Kiamichi Country is renowned for its hunting and fishing opportunities. Z. B. (Benny) Anderson stands way up there on the list of great hunters and fishermen. He has been written up many times by some really great writers. One story of his Small Mouth Bass prowess had his phone ringing off the hook so constantly he had it disconnected; Answering it interfered with his hunting and fishing.
Benny Anderson |
© copyright 2004
by Lin Stone
| Benny Anderson is a full blooded Choctaw born
in Broken Bow Oklahoma and he has been living in and out of the Kiamichi area
for the last 83 years.
Even though he is 83 years old Benny looks like he might be in his late sixties, and he still gets around like a teenager. He followed the construction trade for years, but his mainstay of income was from his handicrafts, and his ability to hunt, trap and fish. |
The buckle you see here is a hand-carved work of art captured from an elk horn. Benny also carves pipes, tomahawks and other artifacts. |
Benny has served as an unofficial tester for several lure
manufacturers.
His advice has brought many improvements into the field. When the
testing was over Benny kept all the lures he had tested. He knows his
favorites by name and uses them almost constantly to reel in more fish
than anyone else in the area.
"My favorite fishing lure is one I made out of feathers from a game rooster."
NOTE: There is 18 miles of water on a creek not far from Benny's home. The week I was there, In just one night of fishing one visitor caught more than 80 pounds of catfish. Just one of the cat fish weighed forty pounds. Small mouth bass are striking there by the hour too.
|
Turkey calling is almost a science with Benny. He has a turkey call made from the top half of a small turtle shell and a thin, flat piece of cedar over the bottom. Taking a reed Benny scratches out various sounds from different parts of the wood, one for a turkey hen, one for the rooster, and one for two hens squabbling. Why does he want to make so many different sounds? "Let's say you are competing with a hunter over the hill from you and all he can sound like is one lonely turkey, and here you are sounding like a bunch of turkeys having a good time -- you can count on it, any gobbler in the neighborhood will come trotting to get in on YOUR party." When Benny is acting as a guide for someone wanting to hunt turkey he will put them between him and where he is going to call the turkey from. "Especially late in the season, turkeys don't like to come in all the way to the caller without seeing something more tangible than a few sounds. They are very cautious. So they pause there out of my shooting range, but right on target for the hunters I am calling for." Benny talks the turkey gobbler down out of the tree using an owl call. Then he goes no closer than 200 yards from the gobbler. "Too many times they will stay in the tree and talk, but not come down." Most hunters have a tendency to call again and again when the turkey pauses to scout the area. Benny moves away from the turkey and that makes it follow him. "I never let the call notes I give indicate the hens have even heard him. He can't resist having the hen get away from him. " Knowing which way the wind is blowing is crucial in any kind of hunting and Benny has a little trick to keep himself constantly posted to changes in the wind. "I have a small feather attached to my rifle barrel. Even if the wind is only blowing half a mile per hour that feather will show which way the wind is blowing and then I will look in the other direction." |
Camping and Outdoor Supplies
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You name the game and Benny is on to it. Just last year he and
another trapper teamed up to trap bob cats for 14 days and they
captured 11 of them. In this part of the country there are two kinds
of bob cats here, one looks very much like a lynx with the tassels
on his ears, and the other kind that looks kind of like an overgrown
tabby, but with a bobbed off tail. Bob cats may remind some
people of overgrown kitty cats, but they are great predators, being
able to bring a white tail deer down in the right circumstances.
| How do you trap bob cats?
Well, first the cat has to be there, and how many bob cats have you seen?
"Bob cats are all around us but we don’t see very much of them because they
are so cunning. In the hands of an expert lures and decoys can fool any
animal into revealing itself. I make this mound of earth with feathers and
hair and other natural things that they eat. I leave just enough showing to
make it look like another cat has cached it there on HIS property and will
be coming back to eat it. The bob cat can't pass up that challenge to his
territory. He will try to dig it up and that's where my trap is waiting for
him." Benny caught one bob cat using little more than Christmas trimmings. He hung a few strands up in a tree during the night and the reflections from the moonlight brought the bob cat in to see what was going on. As the saying goes, Curiosity killed the cat. |
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Benny tries to shake off the fame he has earned. "People
say things like that I know every kind of tree, bush and herb
in this country. That's not so. I only know about half of
them, but I am trying to learn all of them. When I find
something I can't identify I will send it to someone who does,
like the University of Tennessee."
There are not many Indian doctors left who know the
medicines
and herbs, Benny says. He raises herbs near his home and is
always watching for them in his travels. "The old Indian doctors,
they knew most of them and how to use them. I only know about
40 to 50% of them. Unfortunately I don’t know how to use them,
but I do know the herbs."
| His biggest hobby is collecting
pictures of all kinds of Indian tribes. Benny was invited to display his
crafts on the site where the Crazy Horse Museum in Black Hills was rising
on U.S. 16/385. The museum was built by Indians and built for a memorial
for Crazy Horse. The United States Government wanted to donate $ 10
million to the project. The Indians decided to do everything themselves.
"The monument will be 670 feet high and almost 700 feet wide. You can put
all of Mount Rushmore in the head of this Indian. It will be bigger than
Stone Mountain Georgia. At the same site they are building a college and
everything there to help educate the Ogalla Sioux Indian." They asked Benny to come out and set up a stand with his handi crafts. " I carve peace pipes, belt buckles, and make fishing lures. They sold well there" |
He showed me a series of carvings he had done, but held one back.
Before letting me see it he explained.. "I meant for this pipe to have
an eagle head. But when I was finished it looked to me more like a
sea gull."
When I saw it, I had to laugh and agree it was not an eagle head.
"It looks more like a sea gull crossed with a barn owl."
Benny laughed too, wholly and completely. He is a man at peace
with himself, and with his world. "Please don't tell anyone exactly
where I live," were his parting words to me.
the end
Lin Stone is an author, writer and photographer living in Mena Arkansas among the gentle mountains known as Ouachita. His articles and essays are syndicated by talewins to be published automatically on other web sites. He writes about adventures and he writes about the peaceable things of this world for Your Vacation World. In his spare time Lin writes copy for insurance roundup. You can have immediate, and free, reading of many more pieces when you send your little surfer scooting to Lin's home page at http://www.talewins.com/StoneSoup.htm where he keeps stirring up more good things for the soul.
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