“This is my church — the deer, turkey, nature.” — Carl Drake, 82-year-old American Indian, lifetime resident of Wisconsin.

I met Carl Drake shortly after my father died in 2008. I was out walking my border collie during the deer kill. A large GMC truck towing an enclosed trailer was slowly moving up the road and stopped beside me. Carl was out searching for the young buck he had raised the year before. He had put a red collar on the little guy when he released him, hoping hunters would not kill a tame deer.

Carl had already visited the DNR offices in Madison to buy a deer license to tag the deer as his deer — but a living deer. The DNR staff laughed in his face. If you do not kill deer, you have no right to deer — and no right to help an orphan fawn. He…