The First Deer Hunters

Sportsmen often imagine hunting deer long ago when the land was wild and untouched by modern civilization. However, if they did have the proverbial time machine they might just be surprised at what they’d find. Biologists estimate that the Louisiana deer herd was between 250,000 and 400,000 animals when the French arrived in 1699. Today’s herd is nearly three times larger. In the old days, as much as two-thirds of the state was open prairie or virgin pine forests that were almost devoid of deer. Even the Mississippi and Atchafalaya floodplains had far fewer deer than today because browse couldn’t grow under the thick canopy. Acorns were plentiful in the fall and winter, but there was little for deer to eat the rest of the year.

Despite there being relatively few areas where deer thrived, Native Americans hunted them with a passion. The Choctaw even had chiefs who governed deer hunting. Before the Europeans’ arrival, Native Americans were almost entirely archery hunters, and the Caddo of northwest Louisiana had some of the finest bows in America. Made from hickory or Osage orange (bois d’arc), they were sophisticated and deadly. Bowstrings were constructed from twisted deerskin, fiber or bark, and arrows from switch cane, dogwood, or hickory. Feather fletching was taken from hawks or turkey and were either glued on the shaft or tied with wet deer sinew. One ancient Caddo bow discovered in a burial site had a leather grip and recurved tips that would rival any longbow manufactured today. Such bows’ pull were usually just 40 to 50 pounds, but some archers could consistently hit targets up to 120 yards. Hunting arrows were tipped with surprisingly small stone points. Only 1/2- to 1-inch in length, they are what many people refer to as “bird points.”

Early French explorers noted how Louisiana’s Natives practiced deer management by control burning the piney woods and marsh country to open up the underbrush, kill ticks and other vermin, and create browse for deer. Similar to modern hunters preparing food plots, Native Americans also planted the seeds of browse that deer and other wildlife preferred to eat. Because deer were concentrated in certain places, Indigenous peoples sometimes had to hunt away from home. A “short hunt” entailed heading out a few miles to temporary camps and hunting for a few days. While women sometimes went along, they were there only to skin the animals and carry the meat back to the village. A “long hunt” involved traveling many miles to good hunting grounds and could last for weeks. Usually only the best hunters were allowed to participate; the less-skilled either stayed home or tagged along to do the grunt work of skinning and butchering.

Modern hunters would recognize many indigenous tactics. They hid in trees and camouflaged themselves with leafy branches and eased into known bedding areas hours before daylight to bushwhack the deer in the morning. They also knew the usefulness of deer decoys and often caped out the carcass, stretched it on a cane hoop, and cured it with smoke. They then either wore the decoy or carried it in one hand and used mimicking motions and calls to draw their quarry near. Some hunters were so adept at deer mimicry that members of other tribes would stalk them..

Like modern-day hunters, Native Americans even used cover scents such as the smoke of a red oak fire. Woods fires were common, and the hunters knew the natural smell of smoke would not alarm their prey. Sometimes standers were placed at strategic escape points on the prairies and marshes, and the grass was set on fire to push the deer toward them. Drives were also made through known bedding thickets to run deer to standers.

For the Natchez, deer hunting was sometimes a communal effort. The French claimed they would find a deer and then surround it with as many as 100 men who chased the deer from side to side until it finally fell from exhaustion and was killed. This deer chase was said to have been as much for entertainment as a way to gather food. The Attakapas, who inhabited the prairies and marsh country of southwest Louisiana, reportedly used relays to run deer to exhaustion.

As long as native populations hunted Louisiana’s deer with bows and arrows, the deer herd remained stable. Unfortunately, the arrival of the French introduced more hunters who were armed with deadly flintlock muskets. As a result, the deer herd began to plummet. That story will be the subject of next month’s column.

Dr. Terry L. Jones is professor emeritus of history at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and has received numerous awards for his Civil War books and outdoor articles.