SUMMARY
Hunting Strategies and Intersite Comparison
These sites, perhaps not completely comparable due to differences in prehistoric ecology as well as in the vagaries of preservation, do exhibit similarities as well as striking differences. The majority of meat from all three sites was from deer, elk, and bear. Other important sources included raccoon, beaver, muskrat, and squirrel at 12 Mg 1 and possibly bison at 12 Jo 289.
Deer (and elk) are easiest to hunt during the fall, when both species are in rut. Elk are also more vulnerable right before the rut, in late summer, when they tend to congregate in large numbers. Both species may be hunted by drive and stalking techniques throughout the year. However these techniques, as well as hunting by the decoy method, are most productive in the fall. In the winter, if snow is deep enough to impede travel, deer and elk can be overtaken by the proficient use of snowshoes.
Bear remains are fairly uncommon as food refuse at prehistoric sites in Indiana, though their frequency may increase in the Late Prehistoric period. It is therefore interesting that all of these sites contained bear remains. Historically, bear were most commonly hunted in the winter after going into hibernation. Dens were discovered either opportunistically during other winter activities or by organized parties looking for them. Bears were then driven from their dens by the use of fire or smoke and shot with arrows upon their exit.
Winter was also prime hunting for other mammalian species, including raccoon, and beaver, that are easiest to take during hibernation. Beaver were most commonly caught in the winter by breaking up their lodge and capturing them in air pockets under the ice or by breaking ice above these pockets and capturing them at the resultant air holes. Beaver may be hunted in the summer by the use of harpoons (not recovered from any of these sites), and they may also be hunted in the fall when they come out of the water to work on land during daylight. Raccoons rarely occupy dens more than a quarter-mile from water, though they do venture into the uplands in the fall to feed on mast. The two techniques used prehistorically were deadfalls and taking them from denning trees. The latter technique is most efficient in the winter when fallen leaves make dens visible. The absence of raccoons at 12 Jo 5 is probably a reflection of a fairly small hunting range, while their abundance at 12 Jo 289 and 12 Mg 1 is probably linked to the proximity of these sites to permanent water sources.
The bulk of bird remains from all three sites is turkey, with little attention paid to migratory waterfowl or smaller forest species. Turkeys are recorded as being extremely abundant in the early historic period (Schorger 1966:51). The floodplain with its adjacent talus slopes and uplands provides an optimum setting for the wild turkey (Martin 1986:404). Although floodplains provide the favored setting in the spring and summer, wild turkeys tend to move to upland forests during the fall and winter to exploit mast (Reidhead 1981:152). 12 Mg 1 and 12 Jo 289 were situated so that exploitation could be year round. At 12 Jo 5 turkeys would only be abundant in the fall and winter (twenty per square mile); during the reminder of the year there were probably no more than four or five per square mile.
Fish and reptiles made up a small component of the food at all three sites, though reptiles (turtles) at Bundy-Voyles are next after mammals. Fish species present included both game fish such as largemouth bass and the group including sunfish, blackbass, and crappies and rough fish such as catfish, gar, and suckers. Turtles represented at the three sites included snapping, softshell, musk, pond, or painted turtle, and the box tortoise. Only aquatic species were present at 12 Mg 1, whereas the single specimen from 12 Jo 5 was a terrestrial species (Terrepene sp.). Both terrestrial and aquatic species were present at 12 Jo 289.
Aquatic species are easiest to acquire in the winter (Winters 1969) while terrestrial species are more often collected during the summer and autumn. During the summer, most species are solitary; in the winter, aquatic species tend to congregate in the mud or in abandoned muskrat burrows to hibernate. It is most efficient to acquire them during hibernation. Terrepene sp. hibernate in the ground from late October to April; however, once the ground is frozen they are difficult to find or acquire. During a short period from mid-May to mid-June, box turtles are highly mobile, and if one is out in the Indiana countryside during this period he or she is likely to see several in a day (Reidhead 1981:155). Most turtles could probably be taken opportunistically in small numbers. Snappers are on land during June to lay eggs, and during dry summer periods they migrate to new water holes. Likewise, terrapins may occasionally be seen on land. Softshelled turtles (Trionix sp.) are the exception. These species are extremely wary of people. They are sometimes seen on sandbars during the summer, but when approached they rapidly head for water. They are most commonly taken by baited lines or nets.