Native Joke (A Little Long)

A native hunter is canoeing down the length of a river during winter. Due to the cold, the river is half ice, half slush. He's had a successful hunt and the canoe is filled with meat and fur. Along his journey his canoe becomes trapped in ice, and he tries to dislodge the canoe. While he is working he notices 4 wolves on the opposite bank starting towards him. Becoming concerned, he tries to work faster, but his canoe will not budge. The wolves are closer still, and the hunter decides to run into the woods. He finds the largest tree he can and pulls himself into the branches just as the 4 wolves are at his heels, but he makes it safe and sound. Clinging to the tree he looks down to the wolves and says, "Brothers, I do not taste good. You do not want to eat me. Go find yourselves a tasty otter or beaver, you will enjoy eating that much more than I." Two of the wolves start away after his words, and the hunter says to the two remaining, "Be smart like your brothers and leave, if you wait for me you will simply starve, as I am not leaving this tree." The two wolves have no reaction to his words and lay down to snooze at the base of the tree. Feeling tired from the ordeal himself, the hunter still clinging to the tree has a snooze of his own. He awakes later in the afternoon to the sound of the first two wolves returning to the others at the base of the tree each with a beaver in its mouth. "Ah, you were not smart like your brothers who have food of their own, you will go hungry due to your foolishness." The first two wolves drop the beavers, who in turn start gnawing at the base of the tree.