"Native Americans can teach us much about hunting. I've been impressed with skills the Shivwits tribe west of Santa Clara places on pursuit of venison. Fires have interrupted their Happy Hunting Grounds in the Beaver Dam Mountains to a certain extent but they have shown me some of the big racks taken over the years on this part of their reservation.

They show special pride in their devotion to details when it comes to hunting. (And I might add as a sidelight, basketball.) One young man showed me antlers taken over the past several years and describes how he walks softly, glasses well ahead, equates weather conditions with migration tendencies, tracks the biggest bucks from a 3- to 4-inch print, etc. Plus, knowing the geography of the reservation, where the deer will likely be at various times of the fall, where feed is found (cliff rose rather than cedar or pinyon pine which has less food value), and how to locate game when spooked.

One can learn much about hunting skills from the Navajos. Our family had a Navajo boy living with us a few years ago and he told me where his family finds venison in San Juan County. If after a big buck, they knew some of the biggest hung out in lower terrain along Montezuma Wash rather than high in the nearby mountains.

We talked about Navajo Mountain (10,400 feet elevation northeast of Lake Powell) for I'm certain it harbors some monster muleys. Non-tribal members have never been allowed in that area.I've been told that it is a "sacred mountain" but I have to wonder if the local natives wanted a Boone-Crockett trophy if they wouldn't find one there."

Get the Story:
Hartt Wixom: Lessons plentiful from Indian hunt (The St. George Spectrum 9/26)