Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri 47

Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri 47

The whole mass immediately moves toward him. He retreats toward the

pen, always keeping to the windward of them, and about the same

distance ahead, renewing the noise of the calf whenever they appear to

stop. They generally follow him as fast as his horse can gallop, and

in this way alone he conducts them within the lines of the angle. Of

course as soon as they are a short distance in, the scent of one of

the angles reaches them but it is now too late, they have closed in

behind. The animals now take fright and rush from one line to another,

but seeing people on both sides (who rise as the buffalo attempt to

get through) they keep straight forward. The leader on horseback now

makes his escape to one side, and the whole herd plunges madly down the

precipice, one on top of the other, breaking their legs and necks in

the fall. Into the pen they tumble, those in front having no power to

stop. They are forced on by the pressure from behind and frightened by

the yelling and firing of the savages. When all have passed into the

pen the work of slaughter commences, with guns and bows firing as long

as any appearance of life remains. From 300 to 600 are thus thrown in

at one time by a small camp, and two or three days are required to skin

and cut them up.

 

Men, women, and children now commence skinning. Each secures as many

hides as he can skin. The master of the park claims a portion for his

share, indeed all are said to belong to him, but he does not take more

than the rest. All the tongues, however, are his, and he also receives

other payment for his services in presents, besides the standing of a

divining man. Plate 70 will perhaps exhibit the hunt more clearly if we

have not been sufficiently plain in the description.

 

When there is a deficiency of people to man the angles they are made by

placing the lodges of the camp in that form, but this can only be done

when they have a dozen or two of fast horses to extend the angle of the

lodges and force the buffalo within the lines. This is also done, but

it does not succeed as well as the way described. Great is the joy and

feasting in camp after a large throw.

 

APPROACHING BUFFALO.—This is done on foot with the gun by a single

man. It is indispensable he should have on a skin dress in summer and a

white blanket coat over it in winter, or a buffalo robe coat with all

the hair turned inside.

 

Any dark-colored dress is easily seen by them at a considerable

distance, but white or light-colored clothing does not attract their

notice. The hunter has his gun covered with skin to prevent the dirt

or snow from entering the barrel while in the act of crawling. His

accoutrements are also firmly attached to his person by a belt. He

proceeds toward the buffalo, keeping the wind as nearly in his face as

possible, sometimes being obliged to make a circuit of miles to get the

wind in the right direction. When near the animals he observes from the

top of some hill how they are stationed, which way they travel, and the

nature of the ground as regards coulees, gullies, bushes, grass, and

any objects that may hide his person from their view and shapes his

course according to the means of concealment presented. If he finds the

country too level to get them within range of the gun he then commences

crawling on his belly toward them, pushing his gun ahead as he goes.

 

This is a very laborious and slow mode of progressing and often takes

one or two hours to come within shooting distance, as the hunter only

moves while the animals are eating, stopping the moment their attention

is directed toward him. In the snow it is a very cold business,

and in the summer difficult on account of the cactus, but they are

obliged to do it frequently in both seasons on these level plains.

Great precaution is needed to approach buffalo or antelope on a level

plain. The hunter covers his head with sage bushes, and sticks the

same or grass in his belt; at other times a wolf skin covers his head

and back—he lying flat, no form of the man can be perceived—and the

animals being accustomed to these objects do not affright so easily.

When by any of these means he has arrived within shooting distance he

fires without rising, elevating his piece by support of the elbows.

After firing he remains motionless a few minutes during which the

buffalo, after recoiling a few paces, and seeing nothing on the move,

commence grazing. He now turns over on his back and reloads his gun

(lying in this position) by putting the butt against his foot—and when

ready will turn over on his belly and fire again, and so on, sometimes

killing six or eight without changing his place, or with very little

movement.

 

As soon as he rises the herd runs off and he commences skinning. Some

hunters mimic the bleating of a calf and thus decoy the buffalo to

them, but this is a rare talent, and only practiced by a few good

performers; in hilly places or where there are gullies and bushes to

hide the hunter, neither buffalo nor antelope are difficult to kill,

but on the barren and level plain it requires great exertion, time and

patience.

 

Another method by which great numbers of both buffalo and antelope

are slain is, when the snow has drifted in the gullies, forming banks

10 to 15 feet deep. The animals are pursued on foot, with raquettes

and snowshoes. The hunter goes over the snow, but the animals become

embedded and are killed with ease. In the summer if several animals

are killed, the meat is placed in a pile covered with the hides, and

a portion of the hunter’s clothing left on it, the scent of which

prevents the wolves from coming to it. Occasionally the bladder of the

animal is inflated, small pebbles put in, which being tied to a stick

and stirred by the wind, will keep off the wolves and foxes.

 

But in the winter the usual way is to bury the meat in the snow,

which effectually prevents the wolves from eating it, as they have no

power of smell through a foot of snow. Meat can be left in this way

in perfect security for a month or more, but they usually return with

their dogs and take it away the next day. If the hunter goes out on

horseback he leaves his horse near the buffalo, and after having killed

in the manner stated, packs him home with the meat and hide, but in the

deep snow horses can not travel, the dogs do not sink much in the snow

and the men and women go over it on snowshoes.

 

Antelope are hunted in the same way as the preceding, also sometimes

decoyed by tying some portion of clothing to a pole, the man lying

down and raising and lowering the pole at intervals, or by kicking up

his heels, one after the other. They have great curiosity to see the

strange object, and after making many circles will come near enough

to get a shot, though as soon, as they make out the man they are off.

A wolf skin is decidedly the best disguise when hunting any of the

animals on foot.

 

It may as well be recorded here that all young hunters sacrifice the

first game they kill by cutting it up and giving it to the crows,

magpies and wolves, saying to each, “I give you this that I may always

be able to kill and feed the wolves, that I may be successful in war.”

 

The bull’s head is often painted and bound round with scarlet cloth,

with painted feathers or sticks stuck in, and an address made to it

announcing that it is done by the hunter to prevent the animal from

goring him. Likewise the Assiniboin, when they undertake to swim the

Missouri, will tie to a stick some dried buffalo guts, grease, and

bladder, and stick the same in the water, say to it, “This is to enable

me to cross without accident, let no wind blow, nor pain take me in

crossing.” They are not expert swimmers like the Crow Indians, and

the fear of the undertaking causes the sacrifice. In all these things

they are very particular and superstitious, asserting that if these

ceremonies are neglected some accident will certainly happen to the

person who despises these powers.

 

DEER HUNTING.—A good deer hunter must use the rifle. Shotguns do not

shoot with certainty. This is the reason why all these Indians are poor

deer hunters. They use the northwest shotgun altogether except a few

of the Sioux, who hunt antelope and bighorn with the rifle. The art of

deer hunting may be thus divided: Finding the deer, approaching it,

shooting it, cutting it up, and carrying it home. They are hunted in

the timber by a man alone and on foot. He must be well acquainted with

the habits of the animal, where it is to be found at different hours

in the day, what it feeds upon at different seasons, to know by the

tracks if it is traveling, grazing, running, retiring to rest, or going

to water; he must be quick sighted, a good walker, and go cautiously

through the bush when near the game. The morning and evening are the

best times to hunt them, as they are then on the edge or borders of the

woods where grass is found, or in open places in the bottoms; returning

into the thick bushes for a few hours in the middle of the day. The

hunter travels fast until he comes near the place where he judges a

deer is to be found, then proceeds very slowly and silently, looking

in every direction, always keeping the wind in his favor until the

animal is seen. He then approaches it stepping from tree to tree, bush

to bush, crawling and creeping, hiding himself entirely from its view,

by every means, and making no noise. When he thinks he is within range

he rises and fires quickly and the deer falls. It is then skinned and

cut up, the meat packed in the hide, and it tied in a bundle by the

skin of the legs, in such a way as to form a collar, which is drawn

over his forehead, by lying or sitting down, and slipping it over, then

rising up with the weight between his shoulders he starts homeward. If

more than one is wanted he hangs the first on a tree thus cut up, and

proceeds in quest of others, sometimes killing three or four in a day,

which he returns for with his horse or dogs the next day.

 

Whistles made of wood like the mouthpiece of a clarinet are used to

call both deer and elk in hunting seasons, and are then a useful decoy.

They do not catch them in traps or pits.

 

ELK HUNTING.—This is done on foot, with the gun, but by parties of

men. Elk go in droves of from 100 to 300 each and are found in the

large timbered bottoms of the Missouri and Yellowstone. There is some

ceremony required in hunting this animal. In the first place some

divining woman who is said to be an “elk dreamer” states she has had

a favorable dream for hunting them. The woman is then stripped to the

waist and also barelegged, the body and face painted a bright yellow,

and a wreath of bushes with leaves on projecting two or three feet

on each side is placed on her head in imitation of the horns of the

elk. Thus decorated she starts at the head of a party of 15 to 25 men.

When in the vicinity of the place, where, according to her dream, the

elk are to be found, she stops and commences her incantation song,

while the others continue in quest of the game. As soon as the herd is

discovered the party separate, and outflanking them on either side,

commence firing and running toward them, loading and firing while

running, in quick succession, when the elk become confused, scatter and

turn in different directions, presenting at times a mark for each of

the hunters.

 

Every shot bewilders them the more, and instead of running in any one

direction they keep turning every way until a great many are killed.

 

They are then skinned, cut up, and the meat and hides packed home on

horses brought for the purpose, which having been left behind in charge

of some women and boys, are brought up during the fixing. The skins are

used for clothing and the meat, though eaten, is not relished much by most of the Indians.