Hunting Song

Hunting Song This story, “Hunting Song”, helps us envision the deer hunting tactics of the Navajo people. Although the true moral of this story is terrifying, the author of this poem wrote it in a way that it sounds almost peaceful. He uses beautiful, environmental imagery such as the mountains and dewy flowers to help us picture this scene better in our minds. This story teaches us about the Navajo song writing tradition, their appreciation towards the deer, and their hunting tactics. A major aspect of the Navajo culture is song writing. The people practically wrote songs for most of their activities, such as hunting. They have many, many songs that describe the many different facets of life. The song, Hunting Song is one of the more superior songs out of all the rest. That is because it was said by the Navajo bards, that the deer transformed itself into human. This explains why the hunter of this story was very content with killing this deer. It shows how the hunter may have felt proud to have caught an animal that is so incredible. The tribe’s appreciation for the deer is amazing. This song is basically a sacred verse for killing the deer. It’s incredible how the Navajo people are so thankful. For instance, people nowadays, in Korean society, kill cows and pigs. However, they do not particularly feel appreciative towards them. This song helps us understand how the Navajo are one with nature. It teaches the importance of the animals and helps us value what we receive in life. Although there is insufficient information in this story to figure out how they hunt, we can get a general consensus of it. In the last stanza, the author stated how he killed the deer by the “luck of (his) chase.” This last part helps me picture a man holding a spear, chasing the deer. However, we do not know if that is how the deer actually died. The fun part of this is that the author left the hunting techniques out so that his audience may imagine many other ways the hunter