Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1941-05-10

I burg and Denver. Many Of the shreWd-
est traders in the west engaged IN that
I business and acquired fortunes In a
short time For a pound or two Of a
cheap grade of brown sugar or an
equivalent Of cheap coffee they could
$40 at the Missouri river towns. The
finest tanned COW robes could be OBJ
tanned for twice that amount Of sugar
or coffee. Some of these we're painted
in aboriginal style, with many HERO
glyphics of the red men. Eastern tour
lists would pay from $50 to 500 for a
fine, painted robe. These cost the
traders perhaps so cents.
AS early as 1853 the trade in buffalo
robes with the Indians was enormous,
hundreds of thousands of the animals
being killed annually along the Platte.
and the hides became a staple article
Of commerce. Every plainsman had
one or more robes and thousands were
made into overcoats. Every freighter
and mule or OK skinner also had buf-
falo overshoes, made with the hair
inside.
Plains White With Bones
During the immense overland travel
in the early sixties, portions Of the
plains were fairly white with the bones
of buffalo. No one then seeing the ap-
parently endless mass Of bones in Kan
Sas and Colorado, as well as farther
north, ever thought that any use could
be made of them, but after the COM
pletion of the Union Pacific railroad
and its branches across the plains,
new industry was inaugurated in the
collection and shipping of bones. The
trade carried on in that line Is as
tonishing to contemplate. In 10 years
time sales of bones aggregated $780,
600, at an average price Of So per ton. |
In 1874 alone there were shipped east |
over the Kansas-Pacific and Santa Fe |
roads 100000 pounds of bones, more
than 1,250,000 buffalo hides, and 600,-
900 pounds of meat. The bones were
ground up into fertilizer and the horns
were polished and sold largely for
dwelling and office ornaments.
Disaster to Indians
The passing of the buffalo spelled
disaster to the plains Indians, for this
animal furnished everything, practical
", that the Indian needed to live.
The hide was dressed in a variety of
ways, each special treatment having
its particular use. The lodge of the
Indian, his bed and covering when
sleeping, his clothes, his weapons Of
war, his shield in battle, kettles for
MS food, boats on the rivers, leather
Tor his saddle and halter, strings for
MS whip and bow, hair for dress orna-
nent-all these and many other ar
.icles were made from the buffalo robe.
His bones, also, from the short, curved,
strong horns to the hoofs were manu-
,actured into an endless variety of
articles that entered into every part
If the domestic life of the Indian.
The methods of capture of the buff
alo by the Indians and whites we're
various. With the Indians, wholesale
destruction was commonly reSorted to
oy driving a big herd at full gallop
% the brink of a precipice or into the
mouth of an artificial enclosure. The
'orce of the mass behind crowded those
n advance ahead until they fell on
each other at the foot of the cliff or
n the enclosure, and thus they were
by hundreds. A great deal
If skill, as well as favoring condition
If the wind, made the success of this
complete. These hunts were
matters of great ceremony with the
Indians. Days and weeks were devoted
20 the preparation, with the most rigid
avs against individual hunting or
of the herds, and there was
1ue observance of the established re-
igious rites of the tribes.
Hunter Picturesque Type
The true sportsman like attack was
1y direct onslaught on horseback,
Known as "the surround" It was man ]
lged with the same ceremonious pre-
iminaries that were observed in all
great buffalo hunts by the Indians
The attack was made in careful order,
lnder strict discipline, directly upon
The herd until the latter had fully .
scented the danger, when the hunters
broke into wild gallop, each free to go
where he chose, chasing and staying
amid the thunder of hoofs, the below
ng of the beasts and the clouds of
lust raised in the mad rush of so many
lnimals. So completely panic-stricken
would these mighty herds become, and
70 little sensible of where to flee, that