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THE PASSING 
 
 OF THE 
 
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 -BY- 
 
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THE PASSING 
 
 OF THE 
 
 -BY- 
 
 31. TIL 
 
 GEO. \V. MOYLE PUBLISHING CO 
 
 337 EAST THIRD STREET 
 LONG BEACH, CAL. 
 
 
77 
 
 H-5 
 
PINE RIDGE AND ROSEBUD AGENCIES, SOUTH DAKOTA 
 Two Strikes, Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux 
 

INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 HISTORY REVIEW OF INDIANS IN UNITED STATES 
 
 Indian history begins with the advent of the white people 
 upon this continent. Much of what has been written about the 
 pre-Columbian period is but a repetition of old fancies, legends 
 and traditions. There are a few mounds or graves with their 
 contents some inscriptions and some pottery resembling pres 
 ent tools and implements common to the world. Excepting 
 these and his descendants and their legends the pre-Columbian 
 Aboriginal stands a mythe. The mounds or earth works found 
 in New York, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and elsewhere were 
 for defence, residence or burial places. Built along streams 
 they were frequently in the vicinity of rich alluvial soil where 
 corn or other crops were easily raised. 
 
 The cave and cliff dwellings of the rivers and canyons of 
 Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona and the ruined 
 towns or pueblos on the plains in the same regions, were also 
 for defence and residence. Some of the ancient ruins which 
 have been restored on paper from the foundation lines are 
 deemed to have been communal houses. These three grades 
 or kinds of structures each conforming to the demand of 
 climate were found by the Europeans on their first settlement 
 in what were the Colonies of England, France and Spain. The 
 antiquity of these structures was not determined by them. 
 The ruined cave towns and cliff dwellings on the plains or 
 along streams in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona 
 and in some cases adjacent to the present Pueblos have long 
 been peopled by romance with legends of a race anterior to 
 the ancestors of the present Indians. They have been maped, 
 plated, described, painted and photographed until nothing new 
 can be said about them. Investigation shows tha tthe Pueblos 
 were built of adobe or sundried bricks or stone blocks broken 
 from the sandstone, adjacent or bowlders taken from the rivers 
 or streams and never of dressed stone as known to the whites, 
 that they were the homes of the ancestry of the present Indians 
 of the towns of the vicinity and a part of the American race. 
 
 The great area of the country covered by these ruins is no 
 evidence that it contained a vast population for the country 
 itself its resources and features prevented a large population 
 and a small population abandoning easily built houses from 
 time to time for economical reasons or flying to cave or cliff 
 dwellings for protection against a foe, or escape sudden in 
 
 1 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 roads of water will account for the great number of ruins or 
 dwellings. The present Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New 
 Mexico living in the regions of these ruins are not a mysterious 
 people nor a more ancient people than other tribes of North 
 American Indians. Six of the Moqui towns are inhabited by 
 Shosshone Indians. The people of the seventh Town Tewa 
 originally from the Valley of the Rio Grande are probably 
 also Shoshone as well as those of the 19 Pueblos of New 
 Mexico. They are all probably a portion of the down drift 
 of the Shoshone movement centuries ago which came from 
 the North and went South down the Valleys on the East and 
 West of the Rocky Mountains to the Rio Grande, thence to 
 the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 The great variety of life among the various tribes of peo 
 ple on this continent when first noted by the whites is confus 
 ing on review and furnishes but little grounds for comparison. 
 
 The varying degrees of progress or of detail of daily 
 tribal life are perplexing. Still climate of the several sections 
 in which the Aborigines were found in these varying condi 
 tions will account for much of the difference in customs, forms 
 and modes of life. 
 
 It is in evidence that many Indian tribes have become 
 extinct from various causes especially war famine and disease 
 since white man came to this continent. Others were de 
 scribed by the Indians as having become extinct long prior to 
 the coming of the "paleface". So by observation and tradi 
 tion as well as their own statements the thought is forced 
 that the Indian Nation or tribes were on the decline at the date 
 of the arrival of the whites under Columbus. Still with all 
 this presumably a large Aboriginal population in what is now 
 the United States, not a vestage remains to tell of the so called 
 pre-Columbian men and women, except now and then a mound, 
 a fort, a pueblo or grave and traditions and legends. 
 
 The Europeans found the Indians self sustaining and self 
 reliant with tribal Governments, many forms of worship and 
 many superstitutions with ample clothing of skins and furs 
 and food fairly well supplied. They were wild men and women 
 to whom the restrains of a foreign control became as bonds of 
 steel. In 1832, George Catlin, the eminent ethnologist from 
 observation gave the rank and grades of men in the various 
 Indian tribtes which with some slight modifications for local 
 forms and necessities were general. The United States since 
 establishing the reservation system has done much towards 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 doing away with these grades. The Indian agents then and 
 now approve or reject the selection of chiefs if any be selected 
 and when there is a chief his power is nominal. No matter 
 who selects or approved him. The constant hunt for the mere 
 necessities of life by the Indians has removed the old sense of 
 dependence on the chief. 
 
 The following are the grades given by Mr. Catlin : 
 
 1. War chief the first man of the Nation. The first to 
 whom the pipe is handed on all occasions even in Councils or 
 treaties. The man who leads in battle is first in war, speaks 
 first in councils of war and second in peace councils or treaties. 
 
 2. Civil Chief, the head man of the Nation except in 
 times of war, speaks first and smokes second in peace coun 
 cils is chief orator of the Nation. 
 
 3. Warrior, a man who is not chief, but has been on war 
 parties and holds himself ready at all times for war. 
 
 4. Braves, young men not distinguished as warriors, but 
 known and admitted to be courageous, who stays at home to 
 protect their homes and firesides. 
 
 As our Anglo Saxon ancestors moved across the continent 
 from the East to the West he met several types of Indians, 
 Indians living upon cultivated corn and vegetables, wild 
 grains, fruits and roots, flesh eaters, root diggers and fish 
 eaters. Every where he found the Indian conforming through 
 necessity to his surroundings taking advantage of the situation 
 and ingenious with the elements around him. The highest 
 intelligence was found among the Indians of the Atlantic Coast 
 and East of the Ohio River. This intelligence gradually de 
 creasing until the most squalid Indians was found, beyond the 
 Rocky Mountains and to the Pacific Coast and Northward 
 in regions where the natural resources \vere limited. Peaceful 
 at the advent of the whites then hostile the Indians became 
 more wild and savage as our ancestors moved Westward. 
 This fierceness being aggravated by the advancing lines of 
 Anglo Saxon civilization. The Aboriginal American Indian 
 furnished a theme for poet, historian and novelist. Coopers 
 novels delightful and heroic with other Indian romances have 
 produced in the American mind a belief in a higher type of 
 Indian than ever existed. So with all romance of Indian type. 
 The high type demanded by false types in literature and poetry 
 has worked gross injustice to the present North American 
 Indian. It has created in the popular mind in sections where 
 he is not actually known a false impression of his capacity, his 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 manhood and his fitness for the demands for Anglo Saxon life. 
 In fact by reason of this false teachings we expect too much 
 of him. He has been placed upon a high pedestal in literature 
 story and song and at distances like the great statue he shows 
 neither defect nor lack of symmetry. On close inspection the 
 present Indian clearly indicates a great decadence from his 
 reputed ancestors and convicts of exaggeration, many of the 
 writers contemporaneous with his forefathers. 
 
 As a rule the reservation Indian did not change unless 
 compelled by necessity or force. Outside surroundings do not 
 effect him as they do other people. He welcomes death, but 
 resists the tendered civilization. Indian life from his point of 
 view is perfect and always has been. The continent was his 
 and he an uncontrolled child of nature, the perfection of a wild 
 man, he roamed over it without restraint. In early days he 
 received hospitably the few whites who visited him. Prior to 
 the advent of the whites the dugout canoe was his conveyance. 
 The Spaniards brought the horse to America. Some of the 
 horses escaped in the South and run wild in bands. The 
 Indians soon captured and adopted them and so after awhile 
 the canoe was partially abandoned, and as a result the roam 
 ing plains Indians followed. In time the pony became the 
 Indians inseparable companion. The interior of the country 
 was thus easily explored. The plains where the horse was 
 found running wild became of value to the tribe having con 
 trol of the vast stretches as a horse producing grounds and 
 almost incessant war was the result. But if tradition is to be 
 believed war was the normal condition of the Indians of North 
 America. The horse enabling the Indian to follow the bufffalo 
 for food and cloths and the claiming of the lands by the differ 
 ent tribes, encourages his nomadic habits and paved the way 
 for his continued unsettled life. 
 
 The buffalo range were the batlefields where the Southern 
 Commanche fought the Northern Sioux, and the Pawnee and 
 the Cheyenne met in deadly conflict. The wandering habits of 
 many tribes and their varied manners and customs may ac 
 count for the great number of tribal languages. Permanent 
 and isolated tribal settlements also aided the growth of dis 
 tinct speech. Then the ideal Indian life existed. The battle 
 for the necessities of life was not a struggle as now, because 
 game was abundant and people were not so numerous. Skins 
 and furs for clothing and for making lodges, tents or tepees 
 were plentiful and the flesh of the fur animals was good for 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 food. The streams abounded in fish and the seasons brought 
 the unfailing crops of roots and nuts. War, theft and lazi 
 ness in the men were virtues and labor by the woman a duty. 
 The workers in the tribes were few and the bread winners 
 were the decoy, spear and bow and arrow. The patient squa\v 
 w r as the stay of the family being in fact a beast of burden and 
 boath camp guard and keeper while the males loafed, hunted, 
 stole horses, fished or made war. Wants were few and easily 
 supplied. Waste of flesh food was then the rule. Still with 
 all his carelessness, the Indians had some idea of economy in 
 killing of animals for food as the buffalo herds or game pre 
 serves were invaded only in season. 
 
 In illustration of Indian life, consider the conditions and 
 surroundings of lake and river Indians of the middle United 
 States. The Pottawatomia, Chippew r as, Ottawas, Huron, 
 W r yandotte, Miami, Shawnee and Kickapoo roamed along the 
 lakes, rivers and streams of what is now Ohio, Indiana, North 
 eastern Illinois and Michigan. This was to them an ideal 
 home. The water yielded fish, the trees shelter and fuel, the 
 plains food and cloths. The Detroit River was then a favorite 
 passage way, rallying point for the Northwestern Indians. On 
 it the canoes came and went and it was an artery in the system 
 of aboriginal life. Game was abundant including bear, elk, 
 moose, wolves, beaver, otters, muskrats and rabbits, wild ber 
 ries were indigenous. The sugar maple contributed to the 
 luxury of the savage taste. The wild rose honey suckle and 
 clematis made the forest air fragrant and along the waterways 
 and lakes the lily waved its welcome of beauty in mirid blos 
 soms. Night came as a time for rest and while nature worked 
 the Indian slept and on the morrow as the suns rays kissed the 
 longing earth he arose to a bountiful repast not created by 
 man. 
 
 The incoming of the white man changed all this. The first 
 sentence of the Latin tongue spoken in the Northwest ordained 
 the death of the Indian. He felt it and neither honeyed speech, 
 tuneful song nor gilded. Vestment and protecting church 
 could reconcile him to the foreign invasion and control. The 
 green wood echoed to the ax of the settler, and the stalwart 
 son of the forest who had walked through his own posses 
 sions alert and erect as the towering pine became of necessity 
 a stealthy or hiding outcast in the land of his fathers, and 
 crawled- by night amidst the groves where prior to the advent 
 of whites he had boldly walked by day as a free man unchal- 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 SALT RIVER RESERVATION, PIMA AGENCY, ARIZONA. 
 Two Maricopa men (sitting) and Mojave man, in full aboriginal dress. 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 lenged of his tribe. That the North American Indian was a 
 seafaring man prior to the advent of Europeans there is no 
 evidence. He was not met at sea or at a distance from the 
 coast. If he originally came by water across the sea his de- 
 cendants early lost the trade of their fathers. The Indian vil 
 lage life the growth of centuries is now partially perpetuated 
 on the larger reservations and the love of it is one of the chief 
 causes of the Indians resistance to the w r hite mans customs. 
 He does not like to live isolated. The Latin and Anglo Saxon 
 life which poured in upon the Indian was to him an invasion. 
 The pale face to him was a robber, who despoiled him of his 
 lands and game and so became for all time his enemy. The 
 Indians first impression of the white man was not very favor 
 able and to him the white man has not changed, except to be 
 looked upon as more grasping. He found in the first white 
 man the same instincts of trade and desire to oppress the lower 
 orders of men that he finds now. The Indian squaw is the 
 tenderest possible Mother, affectionate, loving and even going 
 hungry for her child, at the same time she is a fiend in war 
 with the whites and is the embodiment of cruelty in her 
 methods of torturing the captives men, women and children. 
 
 The ancestors of the Comanches of the early Texan days 
 were known as Comanches of the Woods, those \vho lived in 
 the timber. The Commanches of the Prairies, horse Indians. 
 
 Senator Sam Huston in the senate of the United States 
 December 31, 1854, in speaking of them said: There are not 
 less than 2000 prisoner whites in the hands of the Comanches, 
 400 in one band in my own state. They take no prisoners but 
 women and boys, killing the men. The boys they treat with a 
 degree of barbarity unprecedented, and their cruelties toward 
 the females are nameless and atrocious. 
 
 The war against the Comanches in Texas in 1874-75 was 
 the last fight with them. The remnant have ever since been 
 good Indians- The Arizona territory was formed from the 
 territory captured from Mexico and ceded by the treaty of 
 Guadalupe Hidalgo, Feb. 2, 1848, the low portion of the Gad- 
 sden purchase December 30, 1853. This purchase was gener 
 ally known as Arizona prior to coming under the jurisdiction 
 of the United States. The Indian population was in character 
 from the earliest time 1542 about the same as now and prob 
 ably never could have exceeded 40,000 in number. The bar 
 renness of the country and lack of water precluded a large 
 population. 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 The reservation Indian population of Arizona in 1890 
 was 28,452, its non-reservation Indian population 1512, not 
 otherwise enumerated 17, total 29,981. Geronimos band of 
 Apaches, 384 in numbere, were captured and deported in the 
 interest of peace to Mount Vernon barracks near Mobile, Ala 
 bama. The Pimas and Papagos have always been friends of 
 the whites, the Papagos claim to have never killed a white 
 man. The Papagos have small herds of stock including horses, 
 these constitute their substance, owing to scarcity of water 
 their flocks are not large. A few years ago deer was plentiful 
 and the markets of the whites were supplied with venison in 
 season by the Indians, mountain sheep and goats are also 
 brought in by them. Black and cinnamon bears are killed oc 
 casionally. The cotton tail rabbit abounds and is in demand 
 for the table. The Mountain Lion is found in the hills. The 
 Coyote, Fox, Jack Rabbit and Skunk make up the animals 
 found here. 
 
 The Navajos have inhabited the mountains, plateaus of 
 Arizona and New Mexico between the San Juan and Little 
 Colorado rivers ever since they were discovered. They range 
 up in the four corner country where the four states join, New 
 Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah, the wildest and least 
 known part of the United States today, the last of the old west. 
 The Navajos have acquired many useful arts among them spin 
 ning and weaving. Their blankets woven in looms are of 
 great excellence and bring from $25 to $100. They cultivate 
 the soil, raising large quantities of corn, squash and melons. 
 The Navajos are successful stock raisers, careful and patient 
 they guard their flock most jealously. The men and boys look 
 after the horses and the women and girls as a rule take care 
 of the sheep herds. As early as 1890 the report of the commis 
 sioner of Indian affairs gives for the Navajo reservation 8,000 
 acres cultivated by Indians, 3,000 families engaged in farming 
 and other civilized pursuits, 500 bushels of wheat, 100 bushels 
 of oats and barley, 30,000 bushels of corn, 200 bushels of vege 
 tables, 250,600 horses and mules, 1,000 burros, 6,000 cattle, 
 700,000 sheep and 200,000 goats. Their horses are small, the 
 typical Indian pony. In the corner of Utah they raise some 
 fine large horses, crosses from stock obtained from the Mor 
 mons. They delight in horse races. 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 THE SIOUX 
 
 Most people believe Sitting- Bull was the real chief of the 
 Sioux Indians. This is a mistaken idea. He was the Medicine 
 Man and a kind of prophet. He prophesied the battle with the 
 whites in 1876, said his people would be victorious and after 
 the Custer massacre he was looked up to as having super 
 human information, and had quite a following afterwards. 
 Old Gaul was the war chief, it was him that planned the battle 
 of the Little Big Horns, placed the decoy village in the little 
 valley that led Custer in where his army was completely sur 
 rounded and annihilated. 
 
 THE LAST BATTLE OF THE SIOUX 
 
 Sitting Bull was killed in the battle at Wounded Knee, 
 1890, by the Indian Police, some of his own tribe who was 
 sent to his camp by Colonel Forsyth of the Seventh United 
 States Cavalry to make peace in and effort to get him to re 
 turn to the reservation. He ordered his men to fire on the 
 Police when he was shot by the Polic, the first man to fall, 
 and the Sioux last battle was on December 29, 1890, resulting 
 in the loss of one officer and twenty-four men, the wounding 
 of three officers and thirty-two men and the killing of one 
 hundred and twenty-eight and the founding of thirty-eight 
 Sioux. 
 
 THE SUN DANCE 
 
 This barbarous custom of the Sioux was their acid test to 
 find a warrior fitted to be War Chief. Those who joined the 
 dance were expected to be ready to commence at the rising 
 of the sun, having everything in readiness the day before. One 
 end of a rope was fastened to a tree, the other end to a post 
 about twenty feet distance. And all those wishing to show 
 their bravery and test their qualifications for warriors did so 
 in the following manner: They cut slits in the skin on their 
 breasts at a distance of two inches apart and passed a strong 
 cord or a piece of rawhide through between the flesh and 
 outer skin, with which they securely tied to the rope that was 
 stretched from the tree to the post. In this manner they were 
 expected to dance from sun to sun without being liberated 
 from the rope to which they were fastened, unless they could 
 release themselves by literally tearing loose. If they succeeded 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 in tearing the flesh and skin thus releasing themselves, they 
 were brave and worthy of a great chieftain. But if they failed 
 to endure the torture or fainted as was often the case, they 
 were called Squaw-men and under no circumstances could 
 they be known as the great warriors of the tribe until they 
 could under-go this horrible treatment. The great old war 
 rior John Gaul had great scars on his breast, the results from 
 that test. The last dance they had of this kind was about 
 thirty years ago. There has been considerable change in the 
 condition of these Indians since the disappearance of the 
 game. The days when he spent most of his time in war 
 camps subsisting on Buffalo meat only coming into the agency 
 to destroy the flour that was issued to him by pouring it on 
 the ground and using the bags for breech-cloths are gone. 
 Now he is never satisfied, will take all he can get. There is 
 no hunting now and little fishing. Stock raising is more 
 profitable than farming. The most successful are those that 
 have small herds of cattle that run on the wild grass. The old 
 way of issuing beef to the Indians at the agencies was to turn 
 loose ten or twelve wild Texas steers at one time, when a 
 band of the young warriors would chase them, armed with 
 carbines, six-shooters and all kinds of weapons. The cattle 
 would be shot down on the dead run, they liked the sport and 
 said it made it better meat to run them and kill them hot. 
 Most of the old Sioux warriors are gone Sitting Bull, Rain- 
 in-the-face, Spotted Tail, Standing Bear, Young Man Fraid 
 of His Horse, Running Antelope are all gone now, the rem 
 nant of what was once the most dangerous tribe of Indians 
 on the American Continent are living peaceably on the Reser 
 vation Standing Rock Agency, so called after a rock that is 
 exhibited on a pedestal in front of the agency ofifce. 
 
 The history of it is this : Several generations ago the coun 
 try belonged to the Arickarees from whom the Dakotas took 
 by force of arms. Two war parties met near the present site 
 of the agency. The Arickarees being the weaker were ob 
 liged to retreat, leaving behind them an old squaw, who re 
 fused positively to go preferring to die in her own country, 
 which would have been the case had she been captured. The 
 enemy approached intending to kill her but what was their 
 surprise to find the woman had turned to stone. This stone 
 was for a long time regarded with great reverence, it was 
 considered a great medicine. Now it stands mounted on its 
 pedestal in front of the agency, a relic of the past. 
 
 10 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 Over one hundred years ago in a report to the French 
 Academy written by a competent investigator, it was stated 
 that the North American Indian is an enigma <*nd this can in 
 truth be written of him today. While an enigma, he is of a 
 magnificent race physically. When we consider the ravages 
 of disease, intermarriage, exposeure, starvation and the white 
 mans ills, then consider the number of Indians now here as 
 against the number at the advent of the European on this con 
 tinent, the Indian would seem to be a startling example of the 
 survival of the fittest. War fits his nature is his occupation 
 by design. Being the original occupant of the land he can not 
 see why he should give way and move to parts unknown. He 
 can not see the profit to come to him from his being despoiled 
 first and absorbed afterwards. Centuries of living by roaming 
 warfare and the consuming of the wild products of nature 
 have not fitted him for readily accepting Anglo Saxon civiliza 
 tion. 
 
 The Indians battle has been for the control of the heart of 
 a Continent with few exceptions, he does not realize the neces 
 sity for change. It was bred in his bone, that labor is dis 
 honorable and the demands and requirements of civilized life 
 foretold to him the end of the old Indian life, and the curling 
 smoke from the settlers cabin, the doom of his unrestrained 
 liberty. 
 
 Moral training as we know, he never knew, and many of 
 them do not know to this day. His method of warfare, fierce 
 and brutal was born in him, he met force with force, reason 
 with the knife and logic with his club. The first tender of 
 our advancing civilization he met with surprise, and then re 
 sistance, and for three hundred years warfare followed. In 
 most of the pioneer movements to the West the crack of the 
 rifle was heard where the glitter of the hoe was seen. 
 
 As the Indian felt the presence and weignt of the new 
 civilization all of his past history and present life crowded 
 upon him and he revolted because he could see that his race 
 was about to be covered by a cloud that would eventually en 
 gulf it. The white men s clutch was at his throat with the 
 advancing lines of the white men it took no prophet to foretell 
 the Indians doom. With clenched teeth and club or gun in 
 hand he placed his back to the rock and dies in resistance. 
 
 It has been stated that the present area of the United 
 States since the white man came has contained more than 
 500,000 Indians. High estimates were made in early days but 
 
 11 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 the average even then was about 1,000,000. In 1890 we had 
 248,253 civilized and uncivilized Indians. Through four cen 
 turies warlike bands resisted and many resist progress today. 
 How defiantly they met death. They died silently without a 
 groan amid the shouts of murdered white men and women and 
 butchered children, the roar of the cannon and the crack of the 
 rifle. 
 
 Over the old hunting grounds across the silvery streams 
 which tread the brown barrens and plains up the tall moun 
 tains among the towering pines to the snow capped -and sun 
 touched summits in the land once the home of his people, the 
 Indians of today can cast only a longing eye and reflect. The 
 plains are silent to the tread of the old Indian host. No monu 
 ments or structures tell their story, no footprints in the rocks, 
 no piles of carved or sculptured stone to speak of their patience, 
 ingenuity or their presence. The streams run as of yore, but 
 while softly creeping to the sea, they sing no song and speak 
 no word of the olden times. The nodding pine and ash along 
 the mountain side bend and bow a welcome to the newcomer, 
 but are silent as to the past. The canyon and mountain recess 
 shelter as of old but speak not. For the remaining Indian 
 the painter, the museum and the art preservative alone can 
 tell the story, even nature, the Indians God, is silent as to 
 him and speaks not. Such has been his life, such the result, 
 that if the entire remaining Indians were completely wiped 
 from the face of the earth they would leave no monuments, no 
 buildings, no written language save one, no literature, no in 
 ventions, nothing in arts or sciences, absolutely nothing for 
 the benefit of mankind. A few graves and unimportant ruins 
 met the gaze of the white man four hundred years ago. The 
 past of the Indian was sealed even then and apparently to the 
 Indian as well as to the white man. And this condition re 
 mains to this time, all of the Indian past is now reflection. Old 
 squaws and tottering old men on the remaining reservations 
 in most cases in squalor, rags and hunger, retell the fierce 
 batles of their people, each tale exaggerated with age, every 
 one mentioned a hero, all now legend and myth. These past 
 Indian glories can never come again but the Indian does not 
 realize it, and so he ivokes their return with his ghost or mes- 
 siah dance. 
 
 12 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 CHEYENNE AND ARAPHO AGENCY, OKLAHOMA 
 
 BRIBE THAT LED TO SEMINOLE WAR 
 
 Osceola, "the Tiger of the Everglades," was in prison. 
 And all Florida rejoiced. The half-breed Indian had long been 
 a storm center, and while he, had been at large there was no 
 hope for lasting peace. From the age of fourteen, Oceola had 
 been a war chief of the Seminoles the crafty and bloodthirsty 
 Indian "nation" that made its liar in the impenetrable Ever 
 glade swamps and issued forth from time to time to carry 
 flame and death to settlers. When Uncle Sam wanted to ship 
 the Seminoles to a Western reservation and to take over their 
 Florida lands, Oscealo flew into a rage and bellowed his re 
 fusal of the plan, even driving his knife through the proffered 
 treaty. Soon after this Osceola was caught and jailed. With 
 out his fiery leadership the Seminoles were helpless. And the 
 region grew safe and prosperous. But Osceola had no inten 
 tion of staying in prison. According to one story he offered 
 to sign away the lands of his ancestors to the government in 
 return for his freedom. Then, when force and guil failed to 
 release him, he fell to studying the characters of the soldiers 
 who guarded him. At length he found the man he sought. He 
 offered the soldier a rich bribe to help him escape. The soldier 
 accepted the bribe. Osceola, freed from prison, hurried from 
 place to place with incredible speed, gathering together the 
 scattered Seminole bands. Soon he was ready to strike the 
 first blow. One day, early in 1836, he sent 80 of hsi warriors 
 to waylay Major Dade, who was marching at the head of a 
 body of United States troops along the military road near 
 Tampa Bay. The Indians ambushed Dade s men and slew 
 
 13 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 108 of them. At the same time another detachment, led by 
 Oscealo, ravaged and burned the settlement at Fort King, 
 killing the Indian agent (against whom the chief had sworn 
 revenge for putting him in prison) and many others. In a 
 dozen places throughout Florida Osceola struck with the swift 
 ness and deadliness of an Everglade rattlesnake, inflicting fear 
 ful damage and getting safely out of reach before punishment 
 could follow. 
 
 General Clinch, with 1,000 regulars, blundered upon a 
 much smaller force of Indians under Osceola at the ford of 
 the Withlacoockee river. The United States troops, in the 
 battle that followed, sustained fearful loss. Osceola boasted 
 later that in this fight he himself killed no less than forty 
 -white men. When the Seminoles ammunition was gone they 
 hurled themselves bodily upon the soldiers with knives and 
 clubbed guns. Battle after battle followed, until, in General 
 Taylor, Osceola found a foe who outgeneraled him. In the 
 final and greatest battle of the Seminole war, Osceola made a 
 gallant stand. The waters of the nearby river ran blood red 
 for days thereafter. The Seminoles were routed and scattered 
 in panic flight. This time there was no leader to rally them 
 again and inspire them to continue war. For the government 
 authorities had invited Osceola to a conference, pledging their 
 honor that he would not be molested. He accepted the invita 
 tion, and, the moment he was inside the fort where the con 
 ference was to be held, he was seized, fettered and hustled off 
 to St. Augustine. Thence Osceola was sent in 1837 to the 
 military prison at Charleston harbor. Realizing that here he 
 could have no hope of escape, he went on a "hunger strike" 
 and died. 
 
 LITTLE CAUSES THAT HAVE LED TO BIG WARS 
 
 One Soldier s Folly That Led to the Black Hawk War. 
 
 Black Hawk Makataime Shekiakiak cross the Missis 
 sippi, from his tribe s reservatin, in 1831. With him were 
 some of his Sac tribesmen. Their errand was peaceful. To 
 use Black Hawk s own words, they were going to "steal their 
 own corn." In other words, to plant a crop on some rich and 
 unoccupied land that had once been theirs and had been taken 
 over by the government. Their present reservation was nearly 
 barren, and the extra crop was sorely neded to avert famine. 
 There is no reason to believe the band had any warlike inten 
 tion. But their presence on the wrong side of the Mississippi 
 
 14 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 was made known to the local army commander, General Atkin 
 son, who ordered them back. Black Hawk explained that his 
 errand was peaceful and that he and his men would go home 
 as soon as the corn planting was finished. A battalion of mili 
 tia was at once sent to enforce the General s command. Black 
 Hawk, who was camped in a forest, supposed that the troops 
 had not understood his explanation and sent a messenger, 
 under flag of truce, to explain the situation all over again. As 
 the flag-of-truce bearer with two comrades approached the 
 militia one of the white soldiers lost his head at sight of three 
 real live Indians and snatched up a musket. Before any at 
 tempt could be made to stop him the militiaman fired on the 
 flag of truce. The Indian who carried the flag dropped dead. 
 And this wantonly idiotic shooting caused the famous "Black 
 Hawk War." Black Hawk, on learning that his messenger 
 was shot, gathered forty braves around him and hid in a 
 tangled thicket. As the militiamen 270 in number ap 
 proached, they were met by a blaze of gunfire and a deafening 
 chorus of war-whoops. The soldiers turned and fled. Two 
 hundred and seventy United States militiamen put to utter 
 rout by forty ill-armed Indians ! Nor did most of the soldiers 
 pause in their panic retreat until they reached Dixon s Ferry, 
 fully thirty miles away from the scene of their disgrace. 
 
 The war was on. The refugees announced that they had 
 been "ambushed by 2,000 blood-thirsty savages." And their 
 story was believed until it was proven that the Indians had 
 numbered barely forty, and that only fifteen of these had given 
 chase to the fleeing 270. 
 
 General Winfield Scott, with 1,000 regular troops, marched 
 against the Sacs. His little army was reinforced by militia 
 and frontiersmen. Among the militia volunteers was a lanky, 
 gigantic, young country lawyer Abraham Lincoln by name. 
 Black Hawk by this time had been joined by his full fighting 
 force and by war parties from allied tribes. His band num 
 bered about 500, against more than 2,000 white foes. There 
 were the usual raids and wholesale murders and skirmishes 
 common to Indian warfare and several pitched batles. Black 
 Hawk sent to the General in command the following message : 
 
 Black Hawk would have been a friend of the whites, but 
 they would not let him. The hatchet was dug up by them and 
 not by the Indians. Black Hawk meant no harm to the pale- 
 faqes when he came across the Mississippi, but came peace 
 ably to plant corn for his starving women and children. Even 
 
 15 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 then he would have gone back, but when he sent his white 
 flag the brave who carried it was inhumanly shot. Black 
 Hawk will have revenge, and he will never stop until the Great 
 Spirit shall say to him come away !" But at length, his band 
 cut to pieces, while constant reinforcements swelled the ranks 
 of his enemies, Black Hawk was forced to surrender. The of 
 ficer in charge of the detachment that escorted the beaten chief 
 to St. Louis and to prison there was a young army lieutenant, 
 Jefferson Davis, son-in-law of Colonel Zachary Taylor, who 
 had fought so gallantly throughout the campaign. In the brief 
 Black Hawk War, oddly enough, were four soldiers, three of 
 whom later were Presidents and a fourth a Presidential candi 
 date. They were Lincoln, Taylor, Davis and Scott. 
 
 A SQUAW S ILLNESS THAT STARTED OUR 
 NEZ PERCE WAR 
 
 This is the story of an Indian Napoleon. His people called 
 him Himmaton-Yalatkit, war chief of the Choppunnish nation. 
 History knows him as Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces. The 
 Choppunnish were nicknamed Nez Perces (pierced noses) by 
 some early French pioneers because of their custom of wearing 
 nose rings. They were probably the best, most intelligent 
 body of Indians in America. Under their leader, christened 
 "Joseph" at a local mission, they lived contentedly on a north 
 western reservation biger than New York State. Then the 
 old tragic story of settler-and-savage was retold. 
 
 The white men, drifting westward, invaded the reserva 
 tion, found it rich and full of promise for them, and forthwith 
 pulled wires at Washington to have the Indians kicked out. 
 As usual, the plan was successful. The Nez Perces were 
 ordered to move to a smaller, much less desirable reservation 
 far away from the homes they loved. To add to their griev 
 ances they were abused, robbed right and left and treated like 
 dogs by many of the white settlers. The Nez Perces were 
 furious. They clamored to go on the warpath, to fight to the 
 death for their homes and their rights. Wise old Chief Joseph, 
 however, held them in check. His power over them was ab 
 solute so long as he was on hand to enforce that power. 
 General O. O. Howard was sent to persuade the chief to con 
 sent to the change of reservations. Joseph listened gravely 
 to the General s spurious arguments, hearing him to the end. 
 Then, when Howard paused, the chief inquired: 
 
 16 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 "If we consent to be herded on that little strip of land 
 what will the Great Father at Washington give us? Will he 
 give us schools, teachers, houses, gardens, farm tools?" 
 
 "Yes, yes !" replied the delighted General, "you will have 
 all of those things." 
 
 "Well," drawled the chief, "those are just the things we 
 do not want. The earth is our dear mother. Do you think we 
 wish to break it and dig it up?" 
 
 At this crisis of the trouble, in 1873, Chief Joseph s wife, 
 who was far away upon a visit, fell dangerously ill. The chief 
 dropped everything and hastened to her. While Joseph was 
 away two of his braves chanced to fall into talk with two farm 
 ers. One of the Indians laid his hand, inquisitively, on the 
 brand-new rifle of one of the farmers. The other farmer, per 
 haps mistaking the meaning of the gesture, shot the Indian 
 dead. That started the outbreak. Joseph was not there to 
 calm his tribesmen and to demand regular justice against the 
 murderer. His fellowers took the law into their own hands. 
 Border warfare, with all its horrors of burning, theft and mas 
 sacre, burst forth. The chief, hurrying to the scene of strife, 
 found himself too late to stem the tied of slaughter. 
 
 Only one course, as he saw it, remained for him to fol 
 low. He threw in his lot with his people. The great Nez 
 Perces war was on ! For months the conflict blazed along the 
 frontier. In battle after battle Joseph s military genius caused 
 the rout of the government troops. He out-generaled the best 
 officers sent against him and defeated regulars and militia 
 alike, with fearful loss. Up to this time the Nez Perces had, 
 from earliest days, been the friends of the white man. Now, 
 owing to Joseph s generalship, they were proving the most 
 dangerous Indian foes our government had ever faced. At 
 last, overwhelmed by sheer force of numbers, Chief Joseph 
 ordered a rerteat. He hoped to transport his people bodily 
 across the Canadian border, where they would be safe from 
 pursuit. This retreat has been called one of history s most 
 brilliant feats of strategy. His men and horses, tired, his 
 march impeded by the wounded and by the tribe s women and 
 children, Joseph set out for Canada. In front of him, barring 
 his way, was a strong force under General Miles. Close be 
 hind him a second body of troops under General Howard. 
 Colonel Sturgis soldiers were at his flank. He was com 
 pletely hemmed in. In spite of these incredible odds, Joseph 
 and his entire band slipped through the pursuer s hands again 
 
 17 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 and again ; traveling nearly 1,400 miles in round-about dodging, 
 and being headed off at last and forced to surrender when they 
 were less than fifty miles from the Canadian border line. As 
 it was, Joseph surrendered only on receiving certain promises 
 of good treatment for his people. As soon as he was in the 
 power of his enemies these promises were broken by the con 
 querors, and he and his gallant band were ignominiously 
 hustled off to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. 
 
 Since the advent of the white man in the United States 
 there have been almost constant wars between them and the 
 Indians up until 1895. Beginning on the Pacific side in 1539 
 and on the Atlantic after 1600. 
 
 These wars and outbreaks arose from various causes from 
 the resistance by the Indian to the white man s occupation of 
 his lands from the Indians murderous disposition from national 
 neglect and failure to keep treaties and solemn promises. 
 
 We have an estimated cost of the Indians to the United 
 States from July 4, 1776 to June 30, 1890. 1,067,017,740.69 
 dollars aside from the amounts reimbursed to states for their 
 expenses in wars with Indians and aside from pensions. 
 
 With the capture of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perces in the 
 Modoc war in 1873, passed the last great Indian Chief. 
 
 Such is a brief sketch of the Red Man who was. The only 
 hope of the perpetuity of his race seems now to center in the 
 Choctaws, Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles and Chickasaws of 
 Oklahoma numbering about fifty thousand souls and have at 
 tained a considerable degree of civilization. Since the discov 
 ery of oil on their lands many of them are living in luxury with 
 fine homes, automobiles and everything necessary to happiness 
 and contentment in a land of plenty. Most of the other tribes 
 are rapidly approaching extinction. Right or wrong such is 
 the logic of events. Whether the Red Man has been justly de 
 prived of the ownership of the New World, will remain a 
 subject of debate, that he has been deprived, can be none. 
 The Saxon has come. His conquering foot has trodden the 
 vast domain from shore to shore. The weaker race has with 
 ered from his presence. By the majestic rivers and in the 
 depths of the solitary wood, the feeble sons of the bow and 
 arrow will be seen no more. Only their names remain on hill 
 and streams and mountains. The Red Man sinks and fails. 
 His eyes are to the West. To the prairies and forests, the 
 hunting grounds of his ancestors. He says "Farewell." He 
 is gone. The cypress and the hemlock sing his requiem. 
 
 18 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 LOWER BRULE RESERVATION, CROW CREEK AND LOWER BRULE AGENCY, 
 
 SOUTH DAKOTA 
 Iron Nation, Chief of Lower Brule Sioux. 
 
 19 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 Overlooking the peaceful Pacific at San Francisco is the 
 life size figure of an Indian astride of his bare-backed pony, 
 looking to the West, representing the Indian at the end of the 
 Trail. To which the following lines were dedicated by one of 
 the tribe. 
 
 I am dreaming now of the times that are past, 
 And straining my heart strings to give a solution, 
 Of why could not those joyful days everlast, 
 Oh, changeable world is it called evolution. 
 
 My prairie home old old was teeming, 
 With millions of buffalo our raiment and food. 
 And yet in our innocence we never saw gleaming, 
 The change that was coming that left us so nude. 
 
 How well I remember the young braves would assemble, 
 All mounted with bows strung taut for the chase, 
 With a roaring sound the grand prairie would tremble, 
 Re-echo the joys from the pride of our race. 
 
 The pale-face has come arid brought civilization; 
 He slaughtered our buffalo. Oh, shame and disgrace, 
 They call it rudiments of building a nation, 
 By taking from nature and stranding a race. 
 
 Why should I, in sorrow and sadness bewail 
 The things that were in the zone of the blessed ; 
 Since now we are nearing the end of the trail, 
 And our sun is now setting in the land of the West. 
 
 Then need we fear that time will erase it, 
 
 In the midst of time will memory fail? 
 
 Or will those that are coming in reverence caress it, 
 
 The emblem that stands by the "End of the Trail." 
 
 The Osages are the wealthiest tribe of Indians in the 
 United States, or the world. Protecting the government s 
 wards from swindlers is one of the biggest tasks of the Indian 
 service. 
 
 20 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 Formerly, great numbers of crooked whites attempted to 
 marry into the tribe to get the advantage of some squaw s easy 
 income, but closing the tribal rolls several years ago put an 
 end to this. 
 
 The joke about the Osage wealth is that back in 1883, the 
 white people, wanting the Indians rich agricultural lands in 
 Kansas, practically forced them down to a barren and rocky 
 strip of land in Oklahoma. 
 
 The richest oil field in the world was discovered on that 
 land and now it probably produces more every year than the 
 same area of Kansas wheat land will produce in a lifetime. 
 
 Indian tribal funds now held by the government are close 
 to $25,000,000 and there is approximately $30,000,000 deposited 
 to the credit of individual Indians in various banks. 
 
 The number of Indians in this country has increased 12,500 
 in the past ten years, and now is close to 340,000. Government 
 experts attribute this increase to better living conditions. 
 
 21 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BUFFALO 
 
 The discovery of the American Bison as first made by 
 Europeans occurred in the menagerie of a heathen King. 
 
 In the year 1512 Cortez reached Anahuac, the American 
 Bison was seen for the first time by civilized Europeans, if we 
 may be permitted to characterize the horde of blood thirsty 
 plunder seekers who fought their .way to the Aztec Capitol 
 With a degree of enterprise that marked him as an enlightened 
 Monarch, Montezuma maintained for the instruction for his 
 people a well appointed menagerie of which the historian De- 
 Solis wrote as follows in 1724: In the second square of the 
 same house where the wild beasts which were either presents 
 of Montezuma or taken by his hunters, in strong cages of tim 
 ber ranged in good order and under cover. Lions, tigers and 
 all others of the savage kind which New Spain produced, 
 among which the greatest rarity was the Mexican Bull, a won 
 derful composition of divers animals. It has crooked shoulders 
 with a bunch on its back like a camel, its flankes dry, its tail 
 large and its neck covered with hair like a lion. It is cloven 
 footed, its head armed like that of a bull which it resembles 
 in fierceness with no less strength and agility. 
 
 Thus was the first Buffalo seen in America by Europeans 
 described. The nearest locality from whence it could have 
 come w r as the State of Coahuila in Northern Mexico between 
 400 and 500 miles away, and at that time vehicles were un 
 known to the Aztecs. But for the destruction of the whole 
 mass of written literature of the Axtecs by the priests of the 
 Spanish Conquest, w r e might now be revealing in historical 
 accounts of the Bison which would make the oldest of our 
 present records seem of comparatively recent date. 
 
 Nine years after the event referred to above or in 1530 
 another Spanish explorer, Alvar Nunez Cabeza, afterwards 
 called Cabeza de Vaca or in our language Cattle Cabeza, the 
 prototype of our own distinguished Buffalo Bill was wrecked 
 on the Gulf Coast west of the delta of the Mississippi from 
 whence he wandered Westward through what is now the State 
 of Texas, he discovered the American Bison on his native 
 heath. So far as can be ascertained this was the earliest dis 
 covery of the American Bison in a wild state and the descrip 
 tion of the species as recorded by the explorer is of historical 
 interest. It is brief and superficial. 
 
 22 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 The unfortunate Explorer took very little interest in 
 animated nature except as it contributed to the sum of his 
 daily food which was then the all important subject of his 
 thoughts. He almost starved. This is all he had to say: 
 Cattle come as far as this, I have seen them three times and 
 eaten of their meat. I think they are about the size of those 
 in Spain. They have small horns like those of Morocco and 
 the hair long and flocky like that of the Merino. Some are 
 light brown pardillas and others black. To my judgment the 
 flesh is finer and sweeter than that of this country (Spain). 
 The Indians make blankets of those that are not full grown 
 and of the larger they make shoes and bucklers. They come 
 as far as the sea coast of Florida (now Texas) and in a direc 
 tion from the North and range over a district of more than 
 400 leagues. In the whole extent of the plain over which they 
 roam the people who live bordering upon it descend and kill 
 them for food and thus a great many skins are scattered 
 throughout the country. 
 
 Coronado was the next explorer who penetrated the coun 
 try of the Buffalo, which he accomplished from the West by 
 way of Arizona and New Mexico. He crossed the southern 
 part of the Panhandle of Texas to the edge of what was after 
 wards the Indian Territory, and returned through the same 
 region. It was in the year 1542 that he reached the Buffalo 
 country and traversed the plains that were full of crooked 
 back oxen as the mountain Serena in Spain is of sheep. This 
 is the description of the animal as recorded by one of his fol 
 lowers, Castaneda, and translated by W. W. Davis. The first 
 time we encountered the Buffalo all the horses took flight on 
 seeing them for they are horrible to the sight. They have a 
 broad and short face, eyes two palms from each other and pro 
 jecting in such a manner sideways they can see a pursuer. 
 Their beard is like that of goats and so long that it drags the 
 ground when they lower the head, they have on the anterior 
 portion of the body a frizzled hair like sheep wool, it is very 
 fine upon the croup, and sleek like a lions mane. Their horns 
 are fery short and thick and can scarcely be seen through the 
 hair. They always change their hair in May, and at this sea 
 son they really resemble lions. To make it drop more quickly 
 for they change it as adders do their skins, they roll among 
 the brushwood which they find in the ravines. Their tail is 
 very short and terminates in a great tuft, when they run they 
 carry it in the air like scorpions. When quite young they are 
 
 23 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 tawny and resemble our calves but as age increases they 
 change color and form. Neither DeSoto, Ponce de Leon, 
 Vasquez de Alyllon nor Pamphilo de Narvaez ever saw a 
 Buffalo for the reason that all their exploration were made 
 South of what was the habitat of that animal. At the time 
 DeSoto made his great exploration from Florida Northwest 
 ward to the Mississippi and into Arkansas in 1539-41 he did 
 indeed pass through country in Northern Mississippi and 
 Louisiana that was afterwards inhabited by the Buffalo, but 
 at that time not one was to be found there. Some of his 
 soldiers, however, who was sent into the Northern part of 
 Arkansas reported having seen Buffalo skins in the posses 
 sion of the Indians and were told that live Buffalo were to be 
 found five or six leagues North of their farthest point. 
 
 The earliest discovery of the Bison in Eastern North 
 America or indeed anywhere North of Coronado s route, was 
 made somewhere near Washington, District of Columbia, in 
 1612, by an English navigator named Samuel Argoll, and 
 narrated as follows : 
 
 As soon as I had unladen this corne. I set my men to the 
 felling of timber for the building of a frigat which I had left 
 half finished at Point Comfort the nineteenth of March, and 
 returned myself with the ship into Pembrook (Potomac) River 
 and so discovered at the head of it which is about sixty-five 
 leagues into the land and navigable for any ship and then 
 marching into the country I found great store of cattle as big 
 as kine of which the Indians that were my guides killed a 
 couple, which we found to be very good wholesome meat and 
 are very easy to be killed in regard they are heavy, slow and 
 not so wild as other beasts of the wilderness. 
 
 It is to be regretted that the narrative of the explorer 
 affords no clew to the precise locality of this interesting discov 
 ery, but since it is doubtful that the mariner journeyed very 
 far on foot from the head of navigation of the Potomac it 
 seems highly probable that the first American Bison seen by 
 Europeans other than the Spaniards was found within fifteen 
 miles or even less of the Capitol of the United States and pos 
 sibly within the District of Columbia. 
 
 The first meeting of the white man with the Buffalo on 
 the Northern boundry of that animals habitat occurred in 1679 
 when Father Hennepin ascended the St. Lawrence to the Great 
 Lakes and finally penetrated the great wilderness as far as 
 Western Illinois. The next meeting with the Buffalo on the 
 
 24 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 Atlantic slope was in October, 1729, by a party of surveyors 
 under Col. William Byrd who were engaged in surveying the 
 boundary between North Carolina and Virginia. As the party 
 journeyed up from the coast marking the line which now con 
 stitutes the interstate boundary, three Buffalo were seen on 
 Sugar Tree Creek but none of them were killed. On the return 
 journey in November one bull Buffalo was killed on Sugar 
 Tree Creek which is in Halifax county, Virginia within five 
 miles of Buffalo Creek longitude 78 degrees 40 minutes West 
 and 155 miles from the coast. It was found all alone though the 
 Buffalo seldom are. The meat is spoken of as a rarity not 
 met with at all on the expedition up. The animal was found 
 in thick woods which were thus described : The woods were 
 thick great part of this day s journey so that we were forced 
 to scuffle hard to advance seven miles being equal in fatigue 
 to double that distance of clear and open ground. One of the 
 creeks which the party saw was christened Buffalo Creek so 
 named from the frequent tokens we discovered of that Ameri 
 can Behemoth. 
 
 In October, 1733, an another surveying expedition of 
 Colonel Byrd s party had the good fortune to kill another 
 Buffalo near Sugar Tree Creek which incident is thus de 
 scribed : 
 
 We pursued our journey through uneven and perplexed 
 woods and in the thickest of them had the fortune to knock 
 down a young Buffalo two years old. Providence threw this 
 vast animal in our way, very seasonably just as our provisions 
 began to fail us, and it was the more welcome too because it 
 was a change of diet which of all varieties next to that of 
 bed fellows, is the most agreeable. We had lived upon venison 
 and bear till our stomachs loathed them almost as much as 
 the Hebrews of old did their quails. Our butchers were so 
 unhandy at their business that we grew very lank before we 
 could get our dinner. But when it came we found it equal in 
 goodness to the best beef. They made it the longer because 
 they kept sucking the water from the guts in initation of the 
 Catauba Indians upon the belief that it is a great cordial and 
 will even make them drunk or at least gay. A little later a 
 solitary bull Buffalo was found but spared, the earliest instance 
 of the kind on record. 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION 
 The range of the American Bison extended over about 
 
 25 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 one-third of the entire continent of North America. Starting 
 almost at tide water on the Atlantic Coast it extended West 
 ward through a vast tract of dense forest across the Alleghany 
 Mountains system to the prairies along the Mississippi and 
 Southward to the Delta of that great stream. Although the 
 great plains country of the West was the natural home of the 
 Buffalo where it flourished in countless thousands and was 
 food and raiment for the Aboriginal occupants. The Southern 
 Comanche, the Sioux Pawnee and the Cheyennes, the Nomads 
 of the plains. It also wandered Southwest across Texas to the 
 burning plains of Northeastern Mexico, Westward across the 
 mountains into New Mexico, Utah and Idaho and Northward 
 across that vast treeless waste to the bleak and inhospitable 
 shores of the great slave lake. It is more than probable that 
 had the Bison remained unmolested by man an uninfluenced 
 by him he would eventually have crossed the Sierra Nevadas 
 and taken up his abode in the great fertile valleys of the 
 Pacific slope. Had the Bison remained for a few more cen 
 turies in undisturbed possession of his range at liberty to roam 
 at will over the North American continent, it is almost certain 
 that several distinctly recognizable varieties would have been 
 produced. The Buffalo of the hot regions of the extreme South 
 would have become a short haired animal like the gaur of India 
 and the African Buffalo. The ones inhabiting the extreme 
 North in the vicinity of the Great Slave Lake, would have de 
 veloped still longer hair and taken on more of the dense hairy- 
 ness of the musk ox. It would be easy to fill volumes with 
 facts relating to the geographical distribution of the Bison 
 Americanus and dates of occupancy and disappearance in 
 multitude of different localities embraced within the immense 
 area it once inhabited. But to little purpose. I have drawn 
 liberally from the life history of the Bison by Wm. T. Horna- 
 day as submitted to the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 
 Institution, June 30, 1887, wherein he acknowledges his in 
 debtedness to Professor Allen s work. 
 
 While it is inexpedient to include here all the facts that 
 might be recorded with reference to the discovery existence 
 and ultimate extinction of the Buffalo, yet it is worth while 
 to mention briefly the extreme limits of its range. There is 
 no indisputable evidence that the Buffalo ever inhabited the 
 precise locality of the District of Columbia, but it is probable 
 that it did. In 1612 Captain Argoll sailed up the Pembrook 
 River to the head of navigation. Mr. Allen believes this was 
 
 26 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 the James River and not the Potomac and marched inland a 
 few miles where he discovered Buffalo, some of which were 
 killed by his Indian guides. If this river was the Potomac 
 and most authorities believe it was, the Buffalo seen by Argoll 
 might easily have been in what is now the District of Colum 
 bia. Admitting the existence of a reasonable doubt as to the 
 identity of the Pembrook River of Captain Argoll there is yet 
 another bit of history which fairly established the fact that in 
 the early part of the seventeenth century Buffalo inhabited 
 the banks of the Potomac between this city and the lower 
 falls. In 1624 an English fur trader named Henry Fleet came 
 hither to trade with the Anacostian Indians who then inhab 
 ited the present site of the city of Washington with the tribes 
 of the upper Potomac. 
 
 In his journal, discovered a few years since in the Lam- 
 berth Library, London, Fleet gave a quaint description of the 
 city s site as it then apeared. The following is from the ex 
 plorer s journal : 
 
 Monday the 25th of June, we sailed for the town of 
 Tohoga where we came to an anchor two leagues short of the 
 falls. This place without question is the most pleasant and 
 healthful place in all this country and most convenient for 
 habitation, the air temperate in summer and not violent in 
 winter. It aboundeth with all manners of fish. The Indians 
 in one night will catch thirty Sturgeons in a place where the 
 river is not above twelve fathoms broad, and as for deer, buf 
 falo and bears and turkeys the woods do swarm with them. 
 
 Of the numerous references to "the occurrence of Bison in 
 Virginia it is sufficie to allude to Colonel s Byrd s meeting 
 with Buffalo in 1620 while surveying the Southern boundary 
 of the state as already referred to. The reference to the dis 
 covery of Buffalo on the Eastern side of the Virginia moun 
 tains quoted by Mr. Allen from Salmon s Present State of 
 Virginia, Page 14 (London), 1937, the capture and domestica 
 tion of Buffalo in 1701 by the Huguenot Settlers at Minikin- 
 town which was situated on the James River about fourteen 
 miles above Richmond, apparently Buffalo were more numer 
 ous in Virginia than in any other of the Atlantic States. Col. 
 Byrd s discoveries along the state boundary between Virginia 
 and North Carolina fixes the presence of the Buffalo in the 
 Northern part of the latter state. 
 
 The following letter to Prof. G. Brown Goode dated 
 Birdsnest, P. O., Virginia, Aug. 6th, 1888, from Mr. C. R. 
 
 27 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 Moore furnishes reliable evidence of the presence of the Buf 
 falo at another point in North Carolina. 
 
 In the winter of 1857 I was staying for the night at the 
 house of an old gentleman named Huston. I should judge he 
 was seventy. He lived near Buffalo Ford on the Catawba 
 River about four miles from Statesville, N. C. I asked him 
 how the ford got its name. He told me that his grandfather 
 told him that when he was a boy the Buffalo crossed there and 
 that when the rocks in the river were bare they would eat the 
 moss that grew upon them. The point indicated is in longi 
 tude 81 degrees West and the date not far from 1750; 
 
 Professor Allen cites numerous authorities whose observa 
 tions furnish abundant evidence of the existence of the Buffalo 
 in South Carolina during the first half of the eighteenth cen 
 tury. From these it is quite evident that in the northwestern 
 half of the state Buffalo were once fairly numerous. 
 
 Keating declares on the authority of Colhoun that we 
 know that some of those who first settled the Abbeville dis 
 trict in South Carolina in 1756 found Buffalo there. The ex 
 treme Southeastern limit of the Buffalo range in the U. S. 
 was the coast of Georgia, near the mouth of the Altamaha 
 River opposite St. Simmons Islands, Mr. Francis Moore in his 
 voyage to Georgia made in 1736 and reported upon in 1744 
 makes the following observation : 
 
 The Island of St. Simon abounds with deer and rabbits, 
 there are no Buffalo on it though, there are large herds upon 
 the main elsewhere in the same document, page 122, refer 
 ence is made of Buffalo hunting by Indians on the main land 
 near Darien. 
 
 In James E. Oglethorpe s report, 1733, of wild beasts of 
 Georgia and South Carolina, he mentions deer, elks, bear, 
 wolves and Buffalo, up to the time of Moore s voyage to 
 Georgia the interior was almost wholly unexplored and it is 
 almost certain that had not the large herds of Buffalo on the 
 main land existed within a distance of twenty or thirty miles 
 or less from the coast, the Colonists would have had no knowl 
 edge of them nor would the Indians have taken to the warpath 
 against the whites at Darien under pretense of hunting Buf 
 falo. I believe that the Buffalo once inhabited the Northern 
 half of Alabama though history fails to record it. 
 
 At the beginning of the eighteenth century Buffalo were 
 plentiful in Southern Mississippi and Louisiana, not only down 
 to the coast from - Bay St. Louis to Biloxi but in the very Delta 
 
 28 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 of the Mississippi as the following records show. In a Me 
 moir addressed to Count de Ponchartrain, December 10th, 
 1698 the Author M. de Remonville describes the country 
 around the mouth of the Mississippi (now in the state of Lou 
 isiana) and says : A great abundance of wild cattle are found. 
 Whether these animals were Buffalo might be considered an 
 open question but for following additional information which 
 aford spositive proof. The trade in furs and peltry would be 
 immensely valuable and exceedingly profitable. We could 
 also draw from thence a great quantity of Buffalo hides every 
 year as the plains are filled with the animals. In the same 
 volume, page 47, in a document entitled "Annals of Louisi 
 ana ,, from 1698 to 1722, by M. Penicaut 1698, the author 
 records the presence of the Buffalo on the Gulf Coast on the 
 banks of the Bay St. Louis as follows : The next day we left 
 Pea Island and camped at the entrance of the Bay near a foun 
 tain of water that flows from the hills and which was called 
 at this time "Belle Fountain." We hunted during several 
 days upon the coast of this Bay and filled our boats with meat 
 of the deer, buffalo and other wild game, and carried it to the 
 Fort Biloxi. The appearance of the Buffalo at Natchez is 
 recorded as follows: We ascended the Mississippi to Pass 
 Manchac where we killed fifteen Buffalo. The next day we 
 landed again and killed eight more Buffalo and as many 
 deer. There is no doubt but what thousands of Buffalo 
 once roamed over the Mississippi Valley and Louisiana. The 
 Choctaws have an interesting tradition in regards to the dis 
 appearance of the Buffalo from Mississippi. It relates that 
 during the early part of the eighteenth century a great draught 
 occurred which was particularly severe in the prairie regions. 
 For three years not a drop of rain fell. The Nowubee and 
 Tombigbee Rivers dried up and the forests perished. The 
 Elk and Buffalo which up to that time had been numerous 
 all migrated to the country beyond the Big Muddy and never 
 returned. It will be remembered that it was in Southeastern 
 Texas, in all probability within fifty miles of the present city 
 of Houston, that the earliest discovery of the American Bison 
 on its native heath was made in 1530 by Cabeza de Vaca, a 
 half-starved, half-naked Spaniard, almost the only surviving 
 member of the celebrated expedition which burned its ships 
 behind it. Buffalo were so numerous on the Colorado River, 
 Texas, that they called it La Riviere Aux Baeufs. In 1542 
 
 29 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 Coronado while on his celebrated march met with vast herds 
 of Buffalo on the upper Pecos River, since which their pres 
 ence in the valley of the Pecos has been well known. In de 
 scribing the journey of Espejo down the Pecos River in 1584, 
 Davis says in Spanish Conquest of New Mexico: They 
 passed down a river they called Rio de las Vaca or the River 
 of Oxen. The Pecos, the same cow river Vaca describes and 
 was so named because of the great herds of Buffalo that fed 
 on its banks. The only evidence on record of the presence of 
 Buffalo in Oregon was the finding of the bones of an animal 
 that resembled those of the Buffalo, by Professor O. C. Marsh, 
 in 1875, in the foothills of the Blue Mountains. It is well 
 known that Buffalo in small numbers once inhabited North 
 eastern Utah. A few were killed by the Mormons prior to 
 1840 in the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake. The range of the 
 Bison * probably embraced the whole of Idaho. Fremont 
 states that in the spring of 1824 the Buffalo were spread in 
 immense numbers over the Green River and Bear River Val 
 leys, and through all the country lying between the Colorado 
 or Green River and the Lewis fork of the Columbia, in the 
 meridian of Fort Hall, then forming the Western limit of 
 their range. Between the Rocky Mountains and the State 
 lying along the Mississippi River from Minnesota to the Gulf 
 of Mexico the whole country was one vast Buffalo range. 
 The early pioneers of the last century thought Buffalo were 
 abundant on the Eastern ranges. But the herds which lived 
 East of the Mississippi were comparatively mere stragglers 
 from the innumerable mass which covered the great Western 
 pasture region from the Big Muddy to the Rocky Mountains 
 and from the Rio Grande to the Great Slave Lake, Central 
 Nebraska was considered the geographical center of distribu 
 tion of the species as it originally existed. Since 1860 to 1880 
 the center of the herd was in Southwestern Dakota and South 
 eastern Montana. One could fill volumes with records of 
 plainsmen and pioneers who crossed that vast region between 
 1820 to 1870 and were in turn surprised, astounded and fre 
 quently dismayed by the tens of thousands of Buffalo they 
 observed, avoided or escaped from. They lived and moved 
 as no other animal ever have, in great multitudes, covering 
 scores of miles. They were so numerous they frequently 
 stopped boats on the rivers, threatened to overwhelm travelers 
 on the plains and in later years derailed locomotives and cars 
 
 30 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 until railway engineers learned by experience the wisdom of 
 stopping their trans whenever there were Buffalo Crossing the 
 track. Near the mouth of the White River in Southwestern 
 Dakota, Lewis and Clark saw in 1806 a herd of Buffalo which 
 caused them to make the following record in their journal: 
 
 The animals, the Buffalo, are now so numerous that from 
 an eminence we discovered more than we had ever seen before 
 at one time, and if not possible to calculate the moving mul 
 titude, which darkened the \vhole plains, we are convinced 
 that twenty thousand would not exaggerate the number. Per 
 haps the most vivid picture ever given of the abundance of 
 the Buffalo, is that given by Colonel R. I. Dodge in his 
 "Plains of the Great West". It is well worth reproducing 
 entire. In May, 1871, I drove in a light wagon from old 
 Fort Zara, to Fort Laniard, on the Arkansas, thirty-four miles. 
 At least twenty-five miles of the distance, was through one 
 immense herd, composed of countless small herds of Buffalo, 
 then on their journey north. The road ran along the broad, 
 level bottom, or valley of the river. The whole country ap 
 peared one great mass of Buffalo, moving slowly to the north 
 ward, and it was only when actually among them, that it could 
 be ascertained that the apparently solid mass was an agglom 
 eration of innumerable small herds, from about fifty to two 
 hundred animals, separated from the surrounding herds by 
 greater or less space, but still separated. The herds in the 
 valley sullenly got out of my way, and turning, stared an 
 instant, then started out at full speed directly towards me, 
 stampeding, and bringing with them the numerous herds 
 through which they passed, and pouring down upon me all 
 the herd, no longer separated, but one immense compact mass 
 of plunging animals, mad with fright, and as irresistible as 
 an avalanche. The situation was by no means pleasant. 
 Reigning up my horse, which was fortunately a quiet old 
 beast that had been at the death of many a Buffalo, so that 
 the wildest, maddest rush only caused him to cock his ears in 
 wonder at their unnecessary excitement. I waited until the 
 herd was within fifty yards, when a few well-directed shots 
 split the herd, and sent it pouring off in two streams, to my 
 right and left. When all had passed me, they stopped, appar 
 ently perfectly satisfied, though thousands were yet in reach 
 of my rifle, many less than one hundred yards. Disdaining to 
 fire again, I sent my servant to cut out the tongues of the 
 
 31 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 fallen. This occurred so often within the next ten miles, 
 that when I arrived at Fort Larnard I had twenty-six tongues 
 in my wagon, representing the greatest number of Buffalo 
 that my conscience can reproach me for having murdered, 
 in a single day. I was not hunting, wanted no meat, and 
 would not voluntarily have fired at these herds. I killed 
 only in self-preservation, and fired almost every shot from 
 the wagon. The great herd on the Arkansas River, through 
 which I passed, could not have averaged at best over fifteen 
 or twenty to the acre, but was from my own observation not 
 less than twenty-five miles wide, and from reports of hunters, 
 and others, it was five days in passing a given point, not less 
 than fifty miles deep. From the top of the Pawnee Rock, I 
 could see from six to ten miles in almost every direction. This 
 whole vast space was covered with Buffalo, looking like one 
 compact mass, the visual angle not permitting the ground to 
 be seen. I have seen such a sight a number of times, but never 
 on so large a scale. That was the last of the great herds, ac 
 cording to his recorded observation, the herd extended along 
 the river for a distance of twenty-five miles, w r hich was in 
 reality the width of the vast procession that was moving 
 North, and back from the road as far as the eye could reach 
 on both sides. It is making a low estimate to consider the 
 extent of the visible ground at one mile on either side. This 
 would give a strip of country two miles wide, by twenty-five 
 long, or a total of fifty square miles, covered with Buffalo, 
 averaging from fifteen to twenty to the acre. Taking a lesser 
 number in order to be below the truth, rather than above it, 
 we find that the number actually seen that day by Colonel 
 Dodge, was in the neighborhood of 450,000, not counting the 
 number seen from the top of Pawnee Rock, which if added, 
 would easily bring the total up to a round half million. 
 
 If the advancing multitude had been at all points fifty 
 miles in length, as it was known to have been in some places 
 at least, twenty-five miles in width, and still averaged fifteen 
 head to the acre of ground, it would have contained the enor 
 mous number of 12,000,000 head. But judging from general 
 principles governing such migrations, it is almost certain that 
 the moving mass advanced in the shape of a wedge, which 
 would make it necessary to deduct about two-thirds from the 
 actual number of Buffalo in that great herd, which I believe 
 is likely to be below the truth than above it. 
 
 32 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 No wonder that the men of the west, of those days, both 
 white and red, thought it would be impossible to exterminate 
 such a mighty multitude. The Indians, of some tribek, be 
 lieved that the Buffaloes issued from the earth continually, 
 and that the supply was necessarily inexhaustible, and yet in 
 five short years, the Southern herd was almost totally anni 
 hilated. 
 
 The existence of two kinds of Buffalo, is firmly believed 
 by many of the Northern hunters, and frontiersmen, along 
 the Western slope of the Rocky Mountains as far North as 
 the great Peace River. The Wood Buffalo, as it is called, is 
 very scarce and only found North of the Saskatchewan, on the 
 flanks of the Rocky Mountains. Some years ago in conversa 
 tion with an old Northern hunter, he told me that there were a 
 few wood Buffalo in Athabasca, along the Salt River. 
 
 In Professor John Macoun s "Manitoba and the Great 
 Northwest", there occurs the following reference to the wood 
 Buffalo: In the winter of 1870, the last Buffalo were killed 
 North of Peace River, but, in 1875, about one thousand head 
 were still in existence, between the Athabasca and Peace 
 River, north of the Little Slave Lake. These wood Buffalo 
 differ only in size from those of the plains. In a recent com 
 munication with that great scout, Ed. L. Carson, of Burling 
 ton, Washington, seeking reliable information as to the exist 
 ence of Buffalo in the British Northwest. I will quote his 
 entire letter : 
 
 Mr. Hill: 
 
 Your mention of Buffalo leads me to think you are inter 
 ested in the Peace River country, so I will answer you on 
 that supposition. Yes, there are several hundred wild Buffalo 
 in that region, but for the "love of pork" don t ever think 
 of shooting one of them. Take a crack at a Creek Indian, or 
 a homesteader, if you want excitement, and if you should 
 make a bull s-eye, the worst they would do to you would be 
 to hang you, but that is nothing to what would happen if you 
 shoot one of those sacred bulls. 
 
 They are protected by the government,, to such an extent 
 that it is not really safe to speak harshly to them. 
 
 There is plenty of other game there, however, so do not 
 despair. You can find bear, wolf, moose, coyote, deer, lynx, 
 skunk, wolverine, and other savage beasts in sufficient num- 
 
 34 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 her, to keep you in good humor. While if you get far enough 
 from civilization, you will come across the lordly caribou, in 
 herds of thousands. This may sound strong, but it is a fact 
 just the same. Unlike most other terrestrial animals of 
 America, so long as he roamed at will over the vast plains, 
 the Buffalo had settle migratory habits, while the elk, and 
 black tail deer changed their altitude twice a year in con 
 formity with the approach and disappearance of winter, the 
 Buffalo makes a radical change in latitude. This was most 
 noticeable in the great Western pasture region, where the 
 herds were more numerous, and their movements more easily 
 observed. The herds that wintered in Texas and the Indian 
 Territory migrated to Nebraska, Colorado and Wyoming 
 in the spring. The winter herds of Colorado, Wyoming and 
 Nebraska went to the prairies along the Saskatchewan and 
 the Great Slave Lake. This was the great Northern herd. 
 The geographical center of the great Southern herd during the 
 few years of its separate existence before its destruction, was 
 near the present site of Garden City, Kansas, as late at 1872, 
 thousands ranged within ten miles of Wichita, Kansas, which 
 was then the headquarters for a number of hunters, who plied 
 their occupation vigorously during the winter ; on the North 
 the herd ranged within twenty-five miles of the Union Pacific, 
 until swarms of hunters, coming down from the north, drove 
 them farther and farther South. On the West a few small 
 bands ranged as far as Pike s Peak. In the southwest Buffalo 
 were abundant as far as the Pecos and the Stakes Plains. 
 Their most prized feeding grounds was the section of country 
 between the South Platte and Arkansas Rivers. Hundreds of 
 thousands went South each winter, thousands remained. It 
 was the chosen home of the Buffalo. 
 
 During the years from 1866 to 1871, when the Kansas 
 Pacific Railroad was constructed through the heart of the 
 Southern Buffalo range the Southern herd was literally cut to 
 pieces by the railway, and every portion of its range rendered 
 easily accessible. The rush to the range was only surpassed 
 by the rush to the gold mines of California in the early days. 
 Railroad builders, teamsters, fortune-seekers, professional 
 hunters, trappers, guides, and everyone out of a job, turned 
 out to hunt Buffalo for hides, and meat. An immense busi 
 ness of the kind was done by the merchants of Fort Dodge, 
 Wichita, and Leavenworth. During the years from 1871 to 
 
 35 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 1874 little else was done in that country except Buffalo kill 
 ing. Central depots were established in the best Buffalo coun 
 try from whence hunting parties operated in all directions. 
 As late as 1878 there w r ere a lot of baled Buffalo skins in a 
 corrall at Dodge City, which measured 120 cords. Thousands 
 were killed for their tongues alone, and thousands more were 
 wounded by unskilled marksmen, and wandered off to die, and 
 be devoured by wolves, a total loss. 
 
 The great slaughter began in 1871. By 1873 it was at its 
 height. Just at the beginning of the slaughter the breech- 
 loading long-range rifles attained, what was near perfection. 
 The Sharps, 40-90 and 45-120 were the favorite weapons 
 the best long-range gun ever made. Before the leaden hail 
 of the thousands of these deadly breech-loaders the Buffalo 
 went down in thousands, every day during the hunting 
 season. The slaughter .was greatest along the lines of the 
 three railways : the Kansas Pacific, the Atchison, Topeka and 
 Santa Fe, and the Union Pacific. During 1873, the Atchison, 
 Topeka and Santa Fe carried out 25,443 robes, 1,617,600 
 pounds of meat, and 2,743,100 pounds of bone. These robes 
 represented about one out of every three Buffalo that were 
 killed. By the close of the hunting season of 1876 the great 
 Southern herd had been annihilated. The main herd of the 
 survivors, numbering about ten thousand head, fled South 
 west, and disappeared in that inhospitable country, the Llano 
 Estacado or Staked Plains. 
 
 in 1879, two hunters brought into Fort Worth, about 
 two thousand robes the last shipment of any consequence 
 from Texas. In the fall of 1885, just after the fall roundup, 
 I was sent with an outfit consisting of the chuck wagon, and 
 cook, horse wrangler and five other men, Jim Keen, John 
 Sebrel, Joe Hamilton, Dock Lorance, Fred La Breche and 
 Link Gates of the R. Quarter-Circle outfit, to the Sentinel 
 Butte country to hunt for two work horses that had gotten 
 away two years previous, and had been seen in that country. 
 The outfit belonged to Towers and Gudgell, the O. X. outfit, 
 and all the men were working for them, except Link Gates. 
 
 We crossed Big Beaver, about fifteen miles South of the 
 Northern Pacific ailroad and were riding up a level valley 
 resembling an ancient river bed with Scorio Buttes on either 
 side, otherwise a leve Icountry, rich, nutritious grasses every 
 where. We saw seven animals in the distance, all the same 
 
 36 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 color. Fred La Breche, who had been a Buffalo hunter, said 
 they were Buffalo, and called our attention to the fact that 
 they were grazing against the wind, and all looked higher in 
 front. We w r aited until the kid came up with the remuda 
 and then changed to our best horses. I selected "Brown Jug", 
 my Buffalo horse. We kept out of sight behind the Buttes 
 until near enough to make a dash for them. I killed one 
 monster old bull, and shot a spike bull in the hump. The 
 other boys couldn t get their horses up near enough. We 
 were only using six-shooters. I could have killed the whole 
 bunch if I had had a pocket full of cartridges and so desired. 
 I had only five cartridges in my six-shooter, and having a new 
 belt full, I could not get them out with one hand, while run 
 ning at full speed. Just as I fired my last shot, the only re 
 maining old bull in the bunch, whirled round and faced me. 
 I thought he was going to fight, and I sat there on my horse 
 trying to extract a cartridge from my belt., He stood there 
 facing me not over twenty-five yards away perfectly still, 
 seeming to say in his mute way: "I am the last of my race; 
 shoot me down." For a few minutes he stood gazing at me, 
 then whirled and ran after the others that were then very 
 nearly out of sight. I watched him until he looked like a 
 speck in the distance going due North. 
 
 That was the last wild Buffalo I ever saw on the plains. 
 That was the remnant of the great Northern herd that in 1882 
 was estimated, by most all the old hunters, to contain at least 
 100,000 head that went North in the fall of 1882. Only a few 
 stragglers ever returned. As near as could be estimated there 
 were, in 1865, 9,500,000 Buffalo on the plains between the 
 Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains now all gone, 
 killed for their skins. At that date there were about 165,000 
 Pawnees, Siouxs, Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians, who were 
 dependent on the Buffalo for their food and clothing. If the 
 Redman had been a man of foresight, he would have seen 
 what his wholesale slaughter would soon result in, and would 
 have been moved by common impulse to kill sparingly, and 
 by reasonable economy in the chase have made the Buffalo 
 last as long as possible. But apparently no such thoughts 
 ever entered their minds, so far as they themselves were con- * 
 cerned. They looked with jealous eyes upon the white 
 hunter, and considered him as much a robber, as if they had a 
 brand on every Buffalo. It has been claimed by some that 
 
 37 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 the Indians killed with more care for the future than the 
 white man. I fail to find any evidence that such was the fact. 
 They witnessed the herds being driven farther and farther 
 back and the narrowing down of the limits of their hunting 
 grounds. Still when in need of food they killed wastfully, 
 wantonly and always many more than they needed for food, 
 and seventy-five per cent of their slaughter would be left 
 to fatten the wolves. 
 
 It was the hide hunter that caused the early extermina 
 tion of the great herds of Buffalo from the Western plains. 
 The lure of the chase and the small amount they received for 
 each robe or skin, caused the greatest slaughter of the finest 
 food animals in the world, of so great a size. Tons of whole 
 some meat were left to putrefy on the prairies, or food for 
 thousands of wolves that followed the trail of the Buffalo. 
 The average prices paid the hide hunters was about as fol 
 lows : For cow hides, three dollars ; bull hides, two-fifty ; 
 yearlings, one-fifty, and calves, seventy-five cents. Joseph 
 Ullman of Chicago, paid out for robes and hides in the four 
 years during the killing of the Northern herd $310,000. Dur 
 ing the course of eight years, from 1876 to 1883, the two firms 
 of Joseph Ullman Co., and A. J. Boskowitz, of New York, and 
 Chicago, paid out for Buffalo skins $1,233,070. Besides these 
 firms there were many others who handled thousands of robes 
 for which they paid immense sums of money. The Hudson 
 Ba_y Fur Company handled many thousands of robes. Of all 
 the deadly methods of Buffalo slaughter the still hunt was the 
 deadliest. Destitute of every element of buoyant excitement 
 and spice of danger that accompanied Buffalo hunting on 
 horseback the still hunt was mere butchery of the tamest and 
 most cruel kind. 
 
 There was none of the true excitement of the chase. 
 The Buffalo owes his early extermination largely, to his own 
 unparalleled stupidity. So long as the Buffalo remained in 
 large herds, their numbers gave them a feeling of safety. A 
 dependence upon his fellows of a general security from harm, 
 even in the presence of strange phenomena which he did not 
 understand. When he heard a loud report and saw a little 
 smoke from top of a ridge 200 yards away he wondered what it 
 meant and held himself in readiness to follow his leader in case 
 she should run away. But when the leader of the herd, usually 
 an old cow, fell bleeding to the ground, instead of acting in- 
 
 38 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 dependently and fleeing from the alarm, he waited his turn 
 to be shot down. Generally the trained eye of the hunter 
 would locate the leader of the herd, and a well-directed shot 
 from his Old Reliable, through the lungs, would cause the 
 leader to stand coughing up blood for a few moments, thus 
 holding the amazed animals until the hunter would accom 
 plish his merciless slaughter. Captain Jack Brydges of Kan 
 sas, one of the first to begin the final slaughter of the South 
 ern herd, killed by contract one thousand and one hundred and 
 forty-two Buffalo in six weeks. It was the ability of a single 
 hunter to destroy such a herd in a day, that caused the com 
 plete annihilation of the Northern herd before the people 
 learned what was going on. For example : Vic Smith, the 
 most famous hunter in Montana, killed 107 Buffaloes in one 
 stand, in about one hour s time, and without shifting his point 
 of attack. This occurred in the Red Water country about 
 100 miles northeast of Miles City in the winter of 1881-82. 
 During the same season another hunter, Doc. Aughl, killed 
 eighty-five at one stand, and John Edwards killed seventy- 
 five at one stand. The total number that Vic Smith claims 
 to have killed that season is 5,000. Where Buffalo were 
 plentiful every man who called himself a hunter was expected 
 to kill between one and two thousand during the hunting 
 season from November to February. 
 
 There arrived in Miles City, Montana, September 24, 
 1886, an expedition sent out by the Smithsonian Institute, 
 headed by William T. Homaday, Chief Taxidermist of the na 
 tional museum, for the purpose of securing specimens of the 
 American Bison, then on the verge of extinction. Through 
 the courtesy of the War Department, an order was sent to the 
 officer commanding the Department of Dakota, requesting 
 him to furnish the party through the officers in command at 
 Fort Keogh such field transportation, escort and camp equip 
 age as might be necessary. The Secretary of the Interior also 
 favored the party with an order directing all Indian agents, 
 scouts and others in the service of the Department to render 
 assistance as far as possible when called upon. Mr. Horna- 
 day was accompanied by W. Harvey Brown, a student of 
 the University of Kansas, as field assistant. They had prev 
 iously engaged three cowboys as guides and hunters. 
 
 Irwin Boyd James McNaney and L. S. Russell. Mr. Mc- 
 Naney was a Buffalo hunter of some repute, having served in 
 
 39 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 that capacity for three years. They were equipped with a 
 six-mule team and escort of six men in charge of Sergeant 
 Bayliss, an old veteran of more than twenty years in the ser 
 vice, from the Fifth Infantry. Private Patrick McCanna, who 
 was also detailed to act as cook and camp guard for the party. 
 They had been previously informed by letter from Dr. J. C. 
 Merrill, United States Army, at Huntley, Montana, that there 
 were a few r head of Buffalo still to be found in three localities 
 in the Northwest, on the headwaters of Powder River, in 
 Wyoming, in the Judith Basin, Montana, and on Big- Dry 
 Creek, in Montana ; and that there was a scattered band of 
 about 200 head running between the Canadian River, and the 
 Staked Plains, Texas. They determined to hunt the North 
 west country first and Texas as a last resort. 
 
 On arriving at Miles City, they soon found that the report 
 regarding Powder iver and the Judith Basin was erroneous. 
 All inquiries elicited the same reply : "There are no Buffalo 
 anymore, and you can t get any, anywhere." Many persons 
 who were considered good authority, declared most positively 
 that there was not a live Buffalo in Montana outside of the 
 Yellowstone Park herd, or some privately owned. While I 
 had never been north of the Yellowstone, I had ridden the 
 range South of the Yellowstone for several years, then the 
 very heart of the Buffalo range, where they made their last 
 stand, where the last of the great Northern herd was 
 claughtered. I was right in saying there were no Buffalo on 
 Powder River nor anywhere in Montana, then, south of the 
 Yellowstone. Just then the prospect of finding any Buffalo 
 was not very bright and Mr. Hornaday was losing hopes of 
 securing the number desired for the museum. 
 
 It was again reported that a few head remained in the 
 country south if the Big Dry Creek, and the report confirmed 
 by Mr. Henry Phillips, owner of the L. U. Bar Ranch and 
 cattle on Little Dry Creek. On the other hand others who 
 seemed well informed regarding that region, assured them 
 that not a single Buffalo remained there. But the balance of 
 evidence seemed in favor of the Big Dry country, and the 
 party resolved to hunt that country with all possible haste. 
 
 They crossed the Yellowstone September 26th, 1886, at 
 Miles City and struck the Sunday Creek Trail for the H. V. 
 Ranch on Big Dry Creek. They reached the H. V. Ranch 
 on Big Dry Creek, September 29th. From there the hunt be- 
 
 40 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 gan. They proceeded up the Sand Creek trail, the wagon 
 and extra horses in care of Harvey Brown. Sand Creek runs 
 into Big Dry Creek, which with the Little Dry, forms the 
 Big Dry Creek which empties into the Big Missouri. The 
 Big Porcupine Creek heads up near the divide of Big Dry 
 Creek and with the Little Porcupine runs South into the 
 Yellowstone. West of the Big Porcupine Creek lies the 
 Buffalo Buttes near the head of Taylor Creek. It was in there 
 the last of the great herd of Buffalo sought refuge from the 
 hide hunters. It was on the divide between Sand Creek and 
 Calf Creek that the party found their first Buffalo, on Octo 
 ber 13th ; seven head in all. They were discovered by Mr. 
 Russell, who was escorting the wagon across the High Di 
 vide. He fired a few shots at them but failed to get any, being 
 on a tired horse and was unable to give chase. 
 
 The next morning Mr. Hornaday and the three cowboys 
 mounted their best horses and took the trail. They followed 
 it twenty miles due South to the head of Taylor Creek. Just 
 at noon they rode onto a high point and on scanning the 
 country with glasses, discovered the Buffalo lying on the top 
 of a butte, about two miles aw^ay. The original bunch of 
 seven head had been joined by an equal number, making four 
 teen in all. 
 
 CREE INDIANS IMPOUNDING BUFFALOES. 
 Reproduced from Prof. H. Y. Hind s "Red River, Assinniboine arid Saskatchewan 
 
 Expedition." 
 
 41 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 Mr. McNaney killed a fine old bull, and a two-year-old 
 spike out of the herd, and Mr. Hornaday killed a cow and an 
 old bull, making four for the day s work. This herd of four 
 teen head was the largest bunch they saw on the entire trip. 
 Two days later when they were on the same spot with the 
 wagon to skin the game and haul it in, four more Buffalo were 
 discovered within two miles of them, and while some of them 
 were working on the old bulls to keep them from spoiling, the 
 cowboys went after the Buffalo. By a brilliant exploit they 
 killed all of them. The last, an immense old bull, was chased 
 fully twelve miles before he was brought down. By the fif 
 teenth of December they had secured twenty-five specimens 
 of different ages and sexes, of which ten were old bulls, one 
 young bull, seven cows, four young cows, two yearling calves 
 and one three-months -old calf. In their collection were ten 
 deer, five mule deer and five white tail deer, three wild geese, 
 seven sharp tailed grouse and eleven sage hens. Thy had 
 several fine antelope, coyotes, jack-rabbits, and other birds 
 and mammals found in that country at that season. By this 
 time the weather was getting cold and it was not safe to be 
 out any longer if they wanted to get in before spring. 
 
 On the twenty-third of November, Private C. S. West 
 started to Fort Keogh to secure teams and wagons to bring in 
 the trophies of the hunt. On the 25th he faced the worst 
 storm of the season. The mercury dropped to 16 below zero, 
 and it was near impossible to keep a course in the face of 
 such a blizzard. He wandered for five days in the bad lands, 
 unable to find a trail that would lead him to a camp. He was 
 afraid to sleep at night for fear of freezing, and would sleep a 
 little in the warmest part of the day, while his horses rested. 
 On the sixth day out, he found a trail that led to Crees 
 sheep ranch and found the solitary ranchman at home. The 
 warm-hearted frontiersman gave the starving wanderers 
 man and horse the kindly welcome so characteristic of the 
 western frontier. After two or three days rest and feeding, 
 of both man and horse, the storm had subsided, and he w r as 
 able to go on, and in time reached Fort Keogh. Without the 
 loss of a single day, Colonel Gibson started three teams and 
 an escort back to the hunters. Notwithstanding his terrible 
 experience, West had the pluck to accompany them as guide. 
 His arrival among them once more was like the dead coming 
 to life. They had had searching parties out looking for him, 
 
 42 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 and had never expected to see him alive again. He proved 
 what a man with a determined will can stand. 
 
 The party reached Miles City on the twentieth of Decem 
 ber, 1886, with their collection in fine condition. Thus passed 
 the last remnant of the great Northern herd of Buffalo. Those 
 were the last of that great herd. 
 
 This expedition left about fifteen head of Buffalo alive in 
 the badlands on the divide of the Missouri and the Yellow 
 stone, at the head of the Big Porcupine Creek. In 1887, three 
 of these were killed by cowboys. In 1888, two more were 
 killed. On September llth, 1888, a solitary bull was killed in 
 Dickey County, North Dakota. That was the last Buffalo 
 ever killed in the Northwest, -that I have any knowledge of. 
 
 In February, 1889, Honorable Joseph M. Carey, member 
 of Congress from Wyoming, received a letter informing him 
 that a band of Buffalo, consisting of twenty-six head, had been 
 seen grazing in the Red Desert country, Wyoming, and that 
 the Indians were preparing to attack them. At Carey s re 
 quest the Indian Bureau issued orders which it was hoped, 
 would prevent the slaughter of this pitiful remnant of the 
 once great herd. 
 
 As late as 1887, the last surviving remnant of the South 
 ern herd numbered approximately one hundred, running in the 
 Panhandle of Texas. In 1888, a man named Lee Howard 
 fitted out a party and led them to the haunts of these few 
 survivors, and killed fifty-two if them. In May, 1888, C. J. 
 Jones, known as "Buffalo Jones", went into this region for the 
 purpose of capturing Buffalo alive. His party found all told, 
 thirty-seven head, of which they captured eighteen head the 
 greatest feat ever accomplished in Buffalo hunting. It is more 
 than probable that Mr. Jones and his men saw all the Buffalo 
 living in the Panhandle country at that time, and it is quite 
 certain that not more than twenty-five individuals remained. 
 
 Today those are gone. I do not believe a single wild 
 Buffalo exists on the American continent, excepting those of 
 a few hundred head ranging in the Peace River country, or 
 near the Great Slave Lake in the British Northwest. The 
 disappearance of the Buffalo from the West was one of the 
 inevitable results of the advance of civilization. To the early 
 pioneers who w r ent forth to carve the \vay in the wilderness, 
 to wrestle with nature for the necessities of life, this valuable 
 animal seemed like a gift direct from the hand of Providence. 
 
 43 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 TROPHIES OF THE HUNT 
 
 Mounted by the author in the U. S. Nation ! Museum 
 WILLIAM T. HORNADAY 
 
 During the first few years of the early settlers life in a new 
 country the few domestic animals he had brought with him 
 were far too valuable to be killed for food, and for a long 
 period he looked to the wild animals of the forest and the 
 prairie for his daily supply of meat. The time was when no 
 one stopped to think of the important part our game animals 
 played in the settlement of this country, and even now no one 
 has attempted to calculate the lessened degree of rapidity with 
 which the star of the empire would have taken its Westward 
 way without the buffalo, elk, deer and the antelope. Although 
 the Buffalo was the first wild species to disappear before the 
 advance of the all-conquering civilization, he served a good 
 purpose at a highly critical period. His huge bulk of tooth 
 some flesh fed many a hungry family, and his ample robe did 
 good service in the settler s cabin and sleigh in winter \veather. 
 From the time the bison was first seen by white men he has 
 always been a conspicuous prize and being the largest of the 
 land, quadrupeds were naturally the first to disappear. Every 
 man s hand was against him. 
 
 In 1881, the Northern Pacific ailroad was built as far 
 West as Miles City, Montana. At that time the whole coun 
 try was a howling wilderness of Indians, and w r ild Buffalo. 
 
 44 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 The first shipment of robes by rail from the North was made 
 that year, of about fifty thousand hides. In 1882, about 200,- 
 000 hides were shipped over the Northern Pacific Railroad; in 
 1883, 40,000; in 1884, only one carload was shipped from Dick 
 inson, Dakota Territory, the last shipment of Buffalo robes 
 ever made. For a time the old hunters cherished the fond de 
 lusion that the great herd had gone north into the British 
 possessions, and would return in great numbers. But after a 
 year or two had gone by without the appearance of a single 
 Buffalo, and without any reliable information of the existence 
 of a herd of any size in the British Territory, the hunters 
 hung up their Sharp s rifles and sought other means of liveli 
 hood ; some \vent to gathering Buffalo bones, that were bleach 
 ing on the prairies ; some went on the cattle range to work as 
 cowboys. 
 
 The badlands of the Little Missouri River, from the 
 Northern Pacific, North to the Yellowstone, up the Yellow 
 stone to the mouth of the Powder River and comprising all 
 the badlands of Big Beaver and Glendive Creek, North of 
 the Northern Pacific Railroad should have been set aside for 
 a Buffalo range and there let the remnant of the Northern 
 herd after 1884, live in peace and multiply. That is all the 
 country is fit for and it would have been well utilized. 
 
 Naturally as soon as the great herds began to grow 
 scarce, the miles of bleaching bones suggested the idea of 
 finding a use for them. A market was found in the east, and 
 the prices paid per ton were sufficient to make the business of 
 bone gathering quite remunerative. The bulk of the bone 
 product was converted into phosphate for fertilizing pur 
 poses, but much of it was turned into carbon for use in the 
 refining of sugar. 
 
 As early as 1872, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 
 Railroad shipped 1,135,300 pounds of bones; in the following 
 year shipped 2,743,100 pounds, and in 1874 the same road 
 handled 6,914,950 pounds. This trade continued until the 
 plains were cleaned so far back from the railway that it was 
 found no longer profitable. 
 
 In 1881 I saw skeletons of the Buffalo at Big Springs, Texas, 
 lying so thick on the ground that I am sure I could have 
 stepped from one carcass to another, without touching the 
 ground, for two miles in any direction. These springs lie at 
 the foot of the Llano Estakado or Staked Plains, and was 
 
 45 
 
THE PASSING OF THE 
 
 46 
 
INDIAN AND BUFFALO 
 
 the only place the Buffalo and mustangs could get water for 
 miles and miles. There was the mecca for hunters for several 
 years. One hunter told me that he had lain low and kept 
 away for twenty-four-hours after killing as many as he could 
 handle for a while, until the herd had watered and started to 
 move away, before it was safe for him to attempt to skin his 
 kill, for fear of a stampede, and he would get trampled to 
 death. 
 
 The bone gatherers pushed a little ahead of the Texas 
 and Pacific Railroad and piled the bones along the line for 
 miles. One man with a small pony team and only his little 
 boy to help, informed me that at Big Springs, he had cleared 
 $2500 that summer, 1881, on the bones he had gathered, and 
 he never handled but a very small portion of what was 
 shipped from Big Springs. 
 
 In 1885, one outfit shipped over 200 tons of bones from 
 Miles City, Montana. Now, not even a bone is left in a hun 
 dred miles of a railroad. The coming generation can never 
 believe that the millions of Buffalo that were roaming over 
 the Western plains as late as 1879, ever existed in such count 
 less numbers. Now that his extermination is complete and 
 every bone had been picked up from the plains. From his 
 Sharp s rifle the hunter has fired his last salute over his re 
 mains, and the lobo wolves and the coyotes in badlands sing 
 their nightly requiem over his grave. 
 
 The End. 
 
 A 7 
 
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