Speaking of kindling and fire building, I've read many times that the Indians criticized whites for wasting firewood, having blazing campfires while Indians kept tiny fires. The reason was that the steel ax was a white man's invention. Unless they traded for steel, the Indians had only stone axes and firewood was hard to get. Whites could gather large amounts of wood with far less effort with their steel axes. Axes were valuable trade items for the early traders.
