The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1923-08-10
PALY DAYS OF THE BUFFALO; HOW COUNTLESS THOUSANDS
AND SPECIES WAS ALMOST EXTERMMATED BY HIDE HUNTERS

| Dodge City man says he killed 1900
in seven days, and that his greatest
killing was $50 in single day. He
employed fifteen SINNERS, whose sole
duty was to follow him up with wag-
ons and remove the hides as fast as
he killed the animals.
The great Northern herd went the
same way. In 1882 it was estimated
that there were 100000 alive in
this herd. But there were fully g.
600 white hunters in the field, shoot
ing and slaughtering the beasts at
every point. Then came 1888. Thou
sands more grabbed rifles and took
to the field. Such merciless war
of determination of game animals
never was known in any land.
Among the Indians, and even
among many of the more supersti-
tious of the old trappers and plains
men, it was solemnly averred that the
buffalo never migrated South, but
that the herd which moved North
ward every spring was composed of
an entirely new band of animals,
which had never made the Journey
before and would never again return
to the South. All would admit the
Northern migration, but not the
Southern. And because the buffalo
did not return South in one immense
herd, as they did to the North. it
was believed they did not go South
at all. The Arapahoes, Kiowas and
others of the Plains tribes, firmly
believed that the buffalo were pro-
duced in countless numbers in great
caves under the ground, and that ev-
cry spring the surplus swarmed, like
bees from a hive, out of great cave
like openings, and that these caves
were located in the Staked Plains of
Texas.
This sudden and wanton destruc-
ton of the buffalo, which left the In
dian virtually a pauper, was I'M
questionably the chief cause of the
later Indian wars on the Plains. Their
ground, which the govern
ment had sworn to treaty to respect
was overrun with white hunters, set
tiers, gold-seekers, adventures and
the riffraff of the plains, who killed
off the game without regard to its
use or the consequences of such a |
slaughter to the Indians. The gov
eminent permitted this invasion of |
the Indians hunting grounds, to-
gether with the destruction of the
game therein, and then expected the |
1ntutored, unskilled, ignorant savage
10 make the sudden change from the
chase and the wild, free life to that
Of the farmer, stock-raiser and agri-
,ulturist-a change which the Indian
vas totally unprepared for and Who'll
y untitled to make. The very life of
he red man was thus destroyed, and
le was thrown pauper on the hands
If set of cold-blooded political para
ites, who robbed him first of his sus-
enance and then his lands. 1t was
'nly fair that the government, having
hus allowed the determination of the
ndian's source of food and raiment,
hould have Immediately prepared
roper sustenance for him; but it was
lot until years later that the Indian
eceived any degree of justice-and /;
ct us not boast that this justice,
ven, has been fair and right to him.
And yet, it had to be- The stern, ]
esistless march of Progress and Civ {
lization was a part of the Great Plan. !
he West had to be won, and the ex- ,
ermination of the buffalo herds Y
nd the subsequent opening of the
attic ranges was the first necessary
tep.