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
So long as the bison held undisputed possession of the great plains his
migratory habits were as above--regular, general, and on a scale that
was truly grand. The herds that wintered in Texas, the Indian Territory,
and New Mexico probably spent their summers in Nebraska, southwestern
Dakota, and Wyoming. The winter herds of northern Colorado, Wyoming,
Nebraska, and southern Dakota went to northern Dakota and Montana, while
the great Montana herds spent the summer on the Grand Coteau des
Prairies lying between the Saskatchewan and the Missouri. The two great
annual expeditions of the Red River half-breeds, which always took place
in summer, went in two directions from Winnipeg and Pembina--one, the
White Horse Plain division, going westward along the Qu'Appelle to the
Saskatchewan country, and the other, the Red River division, southwest
into Dakota. In 1840 the site of the present city of Jamestown, Dakota,
was the northeastern limit of the herds that summered in Dakota, and the
country lying between that point and the Missouri was for years the
favorite hunting ground of the Red River division.
The herds which wintered on the Montana ranges always went north in the
early spring, usually in March, so that during the time the hunters were
hauling in the hides taken on the winter hunt the ranges were entirely
deserted. It is equally certain, however, that a few small bauds
remained in certain portions of Montana throughout the summer. But the
main body crossed the international boundary, and spent the summer on
the plains of the Saskatchewan, where they were hunted by the
half-breeds from the Red River settlements and the Indians of the
plains. It is my belief that in this movement nearly all the buffaloes
of Montana and Dakota participated, and that the herds which spent the
summer in Dakota, where they were annually hunted by the Red River
half-breeds, came up from Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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