The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-06-29
uNG THE BUFFALO
Bv FREDERIC J. HASKIN-=--

| buffalos from the Pablo, Allard herd at
the Flathead Indian reservation in Mon
tana, the largest single herd was owned
IN that State, 1t had its origin in
SIX onfal1s corraled by Pend
In 1882 the herd, which had grown to
fourteen, was bought by Michel Pablo.
Flathead Indian, and Charles Allard
Since then perhaps 1000 buffaIos have
been sold from the herd In 1879
Colonel Charles Goodnight, known as
the Father of the Panhandle roped
two buffalo calves near his Texas ranch
and gave them to his wife, From this
beginning grew the Goodnight herd, one
OF the most important in the United
States.
The largest herd in the United States
at present is known as the Austin Cor
bin herd at Blue Mountain forest, New
Hampshire. This herd consists of more
than l50 animals and was started from
a small number. The James Philip
herd at Pierre, s. D., numbers moro
than 100, and smaller herds exist in
twenty-five different States, most Of
them being in parks or geological gar
dens. There are several small herds in
Canada, aside from those at Rocky
Mountain park and those running wild
IN the Great Slave Lake region. Bel
gum boasts two American bufFalos in
the National Geological garden, London
has four, and there are more than
twenty upon the estate of the Duke of
Bedford. A dozen German cities have
specimens IN geological gardens, Prince
Hohenlohe- Oeringen owns a herd of
seventeen In Hungary, and there are
two at Budapest Holland, Russia,
Scandinavia and Switzerland each have
few, and there is one lonely exile in
the geological gardens of Buenos Aires.
Buffalos breed in captivity about as
regularly as domestic cattle and there is
little difficulty in raising good speci-
mems If the range is large. On re-
strIcted. range, or in small parks, high
percentage of male calves are born, for
reasons naturalists have not been able
to explain. The animals need little
or no shelter, preferring as rule to lie
out in the severest storms rather than
go into sheds provided for them They
thrive upon less feed than cattle re-
qulre,
If the white men had treated the
buffalo as sensibly as the Indians did,
many thousands of the animals would
be alive today, and their meat, now
high-priced delicacy found rarely in
the market, would be available to any
one who desired it. The Indians be-
lieved that the buffalo was a direct
gift from the Great Spirit. The plains
tribes are said to have held the ami
mails sacred, and TO have made sacri-
fees to their skulls. The savages did
not hunt the buffalo for sport before
the white men taught them to. The
hides furnished them with clothes and
shelter, and the meat with food, con-
scquently they killed them only as
needed for those purposes.
According to Indian traditions, war
riors wishing to kill a single animal
often disguised themselves by wearing
wolf skins and, creeping close TO the
herd, would bring down a bull or cow
with stone-headed arrow. The pres
the herd. and by waiting until the graz
ing animals had moved away from
the dead one, the savages could remove
it without driving the herd from the
vicinity of their encampment In this
manner the beef supply was kept at
hand for months at time, Before the
Indians used horses, killing buffaloes
in large numbers rs feast for the
tribe, or to lay in supplies of dried
method was to throw line of war
riors around a herd, each with a robe.
The first warrior, waving his robe,
would frighten the animals. In what
ever direction they turned other In.
dians waved robes. Finally the herd
would begin to run in circles, and the
Indians could approach close enough
to fire arrows effectively. Another
method was to drive the herd toward
pens. The animals ran in dense masses
and the leaders, forced along by those
following, were unable TO see danger
ahead or TO stop when confronted by
the pens or pits prepared for them
After the Indians began TO ride
horses, buffalo hunting assumed more
picturesque features Naked braves
riding barebacked dashed into the herds,
and used bows and arrows at close
range. Lances were also used by
mounted warriors, the heads being
driven into the vitals of the bison by
terrific two handed thrust. After the
savages came into possession or rifles
they found it still easier to kill buffalo,
but even then they considered it work
rather than sport,
The natural increase more than bal
auced the number of buffaloes killed by
the Indians and by bears and wolves,
and 1T was not until railroads were con-