Ethnohistorical and Ethnographic Sources on Bear-Human Relationships in Native Eastern North America

This chapter compiles outsiders’ reactions to relationships observed between Native Americans and black bears (Ursus americanus) in the eastern half of the continent, with emphasis on the Southeast, during the sixteenth to early twentieth centuries. Written accounts provide a sense of the diverse patterns of bear-human relationships expressed by Native Americans that are potentially revealed by zooarchaeology. These accounts focus on economic transactions and food acquisition, preparation, and consumption. References cover bear hunting methods, bear meat consumption, the many uses of bear hides and bear oil, and some notes on bear cubs kept as pets. This systematic overview of ethnohistorical accounts and ethnographic sources on bear-human relationships in Native Eastern North America can inform interpretations of bear remains by zooarchaeologists who are studying Indigenous lifeways in contexts of hunting intensification, commodification of forest products, encroachment by intrusive settlers, missionizing, and cooption of Native American political elites.