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Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, the pronghorn was particularly abundant in the region of the Plains Indians and the region of the indigenous people of the Northwest Plateau and was hunted as a principal food source by local tribes. The antelope also featured prominently in Native American mythology and oral history.

Bison was a significant resource for indigenous peoples of North America for food and raw materials until near extinction in the late 19th century. In fact, for the indigenous peoples of the Plains, it was their principal food source. Native Americans were known to have highly valued their relationship with the bison, saw them as sacred, and treated them in such a respectful way as to ensure their ongoing longevity and abundance. In his biography, Lakota teacher and elder John Fire Lame Deer describes the relationship as such:

"The buffalo gave us everything we needed. Without it we were nothing. Our tipis were made of his skin. His hide was our bed, our blanket, our winter coat. It was our drum, throbbing through the night, alive, holy. Out of his skin we made our water bags. His flesh strengthened us, became flesh of our flesh. Not the smallest part of it was wasted. His stomach, a red-hot stone dropped into it, became our soup kettle. His horns were our spoons, the bones our knives, our women's awls and needles. Out of his sinews we made our bowstrings and thread. His ribs were fashioned into sleds for our children, his hoofs became rattles. His mighty skull, with the pipe leaning against it, was our sacred altar. The name of the greatest of all Sioux was Tatanka Iyotake—Sitting Bull. When you killed off the buffalo you also killed the Indian—the real, natural, "wild" Indian."

The wolverine is prevalent in stories and oral history from various Algonquian tribes and figures prominently in the mythology of the Innu people of eastern Quebec and Labrador. The wolverine is known as Kuekuatsheu, a conniving trickster who created the world. The story of the formation of the Innu world begins long ago when Kuekuatsheu built a big boat similar to Noah's Ark and put all the various animal species in it. There was a great deal of rain, and the land was flooded. He told the mink to dive into the water to retrieve some mud and rocks which he mixed together to create an island, which is the world that we presently inhabit along with all the animals. Many tales of Kuekuatsheu are often humorous and irreverent and include crude references to bodily functions. Some Northeastern tribes, such as the Miꞌkmaq and Passamaquoddy, refer to the wolverine as Lox, who usually appears in tales as a trickster and thief (although generally more dangerous than its Innu counterpart) and is often depicted as a companion to the wolf. Similarly, the Dené, a group of the Athabaskan-speaking natives of northwestern Canada, have many stories of the wolverine as a trickster and cultural transformer much like the coyote in the Navajo tradition or raven in Northwest Coast traditions.