The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1927-03-04
THE BISON
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drove them back from their once
free hunting ground in the verdant Bitter
Root valley. There in the JockO valley,
every gulch and every ridge and every
river and lake bears a name that preserves
a fragment of some tradition which ever
reachest an unappreciative world in lessen
whispers.
The Vanishing Races
Every old chief, whether he be Piegan,
Grow, Nez Perez, sioux or Arapahoe, and
especially if he be Selfish, feels a warm
and a sympathetic interest in the bison, for
the fate of the Selfish and the fate of the
bison are much akin. Both today exist at
the mercy of their Old-time common foe.
and they cannot be unmindful of the
cruelty that brought to them their COM
mon fate. Thus, today, when we consider
all these things; when we mount the green
carpeted bluffs from whose grassy tops we
drink in the wonders of the redman's one
time domain, and our minds are invited to
contemplation, we cannot but realize what
this mercileSs transformation has meant
to our abOrigines.
1t was not only the slaughter of the
bison as it affected their food SUNNY that
stirred the bitter hatred of the Indian for
the white man. All the tribes of the plains
Indian nations were profoundly religious.
To these natives, aside from killing to
supply their material needs. all animal life
was sacred. The myth ard the legend of
Piegan, Crow, Selfish, ShOshOne, ArapahOe.
and all the rest, are every one rich in the
lore Of the wild animals, especially the
beaver, the bear and the bison. Scarcely a
religious rite was practiced by them in
which the buffalo did not play a part
With the Piegans, the feast Of the cOnse.
Grated meat, not unlike one Of the Christian
ceremonies, was composed of buffalo
tongues, which were held sacred to the sun
The Sacred Bison
9Th Sand HillS"-"The Shadow Land
the Indians ultimate ideal, the. spiritua
Elysium Of perpetual and eternal bliss
was a great sunlit country, inhabited By
the creatures who shared life on Earti
with them, chief among which was tn,
bison. Heaven, to them, was to be a rep
lica Of what the mountains and plains Wer,
before the coming of the white man,
paradise where nature had developed he
best in all things for her children VIII
were native to it:
In q Usurped Country
Today, as stand on the brOWn-grasse
mound and behold from it's top the wind
lings, infinite, OF the Did Missouri. and ft
linnumerable hills, its rolling dOmes o
brown, patched white with snow, vanish
ing into the blue Of yOnder horizon, whe.
lnaught but the signing winds are hear
to break the quietude OF the panorama,
i blush with shame, for 1 tread sacre
ground that is not mine nor the prOpert
of the race from which I have sprung.
roam from hilltop to hilltop; / pluck th
wild flowers; 1 etravel the trail; but I daT
mot hunt upon this ground; 1 dare not fs
its streams. And, had 1 the millions {
EF0rd and Rockefeller / could not buy
deed which would convey to me title [
one foot Of its soil, for that belongs I
the aboriginal race and the wild life WhiC
lhave been forced back and back and BAG
into the West-the redman and his bisOl
lNOTEZAuthorities Catlin's Indians
North America; James Willard Schult
I