Re: [Redbadbear] Hunter's Bear Day [1 Attachment]

Thanks very much for remembering Bear Day, Beba.  I was sure that you would.  In honor of the Bear and the Day, Eldri produced a great dish of lots of baked salmon, sweet potatoes, and green peas.  Maria has made one of her speciality pies -- thick cream and very sweet.  The weather here is cool and clear -- just as it was 'way back then in the Sycamore Canyon Wilderness.

The Bear was a huge black male bear with an estimated live weight of about 650 pounds.  There is a theory that black bears and grizzlies can occasionally mate and produce offspring.  I know there are still grizzlies deep down in the innards of the Great Canyon because I've been 'way down in there, incredibly rough turf, and have seen their "sign" -- great big bear tracks and high-up claw marks on the Sycamore trees along Sycamore Creek.  In any case, this was a great big bear and we ate all of the meat over almost four years.  Attached is a photo of the skull -- which has been with me ever since, save for the Army years.  It hangs on this very office wall.

One of its teeth, which has -- as you know -- a very special purpose, is in my Medicine Pouch.

Here is a brief account of the climactic events of the long ago day -- events that made me a full man.

And then, in due course, Frank (Dolphin) came into the picture as an older student of
Dad's.  And he arrived just before I completed my young life-long Mission:
to kill a very, very large bear.

That was mandated from almost the Hatch onward.  It didn't come easily. It
took a super long time indeed to accomplish.  And then, one warm October
mid-day, well off-any-road and far, far down into the huge and remote and
heavily forested eastern slope of the Sycamore Canyon wilderness,  I came to
a rare wonderful  spring of pure water emanating from the rocks in an aspen
grove. Flowing in a small stream two hundred yards down a leisurely slope
through the yellow pines and scrub oak and even some red maples, it
culminated in a kind of level clearing  -- a "park" as we call it in the
Southwest -- which was about 20 yards across. There the water gathered,
surrounded by and mixed with  green grass.

And there in the mud I saw the many fresh tracks of a huge black bear.

And so, under a scrub oak tree, surrounded by its fallen acorns mixing with
old needles from the pines, I waited.  Hour after hour  deeply into the late
afternoon.  My 30/30 Winchester lever action with the long octagon barrel
and the curved metal buttplate leaned against a low oak limb, right handy.

And then, looking once again at my Hamilton wrist watch -- the high school
graduation gift from my folks -- I saw that it said 5:10 p.m.  And I looked
up, across the clearing.

And there It was.

It was a huge black bear,  a male, walking smoothly on its fours just inside the timber along
the edge of the clearing, its massively long arms reaching full out and moving
back and then forward again in easy, flowing  graceful coordination with its huge back
legs.

Still seated, I cocked my 30/30 rifle, aimed and fired.  The bear, not
mortally hit, turned and ran directly away from me.  Standing tall, I now
fired by pure instinct -- one of my best shots ever -- hitting It in the
back area.  It turned, snarling and pawing, and I fired five more shots into
It.

I had killed it. A huge bear.  I was now a Full Man.

The sun was dipping far down toward the western rim of the Great Canyon as I
cut the throat of the bear and drained the blood, then gutted him.  Propping
the body cavity open with sticks in order to quickly cool the meat, I also
covered the area with my sweat-stained and human-odorous shirt in order to
discourage any scavenging critters from getting too close.

Then, literally covered with the Red Blood of the Bear, I climbed out of the
Canyon in the darkness and, eventually reaching my vehicle, made it back to
Flagstaff on the remote woods roads.  It was very late. But my parents were fully
as pleased as I.

My father and I and one of my two younger brothers -- and Frank -- left
very early the next morning with bedrolls and three day's rations for
Sycamore and the Bear.  It took Dad and I several trips and every bit of those three
days for us to get all of the bear meat -- in several huge hunks -- out of
the super steep Canyon.  Green blow flies laid maggot eggs in the bloody
hide and we had to abandon that -- save for several furry strips which I cut
off.  During this back-breaking struggle  -- hundreds of pounds of meat from
the huge bear whose live weight was estimated as being at least 650
pounds -- Frank cooked for us, assisted by my little brother.  
And that's where I got to know Frank Dolphin well.
And he certainly came to know me.

HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq / 
St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk 
Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO

Check out our massive social justice website
www.hunterbear.org  The site is dedicated to our
one-half Bobcat, Cloudy Gray, and to Sky Gray:
http://hunterbear.org/cloudy_gray.htm

See our very full and substantial COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
page -- with a great deal of practical material:
http://hunterbear.org/my_combined_community_organizing.htm

See my  new expanded/updated "Organizer's Book," 
JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new substantial 
introduction by me. This page lists many reviews and endorsements.
And this book is also an activist's how-to manual: 
 http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm   

See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]:
http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm:
(Many photos.)

Check out our Personal Background Narrative (with much info):
http://hunterbear.org/narrative.htm



  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: John Salter 
  To: Redbadbear 
  Sent: Thursday, October 17, 2013 5:13 PM
  Subject: [Redbadbear] Hunter's Bear Day


    

  Happy Bear Anniversary to Hunter!