Guides of the North Woods

Hunting, fishing and woodsmanship are inscribed in North American culture. Once the survival skills of the Mi'kmaq people, they became recreational pastimes for British officers arriving in Nova Scotia in the nineteenth century. The native people became wilderness guides for these ‘sports’, passing on their guiding skills to others. In this book, using their own words, Mike Parker resurrects how native and white men shared the call of the wilderness, traveling miles on foot or by canoe, hunting moose and deer or fishing trout and salmon. The hair-raising incidents of danger, the funny anecdotes, the skills necessary to succeed, and the personality of these men are collected here with respect and admiration.