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

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Speaker 1: Section twenty three of the Extermination of the American Bison.
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Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. The Extermination of the American Bison
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Speaker 1: by William T. Hornaday, Part two, Chapter three. Progress of
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Speaker 1: the extermination continued Section B Part seven The destruction of
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Speaker 1: the Northern Herd. Until the building of the Northern Pacific Railway,
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Speaker 1: there were but two noteworthy outlets for the buffalo robes
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Speaker 1: that were taken annually in the northwestern territories of the
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Speaker 1: United States. The principal one was the Missouri River and
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Speaker 1: the Yellowstone River was the other. Down these streams, the
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Speaker 1: hides were transported by steamboats to the nearest railway shipping point.
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Speaker 1: For fifty years prior to the building of the Northern
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Speaker 1: Pacific Railway in eighteen eighty to eighteen eighty two, the
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Speaker 1: number of robes marketed every year by way of these
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Speaker 1: streams was estimated variously at from fifty to one hundred thousand.
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Speaker 1: A great number of hides taken in the British possessions
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Speaker 1: fell into the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company and
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Speaker 1: found a market in Canada. In May eighteen eighty one,
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Speaker 1: the Sioux City, Iowa Journal contained the following information in
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Speaker 1: regard to the Buffalo Robe crop of the previous hunting season,
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Speaker 1: the winter of eighteen eighty to eighty one. It is
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Speaker 1: estimated by competent authorities that one hundred thousand buffalo hides
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Speaker 1: will be shipped out of the Yellowstone Country this season.
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Speaker 1: Two firms alone are negotiating for the transportation of twenty
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Speaker 1: five thousand hides each. Most of our citizens saw the
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Speaker 1: big load of buffalo hides that the c. K Peck
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Speaker 1: brought down last season, a load that hid everything about
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Speaker 1: the boat below the roof of the hurricane deck. There
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Speaker 1: were ten thousand hides in that load, and they were
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Speaker 1: all brought out of the Yellowstone on one trip and
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Speaker 1: transferred to the s K Peck. How such a load
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Speaker 1: could have been piled on the little terry. Not even
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Speaker 1: the men on the boat appear to know. It hid
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Speaker 1: every part of the boat, barring only the pilot house
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Speaker 1: and smoke stacks. But such a load will not be
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Speaker 1: attempted again for such boats as ply the Yellowstone. There
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Speaker 1: are at least fifteen full loads of buffalo hides and
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Speaker 1: other pelts. Reckoning one thousand hides to three car loads,
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Speaker 1: and adding to this fifty cars for the other pelts,
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Speaker 1: it will take at least three hundred and fifty box
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Speaker 1: cars to carry this stupendous bulk of peltry east to market.
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Speaker 1: These figures are not guesses, but estimates made by men
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Speaker 1: whose business it is to know about the amount of
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Speaker 1: hides and furs awaiting shipment. Nothing like it has ever
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Speaker 1: been known in the history of the fur trade. Last
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Speaker 1: season the output of buffalo hides was above the average,
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Speaker 1: and last year only about thirty thousand hides came out
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Speaker 1: of the Yellowstone Country, or less than a third of
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Speaker 1: what is there now awaiting shipment. The past severe winter
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Speaker 1: caused the buffalo to bunch themselves in a few valleys
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Speaker 1: where there was pasturage, and there the slaughter went on
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Speaker 1: all winter. There was no sport about it, simply shooting
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Speaker 1: down the famine tamed animals as cattle might be shot
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Speaker 1: down in a barnyard. To the credit of the Indians,
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Speaker 1: it can be said that they killed no more than
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Speaker 1: they could save the meat from the greater part of
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Speaker 1: the slaughter was done by white hunters or butchers rather,
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Speaker 1: who followed the business of killing and skinning buffalo by
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Speaker 1: the mouth, leaving the carcasses to rot. At the time
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Speaker 1: of the Great division made by the Union Pacific Railway,
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Speaker 1: the northern body of Buffalo extended from the valley of
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Speaker 1: the Platte River northward to the southern shore of Great
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Speaker 1: Slave Lake, eastward almost to Minnesota, and westward to an
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Speaker 1: elevation of eight thousand feet in the Rocky Mountains. The
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Speaker 1: herds were most numerous along the central portion of this
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Speaker 1: region see map, and from the Platte Valley to Great
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Speaker 1: Slave Lake the range was continuous. The buffalo population of
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Speaker 1: the southern half of this great range was, according to
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Speaker 1: all accounts, nearly three times as great as that of
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Speaker 1: the northern half. At that time, or let us say
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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy, there were about four million buffaloes south of
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Speaker 1: the Platte River, and probably about one million and a
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Speaker 1: half north of it. I am aware that the estimate
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Speaker 1: of the number of buffaloes in the Great Northern Herd
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Speaker 1: is usually much higher than this, but I can see
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Speaker 1: no good grounds for making it so. To my mind,
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Speaker 1: the evidence is conclusive that although the northern herd ranged
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Speaker 1: over such an immense area, it was numerically less than
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Speaker 1: half the size of the overwhelming multitude, which actually crowded
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Speaker 1: the Southern Range, and at times so completely consumed the
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Speaker 1: herbage of the plains that detachments of the United States
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Speaker 1: Army found it difficult to find sufficient grass for their
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Speaker 1: mules and horses note sixty seven. As an instance of this,
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Speaker 1: Sea Forest and Stream, Volume two, page one eighty four,
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Speaker 1: quote Horace Jones, the interpreter here Fort Sill, says that
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Speaker 1: on his first trip along the line of the one
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Speaker 1: hundredth meridian in eighteen fifty nine, accompanying Major Thomas, since
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Speaker 1: our noble old General, they passed continuous herds for over
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Speaker 1: sixty miles, which left so little grass behind them that
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Speaker 1: Major Thomas was seriously troubled about his horses. End quote,
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Speaker 1: end note sixty seven. The various influences which ultimately led
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Speaker 1: to the complete blotting out of the Great Northern Herd
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Speaker 1: were exerted about as follows in the British possessions, where
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Speaker 1: the country was immense, and game of all kinds except
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Speaker 1: buffalo very scarce. Indeed, where in the language of Professor Kenniston,
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Speaker 1: the explorer quote, there was a great deal of country
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Speaker 1: around every wild animal end quote. The buffalo constituted the
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Speaker 1: main dependence of the Indians, who would not cultivate the
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Speaker 1: soil at all, and of the half breeds who would
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Speaker 1: not so long as they could find buffalo. Under such circumstances,
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Speaker 1: the buffaloes of the British possessions were hunted much more
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Speaker 1: vigorously and persistently than those of the United States, where
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Speaker 1: there was such an abundant supply of deer, elk, antelope,
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Speaker 1: and other game for the Indians to feed upon, and
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Speaker 1: a paternal government to support them with annuities. Besides, quite
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Speaker 1: contrary to the prevailing idea of the people of the
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Speaker 1: United States viz. That there were great herds of buffaloes
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Speaker 1: in existence in the Saskatchewan country long after hours had
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Speaker 1: all been destroyed. The herds of British America had been
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Speaker 1: almost totally exterminated by the time the final slaughter of
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Speaker 1: our northern herd was inaugurated by the opening of the
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Speaker 1: Northern Pacific Railway in eighteen eighty. The Canadian Pacific Railway
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Speaker 1: played no part whatever in the extermination of the bison
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Speaker 1: in the British possessions, for it had already taken place
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Speaker 1: the half Breeds of Manitoba, the Plains, crees of Cappel,
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Speaker 1: and the Blackfeet of the South Saskatchewan country swept bare
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Speaker 1: a great belt of countries stretching east and west between
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Speaker 1: the Rocky Mountains and Manitoba. The Canadian Pacific Railway found
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Speaker 1: only bleaching bones in the country through which it passed.
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Speaker 1: The buffalo had disappeared from that entire region before eighteen
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Speaker 1: seventy nine and left the Blackfeet Indians on the verge
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Speaker 1: of starvation. A few thousand buffaloes still remained in the
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Speaker 1: country around the head waters of the Battle River between
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Speaker 1: the North and South Saskatchewan, but they were surrounded and
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Speaker 1: attacked from all sides, and their numbers diminished very rapidly,
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Speaker 1: until all were killed. The latest information I have been
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Speaker 1: able to obtain in regard to the disappearance of this
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Speaker 1: northern band has been kindly furnished by Professor C. A. Keniston,
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Speaker 1: who in eighteen eighty one and also in eighteen eighty
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Speaker 1: three made a thorough exploration of the country between Winnipeg
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Speaker 1: and Fort Edmonton for the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. His
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Speaker 1: four routes between the two points named covered a vast
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Speaker 1: scope of country several hundred miles in width. In eighteen
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Speaker 1: eighty one, at moose Jaw, seventy five miles southeast of
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Speaker 1: the Elbow of the South Saskatchewan, he saw a party
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Speaker 1: of Cree Indians who had just arrived from the northwest
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Speaker 1: with several carts laden with fresh buffalo meat. At Fort Saskatchewan,
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Speaker 1: on the Northern Saskatchewan River, just above Edmonton, he saw
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Speaker 1: a party of English sportsmen who had recently been hunting
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Speaker 1: on the Battle and Red Deer rivers between Edmonton and
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Speaker 1: Fort Calgary, where they had found buffaloes and killed as
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Speaker 1: many as they cared to slaughter. In one afternoon, they
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Speaker 1: killed fourteen, and could have killed more had they been
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Speaker 1: more bloodthirsty. In eighteen eighty three, Professor Kenniston found the
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Speaker 1: fresh trail of a band of twenty five or thirty
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Speaker 1: buffaloes at the elbow of the South Saskatchewan. Excepting in
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Speaker 1: the above instances, he saw no further traces of buffalo,
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Speaker 1: nor did he hear of the existence of any in
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Speaker 1: all the country he explored. In eighteen eighty one, he
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Speaker 1: saw many Cree Indians at Fort Cappel in a starving condition,
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Speaker 1: and there was no pemmican or buffalo meat at the fort.
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Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty three, however, a little pemmican found its
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Speaker 1: way to Winnipeg, where it sold at fifteen cents per pound,
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Speaker 1: an exceedingly high price. It had been made that year,
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Speaker 1: evidently in the mouth of April, as he purchased it
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Speaker 1: in May for his journey. The first really alarming impression
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Speaker 1: made on our northern herd was by the Sioux Indians,
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Speaker 1: who very speedily exterminated that portion of it which had
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Speaker 1: previously covered the country lying between the North Platte and
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Speaker 1: a line drawn from the center of Wyoming to the
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Speaker 1: center of Dakota, all along the Missouri River from Bismarck
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Speaker 1: to Fort Benton, and along the Yellowstone to the head
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Speaker 1: of Navigation. The slaughter went bravely on. All the Indian
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Speaker 1: tribes of that vast region Sioux, Cheyennes, Crows, Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans, Assiniboines,
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Speaker 1: gros Ventre, and Shoshones found their most profitable business and
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Speaker 1: greatest pleasure next to scalping white settlers in hunting the buffalo.
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Speaker 1: It took from eight to twelve buffalo hides to make
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Speaker 1: a covering for one ordinary teepee, and sometimes a single
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Speaker 1: tepee of extracise required from twenty to twenty five hides.
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Speaker 1: The Indians of our northwestern territories marketed about seventy five
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Speaker 1: thousand buffalo robes every year, so long as the northern
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Speaker 1: herd was large enough to afford the supply. If we
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Speaker 1: allow that for every skin sold to white traders, four
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Speaker 1: others were used in supplying their own wants, which must
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Speaker 1: be considered a very moderate estimate, the total number of
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Speaker 1: buffaloes slaughtered annually by those tribes must have been about
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Speaker 1: three hundred and seventy five thousand. The end, which so
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Speaker 1: many observed had for years been predicting, really began with
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Speaker 1: the northern herd in eighteen seventy six, two years after
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Speaker 1: the Great Annihilation which had taken place in the South.
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Speaker 1: Although it was not until four years later that the
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Speaker 1: slaughter became universal over the entire range, it is very
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Speaker 1: clearly indicated in the figures given in a letter from
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Speaker 1: Messer's ig Baker and Company of Fort Benton, Montana, to
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Speaker 1: the writer, dated October sixth, eighteen eighty seven, which reads
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Speaker 1: as follows, There were sent east from the year eighteen
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Speaker 1: seventy six. From this point about seventy five thousand buffalo robes.
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Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty it had fallen to about twenty thousand,
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Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty three not more than five thousand, and
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Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty four none. Whatever. We are sorry we
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Speaker 1: cannot give you a better record, but the collection of
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Speaker 1: hides which exterminated the buffalo was from the Yellowstone country
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Speaker 1: on the northern Pacific instead of northern Montana. The beginning
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Speaker 1: of the final slaughter of our no northern herd may
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Speaker 1: be dated about eighteen eighty, by which time the annual
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Speaker 1: robe crop of the Indians had diminished three fourths and
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Speaker 1: when summer killing for hairless hides began on a large scale.
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Speaker 1: The range of this herd was surrounded on three sides
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Speaker 1: by tribes of Indians armed with breech loading rifles and
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Speaker 1: abundantly supplied with fixed ammunition. Up to the year eighteen eighty,
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Speaker 1: the Indians of the tribes previously mentioned killed probably three
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Speaker 1: times as many buffaloes as did the white hunters, and
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Speaker 1: had there not been a white hunter in the whole northwest,
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Speaker 1: the buffalo would have been exterminated there just as surely,
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Speaker 1: though not so quickly by perhaps ten years, as actually
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Speaker 1: occurred along the north from the Missouri River to the
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Speaker 1: British line, and from the reservation in northwestern Dakota to
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Speaker 1: the main divide of the Rocky Mountains, a distance of
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Speaker 1: five hundred fifty miles. As the Crow flies, the country
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Speaker 1: was one continuous Indian reservation who slaughtered buffalo in season
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Speaker 1: and out of season, in winter for robes and in
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Speaker 1: summer for hides and meat to dry. In the southeast
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Speaker 1: was the great body of Sioux, and on the southwest
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Speaker 1: the Crows and Northern Cheyennes, all engaged in the same
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Speaker 1: relentless warfare. It would have required a body of armed
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Speaker 1: men larger than the whole United States Army to have
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Speaker 1: withstood this continuous hostile pressure without ultimate annihilation. Let it
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Speaker 1: be remembered, therefore, that the American Indian is as much
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Speaker 1: responsible for the extermination of our northern herd of bison
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Speaker 1: as the American citizen. I have yet to learn of
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Speaker 1: an instance wherein an Indian refrained from excessive slaughter of
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Speaker 1: game through motives of economy or care for the future,
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Speaker 1: or prejudice against wastefulness from all accounts, the quantity of
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Speaker 1: game killed by an Indian has always been limited by
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Speaker 1: two conditions only, lack of energy to kill more or
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Speaker 1: lack of more game to be killed. White Men delight
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Speaker 1: in the chase and kill for the sport it yields,
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Speaker 1: regardless of the effort involved. Indeed, to a genuine sportsman,
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Speaker 1: nothing in hunting is sport which is not obtained at
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Speaker 1: the cost of great labor. An Indian does not view
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Speaker 1: the matter in that light, and when he is killed
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Speaker 1: enough to supply his wants, he stops because he sees
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Speaker 1: no reason why he should exert himself any further. This
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Speaker 1: has given rise to the statement so often repeated, that
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Speaker 1: the Indian killed only enough buffaloes to supply his wants.
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Speaker 1: If an Indian ever attempted, or even showed any inclination
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Speaker 1: to husband the resources of nature in any way and
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Speaker 1: restrain wastefulness on the part of Indians, it would be
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Speaker 1: gratifying to know of it. The building of the Northern
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Speaker 1: Pacific Railway across Dakota and Montana hastened the end that
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Speaker 1: was fast approaching, but it was only an incident in
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Speaker 1: the annihilation of the Northern herd. Without it the final
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Speaker 1: result would have been just the same, but the end
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Speaker 1: would probably not have been reached until about eighteen eighty eight.
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Speaker 1: The Northern Pacific Railway reached Bismarck Deco on the Missouri
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Speaker 1: River in the year eighteen seventy six, and from that
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Speaker 1: date onward received for transportation eastward all the buffalo robes
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Speaker 1: and hides that came down the two rivers, Missouri and Yellowstone. Unfortunately,
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Speaker 1: the Northern Pacific Railway Company kept no separate account of
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Speaker 1: its buffalo product business and is unable to furnish a
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Speaker 1: statement of the number of hides and robes it handled.
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Speaker 1: It is therefore impossible to even make an estimate of
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Speaker 1: the total number of buffaloes killed on the Northern Range
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Speaker 1: during the six years which ended with the annihilation of
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Speaker 1: that herd. In regard to the business done by the
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Speaker 1: Northern Pacific Railway and the precise points from whence the
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Speaker 1: bulk of the robes were shipped, the following letter from
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Speaker 1: mister J. M. Hanniford, Traffic Manager of the Northern Pacific Railroad,
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Speaker 1: under date of September third, eighteen eighty seven, is of interest.
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Speaker 1: Quote your communication addressed to President Harris has been referred
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Speaker 1: to me for the information desired. I regret that our
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Speaker 1: accounts are not so kept as to enable me to
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Speaker 1: furnish you accurate data. But I have been able to
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Speaker 1: obtain the following general information, which may prove of some
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Speaker 1: value to you. From the years eighteen seventy six and
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Speaker 1: eighteen eighty our line did not extend beyond Bismarck, which
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Speaker 1: was the extreme easterly shipping point for buffalo robes and hides.
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Speaker 1: They being brought down the Missouri River from the north
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Speaker 1: for shipment from that point. In the years eighteen seventy six,
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Speaker 1: eighteen seventy seven, eighteen seventy eight and eighteen seventy nine.
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Speaker 1: They were handled at that point yearly from three to
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Speaker 1: four thousand bales of robes, about one half the bales
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Speaker 1: containing ten robes and the other half twelve robes each.
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Speaker 1: During these years, practically no hides were shipped. In eighteen
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Speaker 1: eighty the shipment of hides, dry and untanned commenced Note
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Speaker 1: sixty eight, and in eighteen eighty one and eighteen eighty
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Speaker 1: two our line was extended west and the shipping points increased,
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Speaker 1: reaching as far west as Harry and Sully Springs. In
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Speaker 1: Montana during these years eighteen eighty, eighteen eighty one and
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Speaker 1: eighteen eighty two, which practically finished the shipments of hides
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Speaker 1: and robes. It is impossible for me to give you
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Speaker 1: any just idea of the number shipped. The only figures
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Speaker 1: obtainable are those of eighteen eighty one, when over seventy
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Speaker 1: five thousand dry and untanned buffalo hides came down the
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Speaker 1: river for shipment from Bismarck. Some robes were also shipped
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Speaker 1: from this point that year, and a considerable number of
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Speaker 1: robes and hides were shipped from several other shipping points
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Speaker 1: Note sixty eight. It is to be noted that hairless
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Speaker 1: hides taken from buffaloes killed in summer are what the
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Speaker 1: writer refers to. It was not until eighteen eighty one,
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Speaker 1: when the end was very near, that hunting buffalo in
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Speaker 1: summer as well as winter, became a wholesale business. What
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Speaker 1: hunting can be more disgraceful than the slaughter of females
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Speaker 1: and young in summer when skins are almost worthless. Note
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Speaker 1: the number of pounds of buffalo meat shipped over our
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Speaker 1: line has never cut any figure, the bulk of the
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Speaker 1: meat having been left on the prairie as not being
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Speaker 1: of sufficient value to pay the cost of transportation. The
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Speaker 1: names of the extreme eastern and western stations from which
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Speaker 1: the shipments were made are as follows. In eighteen eighty
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Speaker 1: Bismarck was the only shipping point. In eighteen eighty one, Glendive, Bismarck,
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Speaker 1: and Beaver Creek. In eighteen eighty two, Terry and Sully Springs,
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Speaker 1: Montana were the chief shipping points, and in the order
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Speaker 1: named so far as numbers and amount of shipments are concerned,
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Speaker 1: Bismarck on the east and Forsyth on the west were
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Speaker 1: the two extremities up to the year eighteen eighty So
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Speaker 1: long as buffalo were killed only for robes, the bands
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Speaker 1: did not decrease very materially. But beginning with that year,
18:50
Speaker 1: when they were killed for their hides as well, a
18:52
Speaker 1: most indiscriminate slaughter commenced, and from that time on they
18:56
Speaker 1: disappeared very rapidly. Up to the year eighteen eighty one,
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Speaker 1: there were two large bands, one south of the Yellowstone
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Speaker 1: and the other north of that river. In the year mentioned,
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Speaker 1: those south of the river were driven north and never returned,
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Speaker 1: having joined the northern band and become practically extinguished. Since
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Speaker 1: eighteen eighty two. There have of course been occasional shipments,
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Speaker 1: both of hides and robes, but in such small quantities
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Speaker 1: and so seldom that they cut practically no figure, the
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Speaker 1: bulk of them coming probably from North Missouri points down
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Speaker 1: the river to Bismarck. In eighteen eighty the Northern Buffalo
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Speaker 1: Range embraced the following streams, the Missouri and all its
19:40
Speaker 1: tributaries from Port Shaw, Montana, to Fort Bennett, Dakota, and
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Speaker 1: the Yellowstone and all its tributaries. Of this region, Miles City,
19:49
Speaker 1: Montana was the geographical center. The grass was good over
19:53
Speaker 1: the whole of it, and the various divisions of the
19:55
Speaker 1: great Herd were continually shifting from one locality to another,
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Speaker 1: making journeys several hundred miles at a time over the
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Speaker 1: whole of this vast area. Their bleaching bones lies scattered
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Speaker 1: where they have not as yet been gathered up for sale,
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Speaker 1: from the Upper Marius and Milk Rivers near the British
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Speaker 1: boundary to the Platte, and from the James River in
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Speaker 1: central Dakota to an elevation of eight thousand feet in
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Speaker 1: the Rocky Mountains. Indeed, as late as October eighteen eighty seven,
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Speaker 1: I gathered up on the open common, within half a
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Speaker 1: mile of the Northern Pacific Railway depot at the city
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Speaker 1: of Helena, the skull, horns, and numerous odd bones of
20:33
Speaker 1: a large bold buffalo which had been killed there. Over
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Speaker 1: many portions of the Northern Range, the traveler may even
20:40
Speaker 1: now ride for days together without once being out of
20:43
Speaker 1: sight of buffalo carcasses or bones. Such was the case
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Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty six. And the country lying between the
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Speaker 1: Missouri and the Yellowstone northwest of Miles City go wherever
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Speaker 1: we might on divides into bad lands creek bottoms. Around
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Speaker 1: the highest plateaus, we always found the inevitable and omnipresent,
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Speaker 1: grim and ghastly skeleton, with hairy head dried up in
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Speaker 1: shriveled nostrils, half skinned legs stretched helplessly upon the gray turf,
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Speaker 1: and the bones of the body bleached white as chalk.
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Speaker 1: The year eighteen eighty one witnessed the same kind of
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Speaker 1: a stampede for the Northern Buffalo Range that occurred just
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Speaker 1: ten years previously in the South. At that time, robes
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Speaker 1: were worth from two to three times as much as
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Speaker 1: they ever had been in the South. The market was
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Speaker 1: very active, and the successful hunter was sure to reap
21:33
Speaker 1: a rich reward as long as the buffaloes lasted. At
21:37
Speaker 1: that time, the hunters and hide buyers estimated that there
21:40
Speaker 1: were five hundred thousand buffaloes within a radius of one
21:43
Speaker 1: hundred fifty miles of Miles City, and that there were
21:46
Speaker 1: still in the entire northern herd not far from one
21:49
Speaker 1: million head. The subsequent slaughter proved that these estimates were
21:53
Speaker 1: probably not far from the truth. In that year, Fort
21:57
Speaker 1: Custer was so nearly overwhelmed by a passing herd that
22:00
Speaker 1: a detachment of soldiers was ordered out to turn the
22:04
Speaker 1: herd away from the post. In eighteen eighty two, an
22:07
Speaker 1: immense herd appeared on the high level plateau on the
22:10
Speaker 1: north side of the Yellowstone, which overlooks Miles City and
22:14
Speaker 1: Fort Keo in the valley below. A squad of soldiers
22:17
Speaker 1: from the fifth Infantry was sent up on the bluff,
22:20
Speaker 1: and in less than an hour it killed enough buffaloes
22:23
Speaker 1: to load six four mule teams with meat. In eighteen
22:27
Speaker 1: eighty six, there were still about twenty bleaching skeletons lying
22:32
Speaker 1: in a group on the edge of this plateau. At
22:33
Speaker 1: the point where the road from the ferry reaches the level,
22:36
Speaker 1: but all the rest had been gathered up. In eighteen
22:40
Speaker 1: eighty two there were so it is estimated by men
22:43
Speaker 1: who were in the country no fewer than five thousand
22:46
Speaker 1: white hunters and skinners on the northern range. Lieutenant J. M. T.
22:49
Speaker 1: Partello declares that a cordon of camps from the Upper Missouri,
22:54
Speaker 1: where it bends to the west, stretched toward the setting
22:58
Speaker 1: sun as far as the dividing lane of Idaho, completely
23:01
Speaker 1: blocking in the great ranges of the Milk River, the
23:05
Speaker 1: mussel Shell, Yellowstone, and the Marius, and rendering it impossible
23:10
Speaker 1: for scarcely a single bison to escape through the chain
23:12
Speaker 1: of sentinel camps to the Canadian Northwest. Hunters of Nebraska, Wyoming,
23:18
Speaker 1: and Colorado drove the poor hunted animals north directly into
23:21
Speaker 1: the muzzles of the thousands of repeaters ready to receive them.
23:26
Speaker 1: Only a few short years ago, as late as eighteen
23:28
Speaker 1: eighty three, a herd of about seventy five thousand crossed
23:32
Speaker 1: the Yellowstone River a few miles south of here Fort Keeo.
23:36
Speaker 1: Scores of Indians, pot hunters, and white butchers on their heels,
23:40
Speaker 1: bound for the Canadian dominions, where they hoped to find
23:43
Speaker 1: a haven of safety. Alas not five thousand of that
23:47
Speaker 1: mighty mass ever lived to reach the British border line,
23:52
Speaker 1: it is difficult to say, at least to the satisfaction
23:55
Speaker 1: of old hunters, which were the most famous hunting grounds
23:58
Speaker 1: on the Northern Range. Lieutenant Partello states that when he
24:01
Speaker 1: hunted in the great triangle bounded by the three rivers Missouri, Musselshell,
24:06
Speaker 1: and Yellowstone, it contained, to the best of his knowledge
24:09
Speaker 1: and belief, two hundred and fifty thousand buffaloes. Unquestionably, that
24:14
Speaker 1: region yielded an immense number of buffalo robes, and since
24:17
Speaker 1: the slaughter, thousands of tons of bones had been gathered
24:21
Speaker 1: up there. Another favorite locality was the country lying between
24:25
Speaker 1: the Powder River and the Little Missouri, particularly the valleys
24:29
Speaker 1: of Beaver and o'fallen Creeks. Thither when scores of outfits
24:33
Speaker 1: and hundreds of hunters and skinners from the Northern Pacific
24:36
Speaker 1: Railway towns from Miles City to Glendive. The hunters from
24:41
Speaker 1: the towns between Glendive and Bismarck mostly went south to
24:45
Speaker 1: Cedar Creek and Grand and Moro Rivers. But this territory
24:49
Speaker 1: was also the hunting ground of the Sioux Indians from
24:52
Speaker 1: the Great Reservation. Farther south, thousands upon thousands of buffaloes
24:57
Speaker 1: were killed on the Milk and Marius rivers in the
25:00
Speaker 1: Judith Basin and in northern Wyoming. The method of slaughter
25:05
Speaker 1: has already been fully described under the head of the
25:07
Speaker 1: still hunt, and need not be recapitulated. It is some
25:12
Speaker 1: gratification to know that the shocking and criminal wastefulness which
25:15
Speaker 1: was so marked a feature of the southern butchery, was
25:18
Speaker 1: almost wholly unknown in the North. Robes were worth from
25:22
Speaker 1: one dollar and fifty cents to three dollars and fifty
25:25
Speaker 1: cents according to size and quality, and were removed and
25:28
Speaker 1: preserved with great care. Every one hundred robes marketed represented
25:34
Speaker 1: not more than one hundred and ten dead buffaloes, and
25:37
Speaker 1: even this small percentage of loss was due to the
25:39
Speaker 1: escape of wounded animals, which afterward dyed and were devoured
25:43
Speaker 1: by the wolves. After the skin was taken off, the
25:46
Speaker 1: hunter or skinner stretched it carefully upon the ground inside uppermost,
25:51
Speaker 1: cut his initials in the adherent subcutaneous muscle, and left
25:55
Speaker 1: it until the season for hauling. In the robes, which
25:58
Speaker 1: was always done in the early set spring immediately following
26:02
Speaker 1: the hunt, as was the case in the South. It
26:05
Speaker 1: was the ability of a single hunter to destroy an
26:07
Speaker 1: entire bunch of buffalo in a single day that completely
26:11
Speaker 1: annihilated the remaining thousands of the northern herd before the
26:14
Speaker 1: people of the United States even learned what was going on.
26:18
Speaker 1: For example, one hunter of my acquaintance, Vic Smith, the
26:21
Speaker 1: most famous hunter in Montana, killed one hundred and seven
26:25
Speaker 1: buffaloes in one stand in about one hour's time and
26:29
Speaker 1: without shifting his point of attack. This occurred in the
26:32
Speaker 1: Red Water Country, about one hundred miles northeast of Miles
26:35
Speaker 1: City in the winter of eighteen eighty one to eighty two.
26:39
Speaker 1: During the same season, another hunter named doc Ogle killed
26:43
Speaker 1: eighty five buffaloes at one stand, and John Edwards killed
26:47
Speaker 1: seventy five. The total number that Smith claims to have
26:52
Speaker 1: killed that season is about five thousand. Where buffaloes were
26:55
Speaker 1: at all plentiful, every man who called himself a hunter
26:58
Speaker 1: was expected to kill between from one in two thousand
27:01
Speaker 1: during the hunting season from November to February, and when
27:05
Speaker 1: the buffaloes were to be found, it was a comparatively
27:07
Speaker 1: easy thing to do. During the year eighteen eighty two,
27:11
Speaker 1: the thousands of bison that still remained alive on the
27:14
Speaker 1: range indicated above and also marked out on the accompanying map,
27:18
Speaker 1: were distributed over that entire area very generally. In February
27:22
Speaker 1: of that year, a Fort Benton correspondent of Forest and
27:26
Speaker 1: Stream rode as follows, quote, it is truly wonderful how
27:30
Speaker 1: many buffalo are still left. Thousands of Indians and hundreds
27:34
Speaker 1: of white men depend on them for a living. At present,
27:37
Speaker 1: nearly all the Buffalo and Montana are between Milk River
27:40
Speaker 1: and Bear Palm Mountains. There are only a few small
27:43
Speaker 1: bands between the Missouri and the Yellowstone end quote. There
27:48
Speaker 1: were plenty of buffalo on the Upper Marius River in
27:52
Speaker 1: October eighteen eighty two. In November and December, there were
27:55
Speaker 1: thousands between the Missouri and the Yellowstone Rivers south of
27:59
Speaker 1: the Northern Pacific Railway. The range during the hunting season
28:03
Speaker 1: of eighteen eighty two to eighty three was thus defined
28:06
Speaker 1: by a hunter who has since written out the Confessions
28:09
Speaker 1: of a Buffalo butcher for Forest and Stream, Volume twenty four,
28:14
Speaker 1: page four eighty nine. Then October eighteen eighty two. The
28:22
Speaker 1: western limit was defined in a general way by Powder
28:25
Speaker 1: River and extending eastward well toward the Missouri and south
28:28
Speaker 1: to within sixty or seventy miles of the Black Hills.
28:31
Speaker 1: It embraces the valleys of all tributaries to Powder River
28:35
Speaker 1: from the east, all of the valleys of Beaver Creek,
28:38
Speaker 1: o'fallen Creek, and the Little Missouri and Moro Rivers, and
28:42
Speaker 1: both forks of the cannon Ball for almost half their length.
28:45
Speaker 1: This immense territory, lying almost equally in Montana and Dakota,
28:50
Speaker 1: had been occupied during the winters by many thousands of
28:52
Speaker 1: buffaloes from time immemorial, and many of the cows remained
28:56
Speaker 1: during the summer and brought forth their young undisturbed. The
29:02
Speaker 1: three hunters composing the party whose record is narrated in
29:05
Speaker 1: the interesting sketch referred to, went out from Miles City
29:08
Speaker 1: on October twenty third, eighteen eighty two, due east to
29:12
Speaker 1: the bad lands between the Powder River and o'fallen Creek,
29:16
Speaker 1: and were on the range all winter. They found comparatively
29:19
Speaker 1: few buffaloes and secured only two hundred and eighty six robes,
29:23
Speaker 1: which they sold at an average price of two dollars
29:25
Speaker 1: and twenty cents each. They saved and marketed a large
29:29
Speaker 1: quantity of meat, for which they obtained three cents per pound.
29:33
Speaker 1: They found the whole region in which they hunted fairly
29:35
Speaker 1: infested with Indians and half breeds, all hunting buffalo. The
29:40
Speaker 1: hunting season, which began in October eighteen eighty two and
29:43
Speaker 1: ended in February eighteen eighty three, finished the annihilation of
29:47
Speaker 1: the great Northern Herd, and left but a few small
29:50
Speaker 1: bods of stragglers, numbering only a very few thousand individuals
29:54
Speaker 1: all told. A noted event of the season was the
29:57
Speaker 1: retreat northward across the Yellowstone of the Amn Heard, mentioned
30:01
Speaker 1: by Lieutenant Partello as containing seventy five thousand head. Others
30:05
Speaker 1: estimated the number at fifty thousand, and the event is
30:08
Speaker 1: often spoken of today by frontiersmen who were in that
30:12
Speaker 1: region at the time. Many think that the whole great
30:15
Speaker 1: body went north into British territory, and that there was
30:18
Speaker 1: still a goodly remnant of it in some remote region
30:21
Speaker 1: between the Peace River and the Saskatchewan or somewhere there,
30:25
Speaker 1: which will yet return to the United States. Nothing could
30:29
Speaker 1: be more illusory than this belief. In the first place,
30:32
Speaker 1: the herd never reached the British line, and if it had,
30:36
Speaker 1: it would have been promptly annihilated by the hungry Blackfeet
30:39
Speaker 1: and cree Indians, who were declared to be in a
30:41
Speaker 1: half starved condition through the disappearance of the buffalo as
30:45
Speaker 1: early as eighteen seventy nine, the great herd that went
30:49
Speaker 1: north was utterly extinguished by the white hunters along the
30:52
Speaker 1: Missouri River and the Indians living north of it. The
30:55
Speaker 1: only vestige of it that remained was a band of
30:58
Speaker 1: about two hundred individuals that took refuge in the labyrinth
31:02
Speaker 1: of ravines and creek bottoms that lie west of the
31:05
Speaker 1: Mussel Shell between Flat Willow and Box Elder Creeks, and
31:09
Speaker 1: another band of about seventy five which settled in the
31:12
Speaker 1: bad lands between the head of the Big Dry and
31:14
Speaker 1: the Big Porcupine Creeks, where a few survivors were found
31:18
Speaker 1: by the writer in eighteen eighty six. South of the
31:22
Speaker 1: Northern Pacific Railway, a band of about three hundred settled
31:25
Speaker 1: permanently in and around the Yellowstone National Park, but in
31:30
Speaker 1: a very short time every animal outside the protected limits
31:33
Speaker 1: of the park was killed, and whenever any of the
31:36
Speaker 1: Park buffalo strayed beyond the boundary, they too, were promptly
31:39
Speaker 1: killed for their heads and hides. At present, the number
31:42
Speaker 1: remaining in the park is believed by Captain Harris, the superintendent,
31:47
Speaker 1: to be about two hundred, about one third of which
31:50
Speaker 1: is due to breeding in the protected territory in the southeast.
31:54
Speaker 1: The fate of that portion of the herd is well known.
31:57
Speaker 1: The herd, which at the beginning of the hunting season
31:59
Speaker 1: of eighteen eight eighty three was known to contain about
32:01
Speaker 1: ten thousand head and arranged in western Dakota about half
32:05
Speaker 1: way between the Black Hills and Bismarck, between the Moreau
32:08
Speaker 1: and Grand Rivers, was speedily reduced to about one thousand head.
32:13
Speaker 1: Vic Smith, who was in at the death, says there
32:16
Speaker 1: were eleven hundred others, say twelve hundred, just at this
32:20
Speaker 1: juncture October eighteen eighty three sitting bowl in his whole
32:23
Speaker 1: band of nearly one thousand braves arrived from the Standing
32:27
Speaker 1: Sock Agency and in two days time slaughtered the entire herd.
32:31
Speaker 1: Vic Smith and a host of white hunters took part
32:34
Speaker 1: in the killing of this last ten thousand, and he
32:37
Speaker 1: declares that quote, when we got through the hunt, there
32:41
Speaker 1: was not a hoof left that wound up the buffalo
32:44
Speaker 1: in the far west, only a stray bull being seen
32:47
Speaker 1: here and there afterwards end quote. Curiously enough, not even
32:51
Speaker 1: the buffalo hunters themselves were at the time aware of
32:54
Speaker 1: the fact that the end of the hunting season of
32:56
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty two to eighty three was also the end
32:58
Speaker 1: of the buffalo, at least as an inhabitant of the
33:01
Speaker 1: plains and a source of revenue. In the autumn of
33:04
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty three, they nearly all outfitted as usual, often
33:08
Speaker 1: at an expense of many hundreds of dollars, and blithely
33:11
Speaker 1: sought the range that had up to that time been
33:13
Speaker 1: so prolific in robes. The end was, in nearly every
33:17
Speaker 1: case the same, total failure and bankruptcy. It was indeed
33:21
Speaker 1: hard to believe that not only the millions, but also
33:24
Speaker 1: the thousands had actually gone. And forever I have found
33:29
Speaker 1: it impossible to ascertain definitely the number of robes and
33:32
Speaker 1: hides shipped from the Northern Range during the last years
33:36
Speaker 1: of the slaughter, and the only reliable estimate I have
33:38
Speaker 1: obtained was made for me after much consideration and reflection
33:42
Speaker 1: by mister J. N. Davis of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mister Davis
33:47
Speaker 1: was for many years a buyer of furs, robes, and
33:49
Speaker 1: hides on a large scale throughout our northwestern territories, and
33:54
Speaker 1: was actively engaged in buying up buffalo robes as long
33:57
Speaker 1: as there were any to buy. Apply to a letter
34:00
Speaker 1: asking for statistics, he wrote me as follows on September
34:03
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, eighteen eighty seven. It is impossible to give
34:09
Speaker 1: the exact number of robes and hides shipped out of
34:12
Speaker 1: Dakota and Montana from eighteen seventy six to eighteen eighty three,
34:16
Speaker 1: or the exact number of buffalo in the northern herd,
34:18
Speaker 1: but I will give you as correct an account as
34:21
Speaker 1: anyone can. In eighteen seventy six, it was estimated that
34:24
Speaker 1: there were half a million buffaloes within a radius of
34:27
Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty miles of Miles City. In eighteen
34:30
Speaker 1: eighty one, the Northern Pacific Railroad was built as far
34:33
Speaker 1: west as Glendive and Miles City. At that time, the
34:37
Speaker 1: whole country was a howling wilderness, and Indians and wild
34:41
Speaker 1: buffalo were too numerous to mention. The first shipment of
34:45
Speaker 1: buffalo robes killed by white men was made that year,
34:48
Speaker 1: and the stations on the Northern Pacific Railroad between Miles
34:51
Speaker 1: City and Mandan sent out about fifty thousand hides and robes.
34:56
Speaker 1: In eighteen eighty two, the number of hides and robes
34:58
Speaker 1: bought and shipped was about two h hundred thousand, and
35:01
Speaker 1: in eighteen eighty three forty thousand. In eighteen eighty four,
35:04
Speaker 1: I shipped from Dickinson, Dakota Territory, the only car load
35:08
Speaker 1: of robes that went east that year, and it was
35:11
Speaker 1: the last shipment ever made For a long time, the
35:15
Speaker 1: majority of the ex hunters cherished the fond delusion that
35:18
Speaker 1: the great herd had only gone north into the British
35:21
Speaker 1: possessions and would eventually return in great force. Scores of
35:25
Speaker 1: rumors of the finding of herds floated about, all of
35:28
Speaker 1: which were eagerly believed at first, but after a year
35:31
Speaker 1: or two had gone by without the appearance of a
35:33
Speaker 1: single buffalo, and likewise without any reliable information of the
35:37
Speaker 1: existence of a herd of any size even in British territory,
35:41
Speaker 1: the butchers of the buffalo either hung up their old
35:43
Speaker 1: Sharp's rifles or sold them for nothing to the gun dealers,
35:47
Speaker 1: and sought other means of livelihood. Some took to gathering
35:50
Speaker 1: up buffalo bones and selling them by the ton, and
35:53
Speaker 1: others became cowboys. End of section b Arts seven