I realize that this is probably really boring, but I just want to post this for no reason. This is a paper I did for history class on the Beaver Indians. Read it.
The Beaver Indians
When you think of Beavers, it is guaranteed that you DO NOT first think of the Indian tribe, but of the animal, and that is understood. The animal beaver is an awesome animal, for its flat tail and its ability to gnaw down trees with its teeth. You don’t want to hear cool things about the animal beaver in this paper; you want me to tell you about the Beaver Indians so that is what I shall do. I would rather talk about the animal beaver, but I must obey my orders, sir!
A long time ago, in this same galaxy, and to be more precise, in central and northern Alberta and Saskatchewan, in Canada, the beaver tribe originally “set up camp”. Now, they live in a reserve like mostly all other Indian tribes do, except the beaver live far from other white people. Since they live so far away, they are allowed to live in huge amounts of land in northern Alberta and British Columbia. Their “huge amount of land” covers over 100,000 square miles.
The Beaver Indians ate Beaver. I may sound like I’m joking around, but I am somewhat serious! Eating beaver was forbidden in some groups of Indians, one reason being the castoreum glands in the beavers. The castoreum glands excrete a liquid, which the beaver combines with urine and sprays around on trees and rocks for a way to mark their territory. These glands could be dried and sold to use for perfumes. Many Indians did eat beaver though, and the flat tail, if fried, was considered a delicacy.
The Beaver Indians did not sit around eating beaver tail all day, no! They also ate many other things. Fish and small animals were often roasted whole on the coals of a fire, covered in mud so they wouldn’t burn. The Beavers would often eat buffalo, which is popular for Indians, but when the buffalo died out in their area, they ate lots of moose and bear. They would cover and bait holes in the ground, and when the bears fell in, they would eat them. They would also, preserve bear fat for chomping on during the winter.
The Beaver Indians wore beavers. Again, I am not joking. The pelts of beavers and bears were a large trading item that the Indians traded to the white Europeans. It was like if you work at a furniture store. If you work at a certain furniture store, you are going to buy furniture from your store. Since the beaver Indians handled the beaver pelts, they also wore them. It may have been how they got their names also.
In the Beaver society, there were these people titled as “Beaver Shaman”. I know. Those are not two words that I have ever heard put together. The beaver Shaman were believed to have power over and know all about the “normal” people in the beaver villages. They apparently dreamed dreams that predicted good or bad things in the future, about all the other villagers.
The Beavers lived in beavers. Now the name “Beaver Indians” makes complete sense. The Beaver Indians made like stick teepees, and covered them with cute little fuzzy beaver pelts. It was not very complex or anything. I think they copied the idea from other tribes. Those cheaters…
Remember the bear traps? Well those traps did not JUST catch bears, they also caught some horses and sometimes people of another tribe which was tromping through the beaver territory. This made the other tribe mad that they fell in these bear holes, but it also made the beavers mad that they were tromping through their land. Luckily, the other tribe was just traveling through, so there was not much fighting.
Now you know all about the Beaver Indians, and though my topic was not the animal beaver, you learned a bit about them too. That’s free information. You can take it. Sometimes I give out free information; I am just nice like that.
