A couple of years back I read an interesting book called "Make Prayers to the Raven," which was written by an anthropologist who spent a couple of years living with and studying an Indian tribe which lives in Alaska, on a major tributary to the Yukon River. Nowadays, of course, they have ATVs, snowmobiles, aluminum boats, outboard motors, centerfire rifles, chainsaws, propane appliances, and all the rest.... but much of their culture was still intact at the time the book was written. The tribe's leader, old Chief Henry, and his wife spent many, many hours teaching the author everything they could about tribal language, religion, culture, customs, history, ways of living, and so forth. It's a fascinating book.
One day some of the teenagers came to Chief Henry and asked "Chief Henry, why don't we just ditch all this troublesome white man gear and live like our ancestors did?" Chief Henry was silent for a minute, and then said "Have you ever kept yourself alive by eating ptarmigan droppings?" No Indian who lived by aboriginal ways was ever more than about 3 weeks from starving to death - and many of them died that way. In New Mexico, the Anasazi name for spring means "the season when the babies die, " because spring was usually when stored food ran out, and game was hardest to find.
As frustrating as the trappings of modern life can be sometimes, I am still very grateful for them. Best of luck with your ATV!
