LETTER: Native Americans do hunt by the way

Once again Bill Baum has come forth to share his vision of Montana, and as usual there is a question I feel that needs to be raised.

First, Bill wants us to stop hunting and trapping the animals. Second he believes that the Native Americans are superior stewards of the land. So I guess Bill never realized that the Native Americans supported their whole society by hunting and trapping (ie., killing) prior to and during the early European colonization of the West? When the game became depleted near their camp, they moved to a new area.

Bill is apparently unaware that the Native Americans trapped beaver and hunted buffalo to trade with the frontier storekeepers for items they could not produce themselves: rifles, blankets, even Hudson Bay iron arrowheads.

I am happy to see where Bill has gotten religion and now consults with the pontiff. Or perhaps, it is the pontiff who consults with Bill? —Richard Funk, Kalispell