The Extermination of the American BisonHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
The Extermination of the American Bison
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
American bison; Wildlife conservation -- United States -- Sources
The best description of this method which has come under our notice is
that of Professor Hind, who witnessed its practice by the Plains Crees,
on the headwaters of the Qu'Appelle River, in 1858. He describes the
pound he saw as a fence, constructed of the trunks of trees laced
together with green withes, and braced on the outside by props,
inclosing a circular space about 120 feet in diameter. It was placed in
a pretty dell between sand-hills, and leading from it in two diverging
rows (like the guiding wings of an elephant pen) were the two rows of
bushes which the Indians designate "dead men," which serve to guide the
buffalo into the pound. The "dead men" extended a distance of 4 miles
into the prairie. They were placed about 50 feet apart, and the two
rows gradually diverged until at their extremities they were from 11/2
to 2 miles apart.
[Illustration: CREE INDIANS IMPOUNDING BUFFALOES. Reproduced from Prof.
H. Y. Hind's--"Red River, Assinniboine and Saskatchewan Expedition."]
"When the skilled hunters are about to bring in a herd of buffalo from
the prairie," says Professor Hind, "they direct the course of the gallop
of the alarmed animals by confederates stationed in hollows or small
depressions, who, when the buffalo appear inclined to take a direction
leading from the space marked out by the 'dead men,' show themselves for
a moment and wave their robes, immediately hiding again. This serves to
turn the buffalo slightly in another direction, and when the animals,
having arrived between the rows of 'dead men,' endeavor to pass through
them, Indians stationed here and there behind a 'dead man' go through
the same operation, and thus keep the animals within the narrowing
limits of the converging lines. At the entrance to the pound there is a
strong trunk of a tree placed about a foot from the ground, and on the
inner side an excavation is made sufficiently deep to prevent the
buffalo from leaping back when once in the pound. As soon as the animals
have taken the fatal spring, they begin to gallop round and round the
ring fence, looking for a chance to escape, but with the utmost silence
women and children on the outside hold their robes before every orifice
until the whole herd is brought in; then they climb to the top of the
fence, and, with the hunters who have followed closely in the rear of
the buffalo, spear or shoot with bows and arrows or fire-arms at the
bewildered animals, rapidly becoming frantic with rage and terror,
within the narrow limits of the pound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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