I was wondering if any has any info about eating brown bear meat.

To be specific might the meat from a Kodiak brown be worth saving?

Tastes like fishy liver, uck! Mine was a spring hunt on the AK Pennisula. My two hunting partners spit theirs out within seconds. I ate two pieces of back strap, enough to last a lifetime.

RMiller ----- My Bear was a fall bear that had been feeding on Salmon for sometime. Think about the putrid smell of two week old dead fish, and you have an idea. You can smell them downwind for a considerable distance. My Aleut guide also said that they considered them as spiritual being. The soul of the Bear is carried on if it is eaten by another Bear, but if man eats the Bear the soul is killed, therefore, they said to be sure and not consume any of the meat. He also said that if you eat the Bear you might kill the soul of your grandfather. They figured that they were part of the food chain, having lived there all their lives, and respected that tradition of leaving meat in the field for the animals, whereas the white man who took any meat out of the food chain, was interrupting the process. They were very serious about this, much the in same way of some of our religious zealots. Good shooting.

That's a cool story.

Do the Aleut consider the use of the bear's hide to be acceptable?

quote:

Originally posted by phurley5:
RMiller ----- My Bear was a fall bear that had been feeding on Salmon for sometime. Think about the putrid smell of two week old dead fish, and you have an idea. You can smell them downwind for a considerable distance. My Aleut guide also said that they considered them as spiritual being. The soul of the Bear is carried on if it is eaten by another Bear, but if man eats the Bear the soul is killed, therefore, they said to be sure and not consume any of the meat. He also said that if you eat the Bear you might kill the soul of your grandfather. They figured that they were part of the food chain, having lived there all their lives, and respected that tradition of leaving meat in the field for the animals, whereas the white man who took any meat out of the food chain, was interrupting the process. They were very serious about this, much the in same way of some of our religious zealots. Good shooting.

Interesting story. I hunted one Bear South of Chignik on the Pennisula. We shot 4 Bears (1 each ) and after the hide was collected the boat Captain, who is half Aleut, radioed to Perryville the location of the kill. The Aleuts there sent men over to salvage the meat and especially the fat.

They claimed the Fall Brown Bear Fat was the best for pastries and from the Apple Pie I had I would have to agree. I didn't hear any comment about Grandfather tasting good but they did have Cannibal tendencys 400 years ago.

Aside from that I never new an Aleut or an Innuit to waste any part of an animal that could be used for anything. Including parts that I had a hard time eating let alone keeping down.

Ever had Eskimo Ice Cream?

BusMaster007 ----- It was OK to do anything with the hide, I look at my rug everyday, just not consume the meat. We were boiling off the skull of my Bear and sampled a bit of the meat. When the guide caught us red handed he got very mad and didn't speak to us for a day. And yes it tasted like fish. ----- Mickey 1 ----- The Aleuts in the little village we hunted out of, or at least the guide we used had a different philosophy concerning the use of the animals by the hunter. He said that the animals and the Aleuts were all a part of the food cycle, having lived together for thousands of years. He said, where the problem came in was the White man coming into their country and killing game and removing it from that live cycle, thus disturbing it. He left a portion of each kill for the animals living in that habitate to consume, thus carrying on that food cycle. ----- Here in the states we say if you don't eat it, it is wasted, but who is wasting what, if we remove the animal from that food cycle, have we contributed or taken away, go figure. If we constantly take away and do not replace, what is the end result. When I asked the guide that question, he simply stated that if the white man hunts and takes the game away from the cycle, then every so often a hunter has to be contributed to the animals. What do you think about that, anybody want to be first. Good shooting.

All Native people from SE Alaska to Japan, considered Brown bear to be a very important source of protein, and hunted them extensively to eat. I've lived around and with them (marriage) and half of my children are Native, as are my grandchildren, for 57 years, so I have a little insight.

First explanation of your experience could be that you were a victim of their sense of humor. They take great delight in making up stuff like that and then roar with laughter when the unsuspecting (best of all, an anthropologist) repeats something totally off the wall like that.

Second, many of then have affected some of the American Indian Movement plains Indian blowing smoke, sweatlodge mystical feather waving, feather blessing gibberish. I have an old drinking buddy, that adopted all that stuff, which never was a part of his tribal culture, as his schtick(gimmick) and has made a career of it. Actually, I'm jealous, when ever I see him he's got pretty ladies (young, pretty) hanging all over, drooling and slavishly fawning all over every word the old faker says. With tongue in cheek and twinkle in his eye, I might add.

Third, the old zealot missionaries totally destroyed every shred of Native culture, and beliefs in many of these places, and I've seen a lot of these people just plain make up this stuff, Not wanting to look ignorant of any of the old ways that made them what they were or just so they would have appear to have some sort of a tribal identity.

Fourth, I've been standing there, when the outsiders, tourists or whatever, with my Indian schoolmates, buddies, lifelong companions, with my black hair, and dark complexion trying to answer the dumbest questions from people who just wouldn't take I don't know for and answer. So how can you fault natural born tricksters from trying to please and also have a little fun in the process.

Last, sometimes when a story is made up and told over and over, it takes on a life of it's own, and one starts to believe his own stories himself.

Whatever silly story you were told about eating bear, you can count your very life on the fact that those villagers ancestors ate tons of bear meat in their lifetimes. otherwise they would have starved to death in that country or would have moved on. Wayne

Guys,

I think this eating or not eating brown bear has to be some regional thing. Most of the eskimos where I lived on Bristol Bay would not eat the bears. Up the coast though toward Bethel there was a special subsistence season and the only reason for a subsistance season to be granted is so the locals can take a bear for food.

Mickey, your a little off the mark on Natives not wasting anything. True if they do find the animals they shoot they try to retrieve anything edible from that animal. On the other hand with the modern technology that is avaialble to them they way over shoot in many cases and even if the meat is all salvaged it goes to waste because it can't be taken care of. How good do you think ptarmigan froze guts feathers and all are come spring?

All parts of hunting have the Good, Bad and the Ugly and in my opinion the above has all of that.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by aktoklat:
Tastes like fishy liver, uck! Mine was a spring hunt on the AK Pennisula. My two hunting partners spit theirs out within seconds. I ate two pieces of back strap, enough to last a lifetime.

This is my favorite one.

I guess I should just try it. Unless it is too offensive to even cook.

I've ate spring brown bear and thought it was pretty tasty. Was greasy as sin, but after a few hours in a crockpot and gravy, was very good.

I've had fall brown bear after they got on fish and can't remember if it took 3 or 4 bites before I lost what I had consumed. Nasty stuff after they've been feeding on fish.

I think it all depends what you are used to, like what they call ethnic tastes. Like I always heard about the snooty
Brits hanging up ducks and geese until the meat gets so ripe it starts to slip off the bones, and then they cook it, whew!

And who didn't wish that the sushi had been cooked first after the first morsel.

The old Natives liked strong flavored meat, the stronger the better, and dipped in even more rancid fish or seal oil. Topped off with rotten fermented salmon eggs for desert.

The younger generations can't stand the stuff, and would rather go to what they call the Philippino restruant, and have a Big Mac.

Also one has to remember that most trophy animals are not exactly eating animals. Would a rancher go out and butcher the biggest, toughest, baddest bull in the herd for his table, or for the market? Wayne

RMiller
I have heard that brown bear that feed on salmon are not good to eat. However, my brother was in a camp in Alaska where a Grizzly was shot far enough form the coast or a big river that fish was not a part of his diet. he said that ehe bear was some of the BEST meat he had ever ate.

The only comment I have is it you are going to eat it make sure it it well cooked to avoid trichinosis which is extremely common in both black and brown bears.

Haven't had a chance to try it yet. I'd expect a Kodiak bear to be well fed on salmon, and hence not likely to be the best of eating. A berry fed bear on the other hand can be quite good. It doesn't hurt to try some, and if you like it, salvage it. The meat will be used one way or another, by people, or by other creatures.

Wayne,

Native peoples definately have a good sense of humor, and until one gets to know them, won't pick up on it. I've also seen the influence of lower 48 indians and a neo-shaminism movement by some. There culture was mostly wiped out by missionaries after Alaska became a state. Their languages were outlawed until well into the 20th century, and the Aleuts who were "evacuated" from the Alutian Islands during WW II were treated far worse then prisoners of war.

Paul, I knew some of the Aleuts who were interred in camps here, Tina, who was featured in an article on it recently, was a real good friend, I also saw where they lived at the old Burnett Inlet cannery. You wouldn't think human would treat other humans like. There was an Aleut woman here who was taken to Hokkaido by the Japanese. She said they were treated better there than the ones who were taken by the Americans to South East Alaska. the survival rate here was not good. In 1966, the Burnett camp was just as they had left it. Made you want to throw up, and go beat the crap out of the propagandists who were saying it couldn't happen in good old America. Wayne