Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1914-05-21
Criminal Massacre
Of American Buffalo

GAggEHEa@AAsH#Ss 50 EwMSElAANaA T%Htl 3AHE4za9sa.
|By Max Med in Overland Monthly.
The passing of the buffalo Is one OF
the greatest scandals Of all history
Tout OF the one-time vast number Of
bison that roamed and held the great
American plans as their own, there
remain but few.
For u~nrecorded ages the bison held
all the fertile grazing land of this
continent as their own. The greater
part of these herds were in the South
and West, but when Europeans be-
gan to settle in America, small herds
of the animals were occasionally seen
near the Atlantic coast, though they
were generally rare everywhere east
of the Appalachian Mountains. From
kentucky across the continent to Ne
vada, from the great Slave Lake on
the north of Georgia on the south, the
bison wandered In mighty droves, mi
grating as snow storms and drought
dictated. Il
Wide, rolling plains, blackened as
far as the sharp eyes Of the settler
could reach with huge, shaggy, hump
ed backed beasts. believing, fighting
and paving the earth until it trembled
as though an earthquake approached.
1t is almost impossible for the aver
age person of today to realize what
the numbers of these herds amounted
to, though an idea may be formed
from the statement of Colonel Dodge
in a report to the United States ma
tional museum. In making a journey
through Arkansas, he passed through
a continuous herd Of buffalo for tWen-
ty-five miles.
1.-The whole country, says Colonel
Dodge, appeared to be n mass OF
buffalo moving slowly to he north,
and it was only when actually among
them that it could be ascertained that
the apparently solid mass was an ag-
iglomeration of innumerable small
herds of from fifty to two hundred ami
~ llldlS,e SGpdIdlGds vi liz
herds by greater or less space, but
still separated. When l reached the
point where the hills were no longer
than a mile from the road, the buf-
-ifalo on the hills, seeing an unusual
object in their rear, turned, stared an
instant, then started after me at full
speed, stampeding and bringing with
them the numberless herds through
(which they passed, and pouring down
on me, all the herds, no longer sep
arated, but n immense, compact
mass of plunging animals mad with
fright and as irresistible sas an ava
lanche. Refining in my horse, ! wait
ed until the front of the mass was
within fifty rods, when a few well dl-
rected shots split the herd and sent
ii pouring off in two streams to the
right and left. When they had pass
ed they stopped, apparently satisfied,
many within less than one hundrei
yards. From the top of Pawnee Rock
| could see from six to ten miles in
almost every direction. This whole
space was covered with buffalo, look
ing at a distance like a compact
mass"
From careful information 1t has
been estimated that such a herd would
comprise at least four million ami
mails. 1t is difficult now to realize
that these animals we're often Q men
ace to wagon travel on the plains, be.
sides stopping railway trains. and at
times throwing them from the tracks.
Henry KELSEY, a factor OF the Hud-
son Bay Company, in a report OF his
explorations in the far west OF a
ada, in 1851, tells of his party sight
ing buffalo in large numbers. A few
years later this explorer became the
first white buffalo hunter on the
plains OF western Canada. He tells
that everywhere the Indians were
Strengthening, taking only the choice
pieces and leaving the greater portion
Of each slain body to the wolves
4 Wn1Cl I0llOWSu III idi5S
The buffalo means everything to
. the Indians. He was their house, thelr
food, their clothing, their Implements
of war-nide, flesh and bone, ne ne
longed to them. Their horses were
picketed with buffalo thongs and but
falo hair haiters; their saddles we're
OF buffalo skin pads, while the STIR
rups were of the same material The
indian Used his stomach as a cooking
~utensil. Making a hole in theg ground,
this organ was set in and filed with
hot stones. No other animal q the
plains served the Indian SO well. He
entered 50 vitality into their daily rou-
Ttine that a buffalo dance was devised
to perpetuate his memory and show
what the Indians have gone through
In the chase. Instead OF Dragging