"Indian Ate the Woodchuck", also known as "Indian Et the Woodchuck", "Injin Et the Woodchuck" or "Indian Ate/Et the Woodpecker/Woodcock/Woodhen" is an old-time breakdown known in Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee in C Major. The parts are played AAAA'BB (Phillips) or AABCC (Titon).
The B part is similar to some versions of the A part of "Soldier's Joy" and some versions have some phrases in common with "The Red Haired Boy". The version given here is from John Salyer. The melody was in the repertoire of Kentucky fiddlers John Salyer (1882-1952), Estill Bingham (1899-1990), Owen "Snake" Chapman and bluegrass fiddler Kenny Baker (who called it "Indian Killed a Woodcock"). Ed Haley played a "busier" or 'notier' version of the tune in three parts.
The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954. African-American fiddler Frank Patterson recorded the tune under the title "Indian and the Woodchuck" for the Library of Congress around 1942.
There is sometimes a verse used with the tune:
Injun et a woodchuck,
He et it in a minute,
He et it so durn quick
He had no time to skin it.
The banjo tablature is by John Letscher who based it on the version played by Ed Hayley.
It was printed in Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1982), Lamancusa's The Gettysburg Collection of Old-Time Fiddle Tunes (2021) Milliner & Koken's Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes (2011), Phillips' Traditional American Fiddle Tunes, vol. 2 (1995), Silberberg's Tunes I Learned at Tractor Tavern (2011), Titon's Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes (2001).
It was recorded by John Salyer on John M. Salyer: Home Recordings 1941-1942, vol. 2 (1993) and Ed Haley on Forked Deer (1997).