The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-04-16

by the white men they were killed for
robes and saddles Of beef, while the
main part of the animal was left by all
hunters for wolves and vultures, or
wind and sun.
The miles of bones eventually gave
rise to traffic which became remun-
erative as there grew a demand for
phosphate for fertilizers and bone
black for refining sugar. In 1874 the
Santa F'e Railroad alone shipped near.
ly seven million pounds Of bones which
brought as much as $1S ton crushed.
The white hunters who finally eXter-
minated the bison were an unprepos-
sessing lot and led hard lives with lit.
tie to reward them. Their hunting re-
quired no skill because of the stupidity
of the animals, and the prices for
either meat or robes were excessively
low so that the canvas-clad, begrim-
ed followers of the herds were any
thing but the hunters of our story
books.
For the Indian the hunt was a dis
play of prowess next to war, and ac-
cordingly the number of animals he
could kill became the paramount OBJ
ject, rather than provision for his
family needs. Among other causes of
the rapid determination of the bison
was the fact that, during the earlier
years of the systematic Slaughter, on
iy cows were extensively killed, either
for robes or meat. Hunting was cor
respondingly dangerous, however, for
the cows were the swiftest runners
and led the herd, so that the hunters
were obliged to penetrate the rear
phalanx of bulls, an undertaking by no
means unattended with risk.
On the plains, where timber was
scarce and pen or coral could not
readily be built, the Indians employed
the surround" for wholesale slaugh-
ter, stampeding the bison from all
sides simultaneously. Around the Gu,
dying moss of bewildered animals the
hunters galloped and dispatched their
victims with spear and arrow.
Now and then an infatuated bull
might charge his assailant or horse
and rider be entangled in the melee,
the latter escaping only by his agility,
but on the whole it was not very dan
gerous hunting. In one Of these big
hunts the battle resulted in the total
destruction of the herd in the space Of
fifteen minutes. Of the animals
which plunged off on the prairie and
escaped, many were overtaken and
killed, while the others returned of
their own accord to rejoin their COM
rades of the doomed herd.
lmpounding bison was the whole
sale and wasteful method of killing
employed by the Asssiniboin, Plains
Cree and other Indian tribes of the
northwest, a method which allowed all
members of the tribe, even the women
and children, to be in at the death.
The pound was constructed Of logs
and its gate placed under ledge down
which the bison could jump, but which
was too high for them to climb again.
For this gate fan-shaped runway
several miles out into the plain was
constructed by means of lunches Of
branches and bushes, known as dead
men," lined up fifty feet apart. Be-
hind these dead men the Indians hid
and frightened back the herd when
ever it showed signs of departing
from the track. After the bison had
been stampeded into the pen the tribe
gathered around to Stay the fright
maddened animals, which charged
wildly about, crushing and tossing one
another. Several hundred might be
killed by this method in single foray.
with the coming of the railroads
through the West and an increased de-
mand for buffalo robes, the butchery
of the still hunt" began. Other meth
DDS were too slow for the commercial
,hn IL &c
bison in order to realize on pelts
worth but from 65 cents to 81 apiece.
"The still hunter approached the
herd to within one hundred to two
!. hundred and fifty yards and proceeded
with great deliberation to shoot down
the animals without stampeding them.
Their leader, usually the Oldest com,
was first disposed Of, and then the
| others slaughtered one by one. Any
! individual of the herd which attempt.
ed to lead off the others was promptly
stopped by the hidden rifle. The tar
: get on a bison is about foot in di-
ameter, but even with mark of that
= size and employing high power rife
= the professional hunters were usually
such poor shots that they scored only
| one death out of about every three
: hits, the other two bullets inflictine
= broken legs and collar bones. One OIL
e two shots minute could be fired anC
y with good luck a hundred bison killed
: from one stand, so that one hunter
e was able to account for from one tt
r three thousand head season.
: In 1889, when they had reached
j their lowest level, there were only 25t
S buffalo in captivity, 200 protected b!
: the United States Government in thu
: Yellowstone Park and 635 running
wild, of which number $50 were est
r mated to be in the Athabasca of thu
: Canadian Northwest territories. Al
= attempt was now made in the Unitet
It States to protect the remnant and b!
o 1903, according to the census of tn,
Il American Bison Society, they had in
y creased to 1,753 head These wer
i chiefly confined in the national reser