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The Wolf has always been a symbol of evil as well as good, either a demonic, brutal killer or a reflection of the mysterious, untamed wilderness. The reality of the matter, however, is that the wolf is neither evil nor exceptionally good. Wolves are simply predators. As with humans, wolves need to eat to survive. In this way, wolves also help preserve nature's delicate balance by keeping herds of deer, elk, moose, and other large mammals in check. They also keep these populations strong and healthy by hunting the weak and sick. Both the idealized wolf and the demonic wolf are created by the human mind. The Big Bad Wolf has filled our myths and legends and if you only know of wolves in that sense, then you truly do not know the wolf at all. What humans don't know, they fear. That fear is possibly the greatest threat to the survival of the wolf. Fear breeds fear; hatred breeds hatred. Enveloped in a dark cloud of anxious imagination, wolves attained a fearful reputation for gluttony. On the one hand, they were accused of unbridled depredation on livestock, though in fact they almost always prefer wild prey. On the other, they were denounced for craving human flesh, though in fact they do not generally hunt down human beings. It is the true nature of wolves that humans never really understood. Their normal response to people is not aggression but curiousity or fear.
With the spread of Christianity, the Bible's dictate to control and conquer the world flew through the forests with the force and destructiveness of a fire as man declared war on the wolf. The wolf was especially evil in the folklore, literature, and Church teachings of medieval Europe. It is true the wolves in the Middle Ages, like foxes, skunks, and even domestic and wild dogs, sometimes carried and transmitted rabies. Rabies is a terrible disease that we, luckily, almost never encounter today. Back then rabies was always fatal. However, fables of evil skunks, foxes, or dogs were not created as they were with the wolf. Man's extreme fear of wolves were stirred up by tales of wicked creatures acting out of devotion to the darkest powers of hell. However, man's fear did not stop there. Worse then just the wolf was the human-wolf creature known as the werewolf. The thought that a human could transform into a wolf and be able attack, kill, and sometimes even gorge other humans struck deep fear in the minds and hearts of many medieval men. Yet only the fears of facing the court of the Inquisition were greater. At this time, werewolves became equal to witches and sorcerers. Relatives and friends accused each other of evilness. If they did not fear, they would most likely be found as witches or werewolves. The Inquistion was a terrible time of witch hunts and torturing that the Church and higher ups named a spiritual cleansing and where many innocent people died a horrible death. When Europeans arrived in mass in North America, they brought with them eighteenth-century versions of these lurid misconceptions. And to add to this: a struggle against wilderness that was both literal and mythic. The settlers arrived with a mission to tend a garden in a wild land. There was no place in the garden for predators. Wolves were killers, and, in addition to any actual threat, reminded the newcomers that they were ultimately not in control, even in this new and promised land. On both continents, Europe and North America, wolves were persecuted with fury; hundreds of thousands were slaughtered due to these false beliefs.
Native American perceptions of nature were very different from those that Europeans shared. The different Native American cultures shared a deep respect for other creatures. Many Native American people called the wolf the PathFinder or Teacher. They admired the wolf's intelligence, courage, and strength. They also saw in the wolf a loyal pack member who help with the family as a whole when necessary. The tales handed down from generation to generation are mainly stories of wolf the keen hunter, wolf the devoted family member, wolf the proud defender of his territory, wolf the intelligent teacher, and wolf the true survivor. These were characteristics deserving great respect and emulation. To carry wolf power, among many tribes, was to be greatly honored and admired. In turn, the wolf was celebrated in ceremony and legend, as well as in dance and song. Understanding of wolves differed between Native Americans cultures that depended heavily on hunting and those that were mainly agricultural. It was for the hunter or shaman that the wolf played the greatest role, rather than the farmer. The Navajo, however, called the wolf mai-coh, meaning witch. Their fear of wolves was based not on the nature of the wolf, but on human nature. Both the Navajo and the Hopi believed that human witches used or possibly abused the wolf's powers to hurt other people. While Europeans warned of a wolf in sheep's clothing, certain tribal beliefs cautioned against a human in wolf's clothing. The profound similarities between human and wolf have been celebrated in many Native American cultures for centuries. In some traditions, this kinship is believed to transcend even death, for in the spirit world, wolves are uniquely powerful. When they howl, are the spirits calling to us? According to a Cree myth, it was Wolf who, after the great flood, carried a ball of moss round and round the survivors' raft, until the Earth reformed. It is no longer possible to trace the relationship between wolves and humankind to its origins, but it probably extends back at least two million years. Even then, wolves lived much as they do today, and our far-distant ancestors may have watched them running single file through the trees, hunting hoofed animals on green prairies and bearing their pups in the comfort of sand dens. Indeed, our ancestors may have followed a similar way of life, travelling in small family groupings and feasting on what they could kill.
The wolf has been the symbol of great respect and honor as well as
hatred and persecution. We, as humans, must let go of our fears; our
legends. We must strive and want to understand that every creature on this
earth has value and purpose. We must learn to know the importance of
nature's balance and beauty. Only then will the wolf's true destiny come
to view.
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