>>1398391>they sent grizz specimens back to DCMany of which were either from the expected mountainous habitat, were misidentified (the Smithsonian has a taxidermied "sun bear" (light colored black bear) L&C ID'd as a juvie grizz), or were decomposed to the point of not being positively identifiable at the time and not preserved until DNA testing was a thing.
>I guess all those grizzly bear claw necklaces were fakeEither black bear or traded for, just like the bleached/dyed "eagle feathers" that weren't or the sea shells, obsidian, billfish bills, reindeer antlers, glass and clay beads, and many other trade goods that pervaded pretty much all the plains tribes but aren't found anywhere near the plains.
>the ghost dance, circle of life dance, all the stories of the "Great Bear" were all fake?Likely either completely fabricated like all religion even if there was a tiny shred of truth to it 3,000 years prior, or borrowed from the tribes that actually lived in grizz country in the mountains via warfare and trade.
The Sauk tribe from the Mississippi Valley told tales, had dances, etc etc for several full-blown mythical creatures (phoenix, Nessie-like river monster, Titan-esque giant hominid), continued to worship the saber-toothed cat that they'd only ever found fossilized remains of (extinct several hundred thousand years before earliest dated fossil of Homo erectus much less Homo sapiens), told tales of mammoths that had been extinct since the end of the last ice age, believed obsidian (a trade item) had magical properties, and many other things they incorporated into their culture without having any direct exposure to.
>The Mandans regaled L&C with their tales of the grizzly bearAnd the inuit regaled travelers and explorers with tales of giant sea turtles large enough to have entire villages upon their backs, epic battles with 10-legged polar bears big enough to swallow an entire tribe whole, and many other obviously-fictitious events.
