Happy hunting ground explained

The happy hunting ground is a concept of the afterlife associated with the Native Americans in the United States.^[1] The phrase most likely originated with the British settlers' interpretation of the Indian description.^[2]

History

The phrase first appears in 1823 in The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper:

Historian Charles L. Cutler suggests that Cooper "either coined or gave currency to" the use of the phrase "happy hunting ground" as a term for the afterlife.^[3] The phrase also began to appear soon after in the writing of Washington Irving.^[4]

In 1911, Sioux physician Charles Eastman wrote that the phrase "is modern and probably borrowed, or invented by the white man."^[5]

Notes and References

1. Web site: happy hunting ground. merriam-webster.com. 6 October 2020.
2. Meek. Barbara A.. January 2006. And the Injun goes "How!": Representations of American Indian English in white public space . Language in Society . 35. 1. 93–128. 10.1017/S0047404506060040. 6 October 2020. free.
3. Book: Cutler, Charles L.. February 2000. O Brave New Words!: Native American Loanwords in Current English. Norman, OK. University of Oklahoma Press. 132. 978-0-8061-3246-4.
4. Book: Irving, Washington. 1886. Astoria, or, Anecdotes of an enterprise beyond the Rocky Mountains. New York. J.B. Alden. 191.
5. Book: Eastman, Charles Alexander. 1911. The soul of the Indian; an interpretation. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Company. 156.