RESURRECTING CHINGACHGOOK
His name was Chingachgook (chin-gatch-gook), and he was a mighty warrior and hunter — the last of a tribe of American Indians in the famed James Fenimore Cooper novel “The Last of the Mohicans.”
When I was a child, my uncle called me that name when conversations turned to whitetail hunting and my adventures in the woods. I didn’t know the exact reference, as I hadn’t read the novel, but I knew its meaning: the master of the woods; one with hunting skills beyond compare. I liked that.
Back then, my hunting gear consisted of thick aluminum arrows, a tab of leather instead of a release, a green hoodie my dad bought at Kmart and a pair of black rubber boots. Through the years, my methods and gear have progressed and become increasingly scientific, electronic and refined. Not many whitetail hunters nowadays would dare mix brands of camouflage — let alone don a green hoodie on stand, but
