They are a means of rediscovering and reliving our outdoor heritage. More, they are a celebration of our past and those qualities- independence, courage and self-reliance-that we admire in our ancestors.

The hypnotic flames of a campfire, the call of a wild goose, the bite of an icy wind-these are all pathways to our past. We seek them as self-renewal. For a growing number of people, however, these simple links are not enough. The feel of buckskin garments, the balance of a flintlock rifle and the satisfaction of striking fire with flint and steel help recapture the adventure of the past.

It goes beyond nostalgia. Most who seek the past and have experienced something of it will readily admit they don't want to give up modern conveniences, although the desire to explore their outdoor roots remains strong.

A CAUTION

The past was not all glamour and our forebears were not all heroes. They were human like us and their deeds of greatness are mingled with darker deeds. While we can admire the courage and independence of the plainsmen, their ruthless slaughter of the buffalo is appalling.

As you explore the past, keep in mind that our ancestors viewed life much differently than we do today. Their closeness to nature blinded them to some of its beauty, delicacy and limited resources. Only through the actions of dedicated conservationists and the regulation of agencies have we restored parts of our wild heritage that were nearly lost at the hands of our ancestors. Perhaps it is best to think of the past as unique, and not compare it to the present. Concentrate on the positive, but do not attempt to ignore or distort the negative-there are lessons to be learned there, too.

Ethics

 

mountain man image

Does a generation have the right to do with natural resources as it pleases without regard to the legacy it leaves the future?
The study of our relationship with our outdoor past raises many ethical questions. Our ancestors viewed their environment quite differently than we do. Game animals were a source of food and income. Methods of taking game were ruthlessly efficient. The ideas of conservation and regulated harvest were unknown. Quite frequently, hunters and trappers killed in excess of what they needed, leaving unwanted animals for scavengers. This is in contrast to the native American who through the thousands of years had grown to recognize the interdependency of humans and nature. Some of their conservation measures took the form of tribal taboos and religious restrictions.

The effect of western man on the frontier was to quickly deplete it of major game species. Beaver declined to near extinction, the buffalo passed, antelope and deer dwindled, and prairie predators like the plains wolf vanished.

These aspects of our outdoor past should be considered. They need examination in light of both the past and the present.

What is the value of a buffalo? As meat? As shelter and clothing? As a symbol of the Great Plains? What are the effects of unregulated harvest of game? On nature? On humans? Does a generation have the right to do with natural resources as it pleases without regard to the legacy it leaves to the future?

These questions are topics to consider when examining the fur trade and frontier America. Buffalo, deer and beaver are found here today because our frontier ancestors were followed by generations who placed a different value on these creatures.

Contemporary ethical concerns include how the study of the past will be conducted. Remember, even though we are looking at the past, we are living in the present. Resources are scarce and should be conserved accordingly. Whether or not we hunt or fish, we still use our natural resources. Our existence requires it. Note that snares and deadfall traps are mentioned for historical interest. They are illegal today. When working with natural materials, be conservative. You can severely hurt an area of larkspur if you collect plants for a large dye project. Be careful with fires. Frontiersmen often set forest and grass fires to drive game. In some areas the scars still haven't healed.

Carry into your study of the past a concern for the future. Remember those qualities we admire in our ancestors came about largely because they had a rich environment to exploit. Document ID: --
Content revision: 20040210