According to the sacred stories, the only places we shot were the shadow of the shoulder and at the beginning of the braid at the bottom of the ear.
Nanaboozhoo shot the great mishupizhu in the shadow of the shoulder. Through the heart. To miss high still hits both lungs. Both shots take a few minutes for the animal to bleed out.
Behind the ear severs arteries and the spinal column and provides an instant death. But any animal will see an arrow flying and duck.
Either way, wait ten minutes before you go to look for it. If you lose the blood trail, walk in a spiral around the last blood spot or track. You’ll eventually find bits of fur or blood or tracks and the direction it was running.
When you find it. Offer tobacco before anything else.
Never shoot a female. Shooting one female is taking 7 moose from the future, and the seven more moose from each of those. Taking one female is taking hundreds of moose by the third generation. We never take females. We also don’t take the biggest bulls. We leave them alone for the health of the herd. We take 2-3 year old bulls. The dumb ones that come into the call first. Soft meat. Best eating.
We also never take the shot unless we know we are going to hit one of those two spots and the animal is going to die from one shot.
We give to the community first. Elders. Single moms. People without a hunter in their family.
Save the hides for drum makers and leather makers.
Hunting as an anishnaabe takes a lot of discipline. There are community responsibilities that ago along with our right to hunt.
Good luck to all the traditional hunters this year. I hope your communities receive blessings.
