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
"His companions in the mean time get in the rear and side of the herd,
and at a given signal show themselves, and advance towards the
buffaloes. They instantly take alarm, and, finding the hunters beside
them, they run toward the disguised Indian or decoy, who leads them on
at full speed toward the river, when, suddenly securing himself in some
crevice of the cliff which he had previously fixed on, the herd is left
on the brink of the precipice; it is then in vain for the foremost to
retreat or even to stop; they are pressed on by the hindmost rank, who,
seeing no danger but from the hunters, goad on those before them till
the whole are precipitated and the shore is strewed with their dead
bodies. Sometimes in this perilous seduction the Indian is himself
either trodden under foot by the rapid movements of the buffaloes, or,
missing his footing in the cliff, is urged down the precipice by the
falling herd. The Indians then select as much meat as they wish, and the
rest is abandoned to the wolves, and creates a most dreadful stench."
Harper's Magazine, volume 38, page 147, contains the following from the
pen of Theo. E. Davis, in an article entitled "The Buffalo Range:"
"As I have previously stated, the best hunting on the range is to be
found between the Platte and Arkansas Rivers. Here I have seen the
Indians have recourse to another method of slaughtering buffalo in a
very easy, but to me a cruel way, for where one buffalo is killed
several are sure to be painfully injured; but these, too, are soon
killed by the Indians, who make haste to lance or shoot the cripples.
"The mode of hunting is somewhat as follows: A herd is discovered
grazing on the table-lands. Being thoroughly acquainted with the
country, the Indians are aware of the location of the nearest point
where the table land is broken abruptly by a precipice which descends a
hundred or more feet. Toward this 'devil-jump' the Indians head the
herd, which is at once driven pell mell to and over the precipice.
Meanwhile a number of Indians have taken their way by means of routes
known to them, and succeed in reaching the cañon through which the
crippled buffalo are running in all directions. These are quickly
killed, so that out of a very considerable band of buffalo but few
escape, many having been killed by the fall and others dispatched while
limping off. This mode of hunting is sometimes indulged in by
harum-scarum white men, but it is done more for deviltry than anything
else. I have never known of its practice by army officers or persons who
professed to hunt buffalo as a sport."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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