Latest / Extermination of the American Bison / 023 - Part II Chapter 3 The Progress of the Extermination continued

Transcript

023 - Part II Chapter 3 The Progress of the Extermination continued · Extermination of the American Bison

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section twenty two of the Extermination of the American Bison.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. The Extermination of the American Bison
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: by William T. Hornaday, Part two, Chapter three. Progress of
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: the extermination continued, Section B, Part six. Statistics of the Slaughter.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: The most careful and reliable estimate ever made of results
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: of the slaughter of the Southern Buffalo herd is that
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: of Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, and it is the only
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: one I know of which furnishes a good index of
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the former size of that herd. Inasmuch as this calculation
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: was based on actual statistics supplemented by personal observations and
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: inquiries made in that region during the Great Slaughter, I
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: can do no better than to quote Colonel Dodge almost
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: in five full Note sixty six Plains of the Great West,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: pages one thirty nine to one forty four. The Atchison,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad furnished the following statistics of
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the buffalo product carried by it during the years eighteen
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: seventy two eighteen seventy three and eighteen seventy four Buffalo
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: product year. Number of skins carried, meat carried, bone carried
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: year eighteen seventy two, number of skins carried one hundred
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: sixty five thousand, seven hundred twenty one. Meat carried no
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: amount given. Bone carried one million, one hundred thirty five thousand,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: three hundred pounds. Year eighteen seventy three. Number of skins
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: carried two hundred fifty one thousand, four hundred forty three.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Meat carried one million, six hundred seventeen thousand, six hundred pounds.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Bone carried two million, seven hundred forty three thousand, one
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: hundred pounds. Year eighteen seventy four, number of skins carried
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: forty two thousand, two hundred eighty nine. Meat carried six
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: hundred thirty two thousand, eight hundred pounds. Bone carried six million,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: nine hundred fourteen thousand, nine hundred fifty pounds. Total number
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: of skins carried four hundred fifty nine thousand, four hundred
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: fifty three. Meat carried two million, two hundred fifty thousand,
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: four hundred pounds. Bone carried ten million, seven hundred ninety
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: three thousand, three hundred fifty pounds. The officials of the
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Kansas Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads either could not or
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: would not furnish any statistics of the amount of the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: buffalo product carried by their lines during this period, and
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: it became necessary to proceed without the actual figures. In
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: both cases, inasmuch as the Kansas Pacific Road cuts through
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: a portion of the Buffalo country which was in every
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: respect as thickly inhabited by those animals as the region
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: traversed by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, it seemed
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: absolutely certain that the former road hauled out fully as
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: many hides as the latter, if not more, and its
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: quota is so set down. The Union Pacific line handled
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: a much smaller number of buffalo hides than either of
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: its southern rivals, But Colonel Dodge believes that this quote,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: with the smaller roads which touched the Buffalo region, taken together,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: carried about as much as either of the two principal
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Buffalo roads end quote. Colonel Dodge considers it reasonably certain
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: that the statistics furnished by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Fe road represent only one third of the entire buffalo product,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: and there certainly appears to be good ground for this belief.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: It is therefore in order to base further calculations upon
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: these figures. According to evidence gathered on the spot by
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Colonel Dodge during the period of the Great Slaughter, one
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: hide sent to market in eighteen seventy two represented three
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: dead buffaloes. In eighteen seventy three two, and in eighteen
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: seventy four, one hundred skins delivered represented one hundred and
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: twenty five dead animals. The total slaughter by white men
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: was therefore about as below year hides shipped by Atchison,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, hides shipped by other roads
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: during the same period. Total number of buffalo utilized, total
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: number killed and wasted. Total buffaloes slaughtered by whites year
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy two ship by Attresson, Topeka and Santa Fe
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Railroad one hundred sixty five thousand, seven hundred twenty one.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Hides shipped by other railroads during the same period three
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: hundred thirty one thousand, four hundred forty two. Total number
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: of buffalo utilized four hundred ninety seven thousand, one hundred
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: sixty three total number killed and wasted nine hundred ninety
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: four thousand, three hundred twenty six total slaughtered by whites
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: one million, four hundred ninety one thousand, four hundred eighty
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: nine year eighteen seventy three hides shipped by attress in
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, two hundred fifty one thousand,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: four hundred forty three hides shipped by other roads during
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: the same period. Five hundred two thousand, eight hundred eighty
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: six total number of buffalo utilized seven hundred fifty four thousand,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: three hundred twenty nine. Total number killed and wasted seven
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: hundred fifty four thousand, three hundred twenty nine. Total slaughtered
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: by whites. One million, five hundred eight thousand, six hundred
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: fifty eight year eighteen seventy four hides shipped by Atchison,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. Forty two thousand, two hundred
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: eighty nine hides shipped by other roads during the same period.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Eighty four thousand, five hundred seventy eight total number of
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: buffalo utilized one hundred twenty six thousand, eight hundred sixty seven.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: Total number killed and wasted thirty one thousand, seven hundred sixteen.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Total slaughtered by whites one hundred fifty eight thousand, five
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: hundred eighty three total hides shipped by Atchison, Topeka and
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Santa Fe Railroad four hundred fifty nine thousand, four hundred
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: fifty three hides shipped by other roads during the same
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: period nine hundred eighteen thousand, nine hundred six total number
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of buffalo utilized one million, three hundred seventy eight thousand,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: three hundred fifty nine total number killed and wasted one million,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: seven hundred eighty thousand, four hundred eighty one total slaughtered
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: by whites three million, one hundred fifty eight thousand, seven
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: hundred thirty During all this time, the Indians of all
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: tribes within striking distance of the herds killed an immense
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: number of buffaloes every year. In the summer they killed
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: for the hairless hides to use for lodges and for leather,
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and in the autumn they slaughtered for robes and meat,
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: but particularly robes, which were all they could offer the
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: white trader in exchange for his goods. They were too
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: lazy and shiftless to cure much buffalo meat, and besides,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: it was not necessary for the government fed them. In
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: regard to the number of buffaloes of the southern herd
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: killed by the Indians. Colonel Dodge arrives at an estimate
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: as follows. It is much more difficult to estimate the
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: number of dead buffalo represented by the Indian tanned skins
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: or robes sent to market. This number varies with the
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: different tribes and their greater or less contact with the whites. Thus,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: the Cheyennes, Arapahoes and Kiawas of the southern plains, having
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: less contact with whites, used skins for their lodges, clothing, bedding, parfleshes, saddles,
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: lariats for almost everything. The number of robes sent to
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: market represent not only what we may call the foreign
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: exchange of these tribes, and it is really not more
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: than one tenth of the skins taken. To be well
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: within bounds. I will assume that one robe sent to
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: market by these Indians represents six dead buffaloes. Those bands
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: of Sioux who live at the agencies and whose peltries
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: are taken to market by the Union Pacific Railroad live
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: in lodges of cotton cloth furnished by the Indian bureau.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: They use much civilized clothing, bedding, boxes, ropes, et cetera.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: For these luxuries they must pay in robes, and as
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: the buffalo range is far from wide and their yearly
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: crop small, more than half of it goes to market end,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: leaving out of the account at this point all consideration
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: of the killing done north of the Union Pacific Railroad.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Colonel Dodges figures are as follows. Southern buffaloes slaughtered by
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Southern Indians Indians Kiowa's command, unchees, Cheyennes, Arapahos, and other
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Indians whose robes go over the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Fe Railroad sent to market nineteen thousand. Number of dead
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: buffaloes one hundred fourteen thousand Sioux at agencies, Union Pacific
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Railroad sent to market ten thousand. Number of dead buffaloes
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: sixteen thousand totals slaughtered per annum sent to market twenty
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: nine thousand. Number of dead buffaloes one hundred thirty thousand
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: total for the three years eighteen seventy two to eighteen
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: seventy four sent to market. No estimate number of dead
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: buffaloes three hundred ninety thousand. Reference has already been made
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: to the fact that during those years an immense number
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: of buffaloes were killed by the farmers of eastern Kansas
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: and Nebraska for their meat. Mister William Mitchell of Wabansi,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Kansas stated to the writer that quote, in those days
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: when buffaloes were plentiful in western Kansas, pretty much everybody
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: made a trip west in the fall and brought back
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: a load of buffalo meat. Everybody had it in abundance.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: As long as buffaloes remained in any considerable number. Very
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: few skins were saved, in fact, hardly any, for the
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: reason that nobody knew how to tan them, and they
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: always spoiled. At first. A great many farmers tried to
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: dress the green hides that they brought back, but they
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: could not succeed and finally gave up trying. Of course,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: a great deal of the meat killed was wasted, for
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: only the best parts were brought back end quote. The Wichita,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Kansas World of February ninth, eighteen eighty nine contains the
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: following reference quote. In eighteen seventy one and eighteen seventy two,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: the buffalo ranged within ten miles of which atame and
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: could be counted by the thousands. The town, then in
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: its infancy, was the headquarters for a vast number of
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: buffalo hunters who plied their occupation vigorously during the winter.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: The buffalo were killed principally for their hides, and daily
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: wagon trains arrived in town loaded with them. Meat was
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: very cheap in those days, fine tender buffalo steak selling
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: from one to two cents per pound. The business was
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: quite profitable for a time, but a sudden drop in
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: the price of hides brought them down as low as
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: twenty five and fifty cents each. It was a very
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: common thing in those days for people living in Wichita
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: to start out in the morning and return by evening
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: with a wagon load of buffalo meat. En Unquestionably, a
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: great many thousand buffaloes were killed annually by the settlers
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: of Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, and the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Mountain Indians living west of the Great Range. The numbers
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: so slain can only be guessed at, for there is
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: absolutely no data on which to found an estimate. Judging
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: merely from the number of people within reach of the range,
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: it may safely be estimated that the total number of
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: buffaloes slaughtered annually to satisfy the wants of this heterogeneous
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: element could not have been less than fifty thousand, and
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: probably was a much higher number. This for the three
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: years would make one hundred and fifty thousand, and the
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: grand total would therefore be about as follows. The slaughter
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: of the southern herd killed by professional white hunters in
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy two, eighteen seventy three and eighteen seventy four
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: three million, one hundred fifty eight thousand, seven hundred thirty
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: killed by Indians same period, three hundred ninety thousand killed
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: by settlers and mountain Indians one hundred fifty thousand total
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: slaughter in three years three million, ninety eight thousand, seven
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: hundred thirty. These figures seem in credit, but unfortunately there
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: is not the slightest reason for believing they are too high.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: There are many men now living who declare that during
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: the Great Slaughter they each killed from twenty five hundred
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to three thousand buffaloes every year. With thousands of hunters
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: on the range, and such possibilities of slaughter before each
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: it is after all no wonder that an average of
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: nearly a million and a quarter buffaloes fell each year
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: during that bloody period. By the close of the hunting
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: season of eighteen seventy five, the Great Southern Herd had
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: ceased to exist as a body. It had been utterly annihilated.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: The main body of the survivors, numbering about ten thousand,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: had fled southwest and dispersed through that great tract of wild,
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: desolate and inhospitable country, stretching southward from the Cimaran Country
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: across the public Land Strip, the Panhandle of Texas, and
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: the Yano Estacado or Staked Plain to the Pecos River.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: A few small bands of stragglers maintained a precarious existence
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: for a few years longer on the head waters of
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the Republican River and in southwestern Nebraska near Ogalala, where
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: calves were caught alive as late as eighteen eighty five.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Wild buffaloes were seen in southwestern Kansas for the last
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: time in eighteen eighty six, and the two or three
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: score of individuals still living in the Canadian River country
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: of the Texas Panhandle are the last wild survivors of
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: the Great Southern Herd. The main body of the fugitives
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: which survived the Great Slaughter of eighteen seventy one to
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: seventy four continued to attract hunters who were very hard
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: up who pursued them, often at the risk of their
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: own lives, even into the terrible Yano Estaccato in Montana.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty six, I met on a cattle ranch
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: an ex buffalo hunter from Texas named Harry Andrews, who,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: from eighteen seventy four to eighteen seventy six continued in
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: pursuit of the scattered remnants of the Great Southern herd
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: through the Panhandle of Texas and on into the Staked
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: plain itself. By that time, the market had become completely
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: overstocked with robes, and the prices received by Andrews and
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: other hunters was only sixty five cents each for cow
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: robes and one dollar and fifteen cents each for bull robes,
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: delivered on the range, the purchaser providing for their transportation
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: to the railway. But even at those prices, which were
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: so low as to make buffalo killing seem like downright murder,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: mister Andrews assured me that he made big money. On
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: one occasion when he got a stand on a large
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: bunch of buffalo. He fired one hundred and fifteen shots
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: from one spot and killed sixty three buffaloes in about
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: an hour in eighteen eighty Buffalo hunting as a business
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: ceased forever in the Southwest, and so far as can
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: be ascertained, but one successful hunt for robes has been
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: made in that region since that time. That occurred in
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: the fall and winter of eighteen eighty seven, about one
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: hundred miles north of Tescosa, Texas, when two parties, one
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: of which was under the leadership of Lee Howard, attacked
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: the only band of buffaloes left alive in the Southwest,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: and which at that time numbered about two hundred head.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: The two parties killed fifty two buffaloes, of which ten
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: skins were preserved and tire for mounting. Of the remaining
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: forty two, the heads were cut off and preserved for mounting,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: and the skins were prepared as robes. The mountable skins
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: were finally sold at the following prices. Young cows fifty
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: dollars to sixty dollars, adult cows seventy five dollars to
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: one hundred dollars, adult bull one hundred fifty dollars. The
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: unmounted heads sold as follows. Young bulls twenty five dollars
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: to thirty dollars adult bulls fifty dollars, young cows ten
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: dollars to twelve dollars, adult cows fifteen dollars to twenty
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: five dollars. A few of the choicest robes sold at
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: twenty dollars each, and the remainder, a lot of twenty
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: eight of prime quality and in excellent condition, were purchased
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: by the Hudson's Bay Fur Company for three hundred fifty dollars.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Such was the end of the Great Southern Herd. In
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one, it contained certainly no fewer than three
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: million buffaloes, and by the beginning of eighteen seventy five
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: its existence as a herd had utterly ceased, and nothing
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: but scattered fugitive bands remained. End of Section B, Part
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: six