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xiii What a strange, timid and elusive creature the pronghorn was to the Euro-Americans who first broached North America’s western grasslands. It reminded them of a “cabri,” or goat, sort of—a very speedy goat. It was difficult to approach, difficult to kill and, when brought down, its hide proved generally meager and its meat palatable but not much more. To modern civilization’s vanguards in the West, the pronghorn was among the more curious features of a vast, unchartered and infinitely perplexing landscape. Also strange and curious to the newcomers were the aboriginals—“savages” they were called—perceived as neither timid nor elusive enough. In time, goats became antelope. The savages became Indians. Both names still were wrong. Also in time, the antelope and Indians were abused to near extirpation. Unregulated market gunning, wanton shooting, fencing, disease, bad weather and public apathy reduced the former. Disease, bigotry, avarice, technology, Manifest Destiny, public apathy, and a tenacious and inflexible military overwhelmed the latter. Entirely lost, in a span of not more than 250 years, was the relationship of the two curiosities—a complicated nexus that had evolved since pronghorn and Native Americans, the first people, shared grassland , shrubland and desert habitats during a span of not less than 10,000 years. This book is a sketch of that ethnozoological relationship . It begins with suspected, separate arrivals of humans and antilocaprids on the continent. It ends with the approach of the 20th century, when wild America essentially vanished. Foreword xiv It did not begin as a book, but as a chapter for a monograph on pronghorn ecology and management. We found that there was much to learn and tell—too much, in fact. Clearly, the emerging sketch would unreasonably affect the important monograph’s size and cost. Also, as a chapter, the work would have to be reduced drastically, which, we felt, would compromise understanding of the relationship of pronghorn and people past. This volume, therefore, is a companion to Pronghorn: Ecology and Management, edited by Bart W. O’Gara and Jim D. Yoakum, also a Wildlife Management Institute book, published by The University Press of Colorado. If ever a book was a team effort, it was this one. To the investment, Milt Reeves brought mounds of data, ideas and leads. Bart O’Gara brought vital organization to our stores of information. We all shared the challenge of discovery of clues to bygone natural and cultural histories. In every sense, this was and is a coauthorship . Our only struggle in the making of this book was with what not to include—interesting, if not fascinating collateral information, but of limited additional insight or, worse, misleading perspective. We excluded considerable anecdotal information extracted from the historical literature because it could not be separately validated. Special efforts were made to include only information that was fairly specific to time and place. To generalize about incredibly diverse and temporally dynamic Native American cultures would be to misrepresent them and history itself. And, that would counterfeit the relationship of those peoples with pronghorn. History,ofcourse,iswhatwas.Hopefully,welearn from our past—from what was—presumably to prevent mistakes in the present and establish safeguards for the future. That really is what this book is about. Hopefully, too, it shows the values of a wildlife species to people, aboriginals, more and better connected to the environment than anyone today. We also hope that it may serve to affirm, or reaffirm for decision makers, that there is wisdom and enduring economy in the conservation and management of natural heritage . And, by acknowledging that this book is not a complete history, merely a sketch, we hope not least of all that other investigators of whatever discipline will add to and improve on the truths of it. —RICHARD E.MCCABE FOREWORD ...

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