Northern Michigan Voices is a series by 9&10 News reporter Olivia Fellows in which she interviews a person in the community about a story from their life. Everyone has an interesting story to tell, and we want to give you a voice, Northern Michigan! To submit your own story pitch, see the bottom of this article for more details.
In this edition, Olivia talks to Traverse City resident Jamie Wheeler about her experience hunting a bull elk through the Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
Q: Tell me a bit about yourself and your background with the tribe.
WHEELER: From an early age, my grandparents and my mom were aware that they were part Native American with the Sault St. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians. We were able to get our membership with Blood Quantum, and I am 1/32 (indigenous) so it does enable me to get hunting privileges.
I’m a physical therapist, and through the Indian Health Service was able to pay for my last year of graduate school, and then I had a two-year service contract working for a Native American facility. My husband and I moved to Arizona for two years, and I worked at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center which was a super amazing experience. I was able to work with any federally recognized tribal member, and they didn’t have to have health insurance. It was completely covered by the Indian Health Services, I thought that was really cool.
More recently, I was getting involved with my tribe and every year you can apply for bear and elk, along with other deer and fishing tags. I’ve been selected for bear every year and got a bear. This year, I was selected for elk, which is a pretty big honor.
Q: How did it feel to participate in a hunt of this scale, especially as a representative of your tribe? What were you most excited about?
WHEELER: Some people can apply their whole lives with Michigan points and never be selected. We’re a smaller tribe, and the tribes get a certain percentage of tags based on what the Michigan Department of Natural Resources gives out. They only gave out two bull tags, so male tags for our tribe for this year. So it’s, it’s very rare to be able to get that opportunity.
I don’t trophy hunt. I hunt for meat and for the experience. When I found out, we hired a guide, my dad helped me and he’s a big hunter. It’s like four sets of three days. The first four days were extremely hot. There were no signs of any elk moving or calling out to us, we had to make sure I got my hunting gear. There’s a Zoom orientation just to get information about the hunt. There’s special testing for diseases they have to do on the animal if you get one. I was most excited to be out in nature and get the chance. I’d never hunted elk before, and it’s a pretty unique experience in Michigan to be able to do that.
I’m just blessed to have the experience, first off with my dad to harvest such a big animal, and to have the meat that will be in our freezer for this whole winter, and to be able to share it with other people.
Q: Can you tell me about the actual hunt, and what was going through your mind when you eventually spotted the elk?
WHEELER: With hunting elk it’s a like stock and call game when they’re in the rut and that was really unique, whereas with deer and bear, you don’t typically do that. We would bugle out and call the animal, and it would respond to us, and we trekked through about a mile-and-a-half wooded area to find it and see it. It’s like an interactive experience with the animal to hunt it down. It’s very cool.
You get up early, you’re usually tired. You’re still waking up, it’s not even light yet. You’re out in the woods by 5 or 6 o’clock in the morning. We have two other cow hunters, because a lot of times they are herded together, the cow and the bull, so you have a few hunters with you on deck for help. We left three of the other people in the clearing as we went through a first open field, and a second open field, and then we heard the animal call back to us.
I could see just a bit of its trunk through the trees. They knew it was a bigger elk because of the way it called back. Based on the raspyness of the voice and how hard it’s been calling to cows, they can tell it’s an older male. It happened so quickly I didn’t have time to be nervous, which was to my benefit. It was walking around, and it was my first shot that got it. You have to reload really quickly and try to get it again. If it’s still moving, you don’t want it to suffer but my first shot did kill it. I don’t think it all caught up with me until we got up to it and realized how big it was.
Q: Were there any traditions or skills you used during or after the hunt that were passed down through your tribe?
WHEELER: I had practice with shooting and have had shotguns all of my life. We maintain the idea that, okay, we can go buy our food at the store or we can go harvest it ourselves. I think that’s always been a big thing that we’ve carried with us. A lot of the things that you do with the animals, I’m getting jewelry made. That’s really important, really special to us, (using) the ivory teeth with the elk is something that a lot of people do. We wear different jewelry to represent the animal and its spirit. There are other like things that people have said they do, whether it’s leaving the genitalia behind in a tree so that the spirit lives on. I didn’t do that. I’d heard from a lot of other people who were native that I didn’t know who reached out to me. It was very cool hearing about their experience and what they’ve done in the past.
Q: What are your top three pieces of advice would be for other hunters who are maybe aspiring to have a kill this big, and being able to do it successfully?
WHEELER: I would say, practice your shooting in different situations at different distances. Make sure you have the right equipment, because you’re going to be hiking a lot, moving a lot to get to animals like this, and respect, respect the earth, and appreciate the beauty that the opportunity that you’re given.
Q: What message, if any, you would give to others after your experiences about the value of hunting and connecting with nature through traditional means like the tribe often does?
WHEELER: I think if you have any tribal or native roots, you should be involved. Get on their website, see what events they’re having, go to a powwow, or volunteer and use your rights to go do these experiences. This was incredible. This is life changing and I’ll never forget this. I got to share it with my husband and my dad, I get to give back meat to other people that might need some.
Just to be able to thank my tribe for such an amazing opportunity, it will never leave me. People should definitely be out in nature. We should be harvesting our own food and trying to live like our ancestors lived. It’s not as easy now, but I think it’s very doable when you seek out the right opportunity. I think we need to preserve our rights and preserve our ability to take ownership. We do belong to this land, we want to respect and honor it but also use its resources.
Bott shared that she was also successful in her hunt using a bear tag, again with the help of family and friends in the woods.
Have an interesting story of your own? Email Olivia and provide a brief summary of your story, and we will contact you if we’d like to tell your tale. We’re interested in all sorts of stories, too! Sad, happy, exhilarating, inspiring— we’d like to hear about your story and share it with the community!
Note: We will ask for photos as well (or take one if possible), it helps immensely if you can be sure you have pictures.