Deerskins and Hunting Territories: Competition for a Scarce Resource of the

Northeastern Woodlands

Richard Michael Gramly

American Antiquity, Vol. 42, No. 4. (Oct., 1977), pp. 601-605.

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 REPORTS

DEERSKINS AND HUNTING TERRITORIES:

COMPETITION FOR A SCARCE RESOURCE

O F THE NORTHEASTERN WOODLANDS

It is argued that conflict and the need for defense arose in the Late Woodland Stage o f the Northeast and
Ontario in response t o competition for a vital resource, deer hides. Furthermore, the distribution o f populations
and the size o f hunting territories can be directly linked t o sustained yields o f this scarce good.

It is apparent from a growing body of scarcely to be believed that competition for

archaeological evidence that the advent of
horticulture in the Northeastern woodlands and
Ontario at the beginning of the present
millenium ushered in a period of population
growth. It has been argued (e.g., Ritchie and
Funk 1973) that population increase after the
appearance of food-production was not explos-
ive and the essential continuity in material
culture from an earlier time was not broken.
Yet, both evidence of conflict in the form of
arrow-riddled bodies and cannibalism, and
defensive works are not commonly encountered
until the Late Woodland stage, which suggests
that prehorticultural and horticultural societies
should be viewed separately.
In the traditional view, conflict and the need
for defense arose in dwasco times out of
competition for tillable land and animal
resources (Ritchie (1 965 :280). Another view
(Witthoft 1959) sees increased conflict resulting
from the widened support base provided by
farming, which allowed men more free time to
conduct raids and reprisals against enemies.
Both hypotheses in their present form have
weaknesses and neither can be considered
proven. It is argued here that the Ritchie
hypothesis, however, is nearer the truth.
Trigger's (1969) population estimates for
Iroquoian-speakers at the time of initial contact
with Europeans give surprisingly low numbers
and densities (18,000-20,000 for the Five
Nations and 18,000 for the Huron) for societies
at such an advanced economic level. The actual
amount of land under cultivation must have
been a mere fraction of what might have been
farmed even with a stone technology, and it is
tillable land could have spurred warfare.
Further, the great variety of land and water
animals that were exploited by Owasco and
Iroquoian groups suggests that high-grade
protein was available in sufficient quantity to
satisfy dietary, if not psychological, needs.
Clearly, the availability of meat resources was
never a point of contention.
One factor which could have engendered
conflict, however, was the need to bag enough
animals t o provide adequate clothing for the
severe winter season. Although they were
food-producers, the Owasco and Iroquoian
peoples possessed no domestic animals, and in
this respect they were an anomaly among other
food-producers in the world at their level of
technology. Domestic animals are not only a
source of dairy products, meat, and wealth;
they also provide wool, hair, and hides. Since
the Northeast and Ontario lack wild cotton and
are notably deficient in other fibres suited for
body coverings, the absence of domestic
animals was especially serious. The only animal
native t o the Northeastern woodlands in
sufficient numbers with a hide large enough for
clothing is the deer. Although the importance
of deer hides in late prehistoric exchange
networks in the Northeast and Ontario has not
been overlooked (Trigger 1963), it is possible to
go a step further by maintaining that the
availability of deer hides, rather than the
scarcity of land or animal protein, acted
indirectly on the rate of population growth
through competition for hunting territories.
Conflict and the need for defensive works in
the Late Woodland stage, then, were results of
602 AMERICAN A N T I Q U I T Y [Vol. 42, No. 4, 19771

adjustments in settlement locations to optimize
control of hunting grounds, which became
scarce resources in the face of population in-
creases brought about by food-production. The
coalescence and friendly coexistence of for-
merly dispersed Late Woodland communities as
reported for the Owasco in Oak Hill times and
the proto-Onondaga Iroquois (Tuck 1974: 196)
as well as for the Huron at a later date (Trigger
1963) were strategic measures to insure control
over hunting territories. The amalgamation of
Ontario Iroquois groups into a Huron tribal
confederacy of the late sixteenth century,
which is conventionally explained as a unique
response to the deed for more trade, better fish-
ing, and easily cultivated soils (Trigger
1963:91), is perhaps better understood as an-
other adjustment in a long series of similar ac-
tions carried out in the face of increasing popul-
ation and rising demands on scarce resources,
chiefly, deer hides.
Support for this hypothesis must come by
demonstrating that population size (demands
for clothing), hunting territory, and availability
of deer are closely linked. The single example
that will be used here t o support our
contention is the Huron of Ontario, who are
well known archaeologically and ethnographi-
The Huron protected themselves from the
rigors of an Ontario winter by wearing a
costume composed of leggings, detachable
sleeves, a cloak, and a breechclout in the case of
men and the same articles plus a skirt for
women (Trigger 1969:8). The number of
deerskins necessary to produce each article of
clothing is shown in Figure 1. It can be assumed
that a suit of clothing lasted on the average not
more than two years if worn continually, as
hides do not withstand repeated wetting and
drying very well. At the rate of 3.5 hides per
individual per year the entire Huron population
of 18,000 would consume at least 64.000 hides
in a year.
Children, of course, would require f e w e ~
deer hides for their costumes, and a more
accurate estimate of annual demand might be
44,000 hides, which is calculated b y assuming
that in a growing population the reproductive
unit is two adults and three children with
children requiring only half as many hides per
year as an adult. Some upward revision in total
mnual demand, however, is necessary since we
have not allowed for the manufacture of
moccasins. According t o Turner (1894:285) the
Naskapi could produce five to seven pairs of

Fig. 1. Articles of clothing

worn by the Huron in the
seventeenth century. Six deer-
skins were sufficient to produce a
man's costume; eight were needed
for a woman's outfit with the
addition of a skirt (two deer-
skins).
 REPORTS 603

moccasins from a single hide. Under wet
conditions Naskapi footgear lasted but a few
weeks, and an adult male might need as many
as 2-3 hides a year to keep himself well shod. If
we assume that every Huron man, woman, and
child on the average required one deer hide per
year for moccasins, then the total demand that
had to be met was 62,000 hides per annum.
Knowing the demand on deer populations
each year it is possible to calculate the size of
the hunting territory that could provide a
sustained yield of this magnitude. According t o
Hosley (1956:225) the carrying capacity of
white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) varies
from 8 t o 64 animals per section (640 acres)
over the Carolinian, Canadian, and transitional
biotic provinces. For ease of computation, a
median figure of 36 animals per section will be
used here. Life-equations provided by Severing-
haus and Cheatum (1956:178) indicate that
unrestricted, heavy deer hunting in one area of
western New York State resulted in a fifty per
cent reduction in population each year. If
hunting were maintained at this disastrous rate,
it would require only six seasons to eradicate a
group of 36 deer. On the other hand, such a
high mortality rate could be sustained if a block
of four sections were hunted in rotation as
shown by Figure 2. Heavy hunting by an
individual, family, or task-group over several
years in a territory of smaller size would result
in absolute destruction of the resident deer
population. Therefore, a hunting territory of
not less than 2,560 acres ( 4 sq. miles) is
necessary to support heavy hunting with no
regard for sex or age of the quarry. In any year
18 deer could be taken from the block without
making severe inroads in the breeding stock.
Each square mile, then, could provide 4.5 deer
on the average. The total Huron demand of
62,000 hides would require that 13,800 sq.
miles be hunted heavily with no restriction on
age or sex of the victims.
There remains to compare the calculated size
of the Huron hunting territory with informa-
tion from the ethnographic and archaeological

Season I

Fig. 2. The block method of deer harvesting that will provide a sustained yield of 4.5 deer per square mile. A
complete figure o f a deer represents the carrying capacity of a single section of 640 acres (1 sq. mile). Six seasons
of unrestricted hunting, e.g., deer drives o n a major scale with n o regard to age and sex of the victims, in
consecutive blocks will result in a five-seasons cycle and a steady yield.
604 AMERICAN ANTIQUITY [Vol. 42, N o . 4, 19771

record about its actual size. Trigger (1969: 17)
informs us that Ontario south of the Canadian
Shield between Toronto and Kingston (approxi-
mately 150 miles) was completely uninhabited
in early historic times and that this roughly
triangular region was the main hunting land of
the Huron (Fig. 3), to which task-groups
journeyed regularly for periods of several weeks
in order to conduct large drives and smaller
hunts. The region is approximately 10.000 sq.
miles in extent. Its order of magnitude is in
harmony with the calculated size of the Huron
hunting territory based on demand for deer
h d e s . and there can be little doubt that these
extensive lands were indispensable to the
Huron. In fact, if estimates of Huron
population are correct, it would seem that by
the period of Jesuit contact the Huron demand
for hides had outstripped the annual yield of
their territory and that trade with neighboring
hunter-gatherers was a matter of necessity.
Adjustments in the size of hunting territories
among neighboring Iroquoian-speaking groups
throughout the Late Woodland period must
have been continual in the face of a steadily
increasing population brought about by food
production. In some cases boundaries may have
been established by mutual consent and
peaceful negotiation, but more often, one must
believe, the outcome of raiding and warring
determined the division of hunting lands and
settlement location. The appearance of confed-
eracies such as the League of the Five Nations
undoubtedly was the culmination of a long
period of conflict. It might be argued that
confederacies came about largely in response to
the need for concerted, mutual action against
infringements on hunting rights by "outsiders"
such as the Neutral or Huron in the case of the
Five Nations; however, to a certain degree
control over exchange networks might have had
a role.

Fig. 3. Location of the Huron settlement area (blackened) and adjacent hunting territory (partially
delimited by hatched line) as suggested by historical accounts and archaeological research.

The onset of trade with Europeans might shift t o the procurement of fur-bearing animals
have temporarily eased competition among was made. Pelts were readily exchanged for
tribes in the Northeast and Ontario as the metal goods, ornaments, cosmetics and, most
emphasis o n deer hunting slackened and the significantly, cloth. With a guaranteed supply of
 REPORTS 605

cloth, hunters could devote their energies to
trapping and trading ventures to a degree that
was impossible before the seventeenth century.
Inevitably, as dependence on cloth increased,
competition for fur-bearing animals waxed and
the stage was set for another era of raiding and
warring, which reached its ultimate conclusion
with the annihilation and assimilation of
poorly armed adversaries.
In sum, it is suggested here that intergroup
relations in the Northeast and Ontario during
the Late Woodland stage can be understood in
terms of competition for the key, limited
resource of deer hides. The growth of trading
networks between horticulturalists and hunter-
gatherers, as typified by the Huron and
Algonkian-speakers to the north of Huronia,
was a means whereby conflict between
Iroquoian groups over hunting territories was
lessened and an adequate supply of hides
assured. Such a relations hi^ between food-
producer and hunter-gatherer might have very
ancient roots, indeed, and may not be a unique
development of the period of European
contact. With the advent of full-scale fur trade
in this region in the seventeenth century,
peltries and cloth as well as deer hides flowed
through trading channels. Competition among
Iroquoian groups for hunting territories would
have abated for a brief period until the time
when dependence on European manufactures
became a way of life. The existence of a brief
"Golden Age" of peace and prosperity is a
problem for archaeologists, but there is little
doubt that after the first quarter of the
seventeenth century warfare was on the
upswing.
Hosley, N. W.
1956 Management of the white-tailed deer in its
environment. In The deer of North America,
edited by W. P. Taylor, pp. 187-260. Stackpole
Company, Harrisburg.
Ritchie, W. A.
1965 The archaeolony o f New York State. Natural
History Press, N e w ~ d r k .
Ritchie, W, A,, and R , E, Funk
1973 Aboriginal settlement patterns in the North-
east. Memoir 20. New York State Museum and
Science Service, Albany.
Sev$;fha;:;~a~ F:a;i:e:e-tailed
d e e r In
The deer of North America, edited by W. P.
Taylor, pp. 57-186. Stackpole Company, Har-
risburg.
Trigger3B.H.
1963 Settlement as an aspect of Iroquoian
adaptation at the time of contact. American
Anthropologist 65:86-102.
1969 The Huron. farmers o f the North. Holt.
Rinehart and Winiton, New'york.
Tuck, J. A.
1974 The Iroquois confederacy. In New World
Archaeology, edited by E. B. Zubrow, M. C.
Fritz, and J. M. Fritz, pp. 190-200, W. H. Free-
man and Company, San Francisco.
Turner, L. M.
1894 Ethnology of the Ungava District. Eleventh
Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology, Smith-
sonian Institution, Washington, pp. 167-350.
Witthoft, J.
1959 Ancestry of the Susquehannocks. In Sus-
quehannock Miscellany, edited by J . Witthoft
and W. F. Kinsey, pp. 19-60. Pennsylvania
Historical and Museum Commission, Harris-
burg.

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY O F THE MORPHOLOGICAL

CHARACTERISTICS O F TOOL MARKS

Experiments were performed to establish correlations between the edge characteristics of'a series of tools and
the marks the.v produce when applied to bone. Pressure and angle of application, length o f blade, and motion
used during the cutting stroke, were found to be important variables that affect the shape of tool marks. Using
cross sections of butchering marks from archaeological sites, it was possible to establish associations between
various classes of tools and specific tasks.

The analysis of tool marks on bones from
archaeological sites can produce useful informa-
tion concerning the uses of animals. For
example, Guilday, Parmalee, and Tanner (1962)
concluded that dogs were not a regular item in
the diet of the inhabitants o f a Susquehannock
village because none of the large number of
excavated dog bones (Canis familiaris) showed
butchering marks. Some wolf bones (Canis
lupus), however, had been cut with an axe and
the distal ends of three humeri had probably
been cut with a knife. Guilday, Parmalee, and