December 17th, 2011 
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(With an emphasis on the Southwest and Arizona’s Mogollon Rim, and the significance of these animals to the indigenous cultures of the West)
Part I.)
Unfortunately, while the waves of newcomers were indeed awed by these animals, these very same people were actively and rapidly depopulating the wildlife.
Most people usually think of the Great Plains horse culture when they think of the indigenous people of the West. There are, in fact, forests and other ecological zones in the great Southwest.
Animals are divided into two main groups. Vertebrates, then, are the group of animals that do possess spinal columns, any creature from fish to mammals.
Mammals, such as bears and us humans, are what most people think of when they think of animals. Many of the Southwestern High-Country wildlife demonstrates this behavior, such as elk, deer and even coyotes sometimes.
Black Bear, Ursus americanus:
There is even said to be a white ‘Black’ Bear in Western Canada; this ‘Spirit Bear’ represents power and prestige to the Coast Salish people of the region.
Approximately five feet long, three feet high and up to 300 pounds or more, the crepuscular Black Bear is actually the smallest of the bears native to North America and the only one now found in the wild Southwest. These other bears include the much larger Grizzlies (up to 850 lbs.), Polar Bears (600 – 1,1,00 lbs.), and Kodiaks, or Alaskan Brown Bears (up to 1,500 lbs.)
Like the Black Bear, Grizzlies have been culturally significant to Native American Indians. The Nootka, or Nuu Chal Nulth, a Northwest Coast people of Vancouver Island, Canada, would personify this bear during their annual Winter Dance ceremony. Black Bears, however, have adapted and survived.
Like some humans, male and female Black Bears only tolerate each other during breeding.
In the Athabascan language of the Southwestern Apache, the Black Bear is known as maba. Among American Indian cultures of the West in general, the Black Bear is traditionally believed to have healing powers, or spiritual ‘Medicine’. The bear is known to the Zuni as ‘Clumsy Foot’, the animal of the Blue West, whose fetish has been used to promote healing. Among certain Pueblo people, of whom the Zuni are one of many, bear paws would be used in curing rites. Bears are so revered, if not feared, that among certain Subarctic peoples, bear skulls were decorated to honor the powerful spirit of the bear, still said to be residing within it.
Tribal clans have been named after this bear; the Bear Clan still exists among the Hopi of Arizona and amongst other peoples, too.
Mule Deer, Odocoileus hemionus:
Mule Deer will feed on a variety of diverse plant-life in these areas.
The Mule Deer are approximately six feet long, three and a half feet high and can weigh anywhere from 125 to 200 pounds. This makes them a mid-sized ungulate, or hoofed animal, much larger than the little Coues White-tailed Deer (only sixty-five to100 pounds), but a lot smaller than the Elk which can grow up to 1,200 pounds; both may be found in the same areas as Mule Deer. Among Muleys, the antlers are shed in the winter.
Mule Deer are probably the most commonly sighted of the larger mammals of the American West. Visitors to the high-country are especially delighted by a deer sighting, as they are very beautiful animals (hunters are, of course, happy to get the deer in their sights…). Dance rattles have been made by various groups by hanging bunches of dried deer toenails, or ‘dew-claws’, from the end of either a deer bone or a stick. The Navajo, or Dineh’, and other groups of the Southwest such as the Hopi are known to make ceremonial masks from deer-hides. The Kiowa of the plains made deer tail charms known as tatonto.
To the Hupa, Yurok, and the Karuk people further inland, where the southern Northwest Coast and California regions converge, deerskins have been both practically useful and spiritually symbolic. Deer dances are also held elsewhere, such as among the various Pueblo villages of the Southwest, like that of Taos and Acoma of New Mexico. Elsewhere in New Mexico, the people of Cochiti Pueblo maintain the yaphashi shrine, composed of a twin set of stone mountain lion effigies, where they leave offerings of deer antler.
Although very useful, the Mule Deer were never necessarily easy to kill. If hunting with bow and arrow, individuals might disguise themselves in entire hides including the head, sometimes complete with antlers.
The People would also seek spiritual aid in hunting Mule Deer.
Elk, Cervus elaphus:
Like deer and bison, elk are members of the ungulate, or hoofed, animal family, and like deer they have antlers which are shed annually instead of more permanent horns.
Elk have been very useful to American Indian people and continue to be a popular game animal still (A popular joke among reservation people of the Plains, such as the Lakota Sioux, is that they do not poach cattle but have been known to hunt down ‘slow elk’ instead). Their importance seems to be reflected by the large numbers of elk depicted as petroglyphs, or rock art carvings, throughout the Southwest. Obviously, these animals, like the comparably sized bison or ‘buffalo’ (at 800 – 2,000 lbs.), would provide people with a lot of meat and hides. However, elk have had other traditional uses also.
The elk antlers were especially useful. The Pomo Bear Doctors carried a decorated elk antler dagger as sign of their membership, which was manufactured from the tip. Offerings of elk antler, to ensure success in hunting, were once left by the Blackfeet people of the Great Plains near the Yellowstone River; this eventually created a large pile resembling a pyramid.
Evidently, people in this area have valued them for centuries: Located along the Missouri River in North Dakota, the Fort Yates archaeological site has yielded elk ivory ornaments which are approximately 530 years old.
Among these Great Plains groups, not only the teeth, but the elk themselves have also been culturally and even spiritually significant. The image of the bull elk has frequently been depicted on pouches, shields and other Plains Indian items, evidently for this very reason.
Next: Part II.), Smaller Mammals…
Our Wildlife – People and the Fauna of the American West
Below are four very essential tips, on how to embark on effective wildlife photographing.