The Audubon Reader (85 page)

This method of capturing the bison is especially resorted to in October and November, as the hide is at that season in good condition and saleable and the meat can be preserved for the winter supply. When the Indians have thus driven a herd of buffalo into a pen, the warriors all assemble by the side of the enclosure, the pipe is lighted and the chiefs smoke to the honor of the Great Spirit to the four points of the compass and to the herd of bisons. As soon as this ceremony has ended the destruction commences, guns are fired and arrows shot from every direction at the devoted animals and the whole herd is slaughtered before the Indians enter the space where the buffaloes have become their victims. Even the children shoot tiny arrows at them when thus captured and try the strength of their young arms upon them.

It sometimes happens, however, that the leader of the herd becomes alarmed and restless while driving to the precipice, and should the fence be weak, breaks through, and the whole drove follow and escape. It also sometimes occurs that after the bisons are in the pen, which is often so filled that they touch each other, the terrified crowd swaying to and fro, their weight against the fence breaks it down, and if the smallest gap is made it is immediately widened, when they dash through and scamper off leaving the Indians in dismay and disappointment. The side fences for the purpose of leading the buffaloes to the pens extend at times nearly half a mile, and some of the pens cover two or three hundred yards of ground. It takes much time and labor to construct one of these great traps or snares, as the Indians sometimes have to bring timber from a considerable distance to make the fences and render them strong and efficient.

The bison has several
enemies: the worst is, of course, man; then comes the grizzly bear; and next the wolf. The bear follows them and succeeds in destroying a good many; the wolf hunts them in packs and commits great havoc among them, especially among the calves and the cows when calving. Many buffaloes are killed when they are struggling in the mire on the shores of rivers where they sometimes stick fast, so that the wolves or bears can attack them
to advantage, eating out their eyes and devouring the unresisting animals by piecemeal.

When we were ascending the
Missouri River the first buffaloes were heard of near
Fort Leavenworth, some having a short time before been killed within forty miles of that place. We did not, however, see any of these animals until we had passed
Fort Croghan, but above this point we met with them almost daily either floating dead on the river or gazing at our steamboat from the shore.

Every part of the bison is useful to the Indians, and their method of making boats by stretching the raw
hide over a sort of bowl-shaped frame work is well known. These boats are generally made by the women, and we saw some of them at the Mandan village. The horns are made into drinking vessels, ladles and spoons. The skins form a good bed or admirable covering from the cold and the flesh is excellent food, whether fresh or dried or made into pemmican; the fat is reduced and put up in bladders and in some cases used for frying fish, &c.

The hide of the buffalo is tanned or dressed altogether by the women or squaws and the children; the process is as follows: The skin is first hung on a post and all the adhering flesh taken off with a bone, toothed somewhat like a saw; this is performed by scraping the skin downwards and requires considerable labor. The hide is then stretched on the ground and fastened down with pegs; it is then allowed to remain till dry, which is usually the case in a day or two. After it is dry the flesh side is pared down with the blade of a knife fastened in a bone, called a grate, which renders the skin even and takes off about a quarter of its thickness. The hair is taken off with the same instrument and these operations being performed and the skin reduced to a proper thickness, it is covered over either with brains, liver or grease and left for a night. The next day the skin is rubbed and scraped either in the sun or by a fire until the greasy matter has been worked into it and it is nearly dry; then a cord is fastened to two poles and over this the skin is thrown and pulled, rubbed and worked until quite dry; after which it is sewed together around the edges excepting at one end; a smoke is made with rotten wood in a hole dug in the earth and the skin is suspended over it on sticks set up like a tripod and
thoroughly smoked, which completes the tanning and renders the skin able to bear wet without losing its softness or pliability afterwards.

Buffalo robes are dressed in the same manner, only that the hair is not removed and they are not smoked. They are generally divided into two parts: a strip is taken from each half on the back of the skin where the hump was and the two halves, or sides, are sewed together after they are dressed, with thread made of the sinews of the animal; which process being finished, the robe is complete and ready for market.

The scrapings of the skins, we were informed, are sometimes boiled with berries and make a kind of jelly which is considered good food in some cases by the Indians. The strips cut off from the skins are sewed together and make robes for the children or caps, mittens, shoes, &c. The bones are pounded fine with a large stone and boiled; the grease which rises to the top is skimmed off and put into bladders. This is the favorite and famous marrow grease, which is equal to butter. The sinews are used for stringing their bows and are a substitute for thread; the intestines are eaten, the shoulder blades made into hoes and in fact (as we have already stated) nothing is lost or wasted, but every portion of the animal by the skill and industry of the Indians is rendered useful.

Balls are found in the stomach of the buffalo, as in our common domestic cattle.

Having heard frequent discussions respecting the breeding of the bison in a
domesticated state, and knowing that
Robert Wickliffe, Esq., of Kentucky had raised some of these animals, we requested his son, then on his way to Europe, to ask that gentleman to give us some account of their habits under his care, and shortly afterwards received a letter from him dated Lexington, November 6th, 1843, in which he gives an interesting account of the bison breeding with the common cow and other particulars connected with this animal. After expressing his desire to comply with our request intimated to him by his son he proceeds to give us the following information: “as far,” he writes, “as his limited knowledge of natural history and his attention to these animals will permit him to do.” He proceeds: “The herd of buffalo I now possess have descended from one or two cows that I purchased from a man who
brought them from the country called the Upper Missouri; I have had them for about thirty years, but from giving them away and the occasional killing of them by mischievous persons, as well as other causes, my whole stock at this time does not exceed ten or twelve. I have sometimes confined them in separate parks from other cattle, but generally they herd and feed with my stock of farm cattle. They graze in company with them as gently as the others. The buffalo cows, I think, go with young about the same time the common cow does, and produce once a year; none of mine have ever had more than one at a birth. The approach of the sexes is similar to that of the common bull and cow under similar circumstances at all times when the cow is in heat, a period which seems as with the common cow confined neither to day nor night nor any particular season, and the cows bring forth their young of course at different times and seasons of the year, the same as our domesticated cattle. I do not find my buffaloes more furious or wild than the common cattle of the same age that graze with them.

“Although the buffalo, like the domestic cow, brings forth its young at different seasons of the year, this I attribute to the effect of domestication, as it is different with all animals in a state of nature. I have always heard their time for calving in our latitude was from March until July, and it is very obviously the season which nature assigns for the increase of both races, as most of my calves were from the buffaloes and common cows at this season. On getting possession of the tame buffalo I endeavored to cross them as much as I could with my common cows, to which experiment I found the tame or common bull unwilling to accede, and he was always shy of a buffalo cow, but the buffalo bull was willing to breed with the common cow.

“From the domestic cow I have several half-breeds, one of which was a heifer; this I put with a domestic bull, and it produced a bull calf. This I castrated, and it made a very fine steer, and when killed produced very fine beef. I bred from the same heifer several calves and then, that the experiment might be perfect, I put one of them to the buffalo bull, and she brought me a bull calf which I raised to be a very fine large animal, perhaps the only one to be met with in the world of his blood, viz., a three-quarter, half-quarter and half-quarter of the common blood. After making these experiments
I have left them to propagate their breed themselves, so that I have only had a few half-breeds and they always prove the same, even by a buffalo bull. The full-blood is not as large as the improved stock, but as large as the ordinary cattle of the country. The crossed or half-blood are larger than either the buffalo or common cow. The hump, brisket, ribs and tongue of the full- and half-blooded are preferable to those of the common beef, but the round and other parts are much inferior. The udder or bag of the buffalo is smaller than that of the common cow, but I have allowed the
calves of both to run with their dams upon the same pasture and those of the buffalo were always the fattest; and old hunters have told me that when a young buffalo calf is taken it requires the milk of two common cows to raise it. Of this I have no doubt, having received the same information from hunters of the greatest veracity. The bag or udder of the half-breed is larger than that of full-blooded animals and they would, I have no doubt, make good milkers.

“The
wool of the wild buffalo grows on their descendants when domesticated, but I think they have less of wool than their progenitors. The domesticated buffalo still retains the grunt of the wild animal and is incapable of making any other noise, and they still observe the habit of having select places within their feeding grounds to wallow in.

“The buffalo has a much deeper shoulder than the tame ox but is lighter behind. He walks more actively than the latter, and I think has more strength than a common ox of the same weight. I have broke them to the yoke and found them capable of making excellent oxen; and for drawing wagons, carts or other heavily laden vehicles on long journeys they would, I think, be greatly preferable to the common ox. I have as yet had no opportunity of testing the longevity of the buffalo, as all mine that have died did so from accident or were killed because they became aged. I have some cows that are nearly twenty years old that are healthy and vigorous, and one of them has now a sucking calf.

“The young buffalo calf is of a sandy-red or rufus color and commences changing to a dark brown at about six months old, which last color it always retains. The mixed breeds are of various colors; I have had them striped with black on a gray ground like
the zebra, some of them brindled red, some pure red with white faces and others red without any markings of white. The mixed-bloods have not only produced in my stock from the tame and the buffalo bull, but I have seen the half-bloods reproducing; viz.: those that were the product of the common cow and wild buffalo bull. I was informed that at the first settlement of the country, cows that were considered the best for milking were from the half-blood down to the quarter and even eighth of the buffalo blood. But my experiments have not satisfied me that the half-buffalo bull will produce again. That the half-breed heifer will be productive from either race, as I have before stated, I have tested beyond the possibility of a doubt.

“The domesticated buffalo retains the same haughty bearing that distinguishes him in his natural state. He will, however, feed or fatten on whatever suits the tame cow and requires about the same amount of food. I have never milked either the full-blood or mixed-breed but have no doubt they might be made good milkers, although their bags or udders are less than those of the common cow; yet from the strength of the calf the dam must yield as much or even more milk than the common cow.”

Since reading the above letter we recollect that the buffalo calves that were kept at Fort Union, though well fed every day, were in the habit of sucking each other’s ears for hours together.

There exists a singular variety of the bison, which is however very scarce, and the skin of which is called by both the hunters and fur traders a “beaver robe.” These are valued so highly that some have sold for more than three hundred dollars. Of this variety Mr. Culbertson had the goodness to present us with a superb specimen which we had lined with cloth and find a most excellent defense against the cold whilst driving in our wagon during the severity of our northern winters.

Geographical Distribution

The range of the bison is still very extensive; but although it was once met with on the Atlantic coast it has, like many others, receded and gone west and south, driven onward by the march of civilization and the advance of the axe and plow. His habits as we
have seen are migratory, and the extreme northern and southern limits of the wandering herds not exactly defined. Authors state that at the time of the first settlement of Canada it was not known in that country, and [the seventeenth-century French missionary Gabriel] Sagard-Theodat mentions having heard that bulls existed in the Far West but saw none himself. According to [Arctic explorer] Dr. [John] Richardson,
Great Slave Lake, latitude 60°, was at one time the northern boundary of their range; but of late years according to the testimony of the native, they have taken possession of the flat limestone district of Slave Point on the north side of that lake and have wandered to the vicinity of Great Marten Lake, in latitude 63° or 64°. The bison was not known formerly to the north of the Columbia river on the Pacific coast, and Lewis and Clark found buffalo robes were an important article of traffic between the inhabitants of the east side and those west of the Rocky Mountains.