One indirect way of exploring these ancient connections is by studying the traditions of Native Americans. Obviously,the fact that contemporary Native elders maintain certain beliefs does not tell us unequivocally what their ancestors may have thought. Nor is there any reason to suppose that all traditional peoples have cherished the same ideas through the long span of human history. Still, Native cultures offer us a glimpse into the minds of hunting people, whose vision of the world is ancestral to us all.

At the Lowrie Museum in Berkeley, California, there is a small, toothy wooden mask that was crafted more than a hundred years ago by an Eskimo carver from Alaska. In the hands of a shaman, this evocative object became the means of acquiring the abilities of a wolf, particularly its skill as a hunter. According to Arctic ethnographer Knud Rasmussen, the base of the mask was a prayer for success at killing deer, while the edge represented "the whole power of the universe - sky, earth." These powers could be approached during the full moon in December, when the shaman donned the mask. "All that we desire," the people sang, could be achieved through union with the wolf.

Half a continent to the south, the Pawnee (aboriginal people of the central United States) developed a language of hand signs. The signal for wolf was a U formed by the second and third fingers of the right hand, held beside the right ear and then brought forward. The same sign meant Pawnee.

The basis for the sympathy between human and animal hunters is not difficult to discern. In his book Hunters in the Barrens, anthropologist Georg Henriksen tells how the Naskapi people of Labrador search for caribou. Single file, the hunting party trots steadily away from camp, "keeping up the same speed hour after hour." They follow ridges and hilltops, scanning the landscape for prey. When they spot a herd, miles in the distance, they descend into the woods to approach it:

No words are spoken. Half running, every man takes the wind, weather, and every feature of the terrain into account, and relates it to the position of the caribou. Suddenly, one of the men stops and crouches, whistling low to the other men. He has seen the herd. Without a word the men scatter in different directions. No strategy is verbalized, but each man has made up his mind about the way in which the herd can best be tackled. Seeing the other men choose their directions, he acts accordingly.

There could scarcely be a better description of the hunting behaviour of wolves.

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 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. THere is another story, too - a true one from Montana in the latter years of the nineteenth century - that tells how a Crow shaman named Bird-shirt used wolf spiritmedicine to treat a wounded warrior. His patient, Swan's-head, had been shot through the lungs in battle. Daubed with clay to resemble a wolf and carrying his ceremonial wolf skin, Bird-shirt danced. An eyewitness reported:

Suddenly the drums changed their beating. They were softer and much faster. I heard Bird-shirt whine like a wolf-mother that has young pups, and saw him trot, as a wolf trots around the body of Swan's-head, whinning continually, as a wolf mother whines to make her pups do as she wishes.

I was watching - everybody near enough was watching - when Swan's-head sat up. We then saw Bird-shirt sit down like a wolf, with his back to Swan's-head, and howl four times, just as a wolf howls four times when he is in trouble and needs help.

Bird-shirt continued to dance, to trot, to circle, to whine. He made movements with his wolf skin and, we are told, Swan's-head stood up, walked to the stream, stretched to release the black blood from his wounds and bathed in the water.