Why this devastation? Because the settlers wanted to build farms that were safe from threats and free from natural predators, and because many of them were superstitious and wrongly considered the wolf to be a force for evil. There was such hatred towards wolves that some were even tortured. The indigenous peoples of North America and Canada looked on with horror. To them, the wolf was a creature to be respected, and it remains a key figure in Native American culture and religions to this day. In some Native Canadian and North American legends, wolves have healing powers and even save humans from a great flood. Dempsey Bob, from the Wolf Clan of the First Nation Canadians, stresses: “To us, the wolf is very important – his characteristics, his strength, his knowledge of the land.� Native American Wolf Clan totem pole
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