The buffalo, more properly called the bison, is the great object of
Indian hunting in the west. These animals abound in the prairies; and
they are often seen coursing over the plains in immense herds. Thousands
of them appear under the direction of one of their number, who acts as
leader. This propensity to follow a leader affords a ready means to the
Indians of destroying them. The manner in which this is accomplished is
graphically described in the following extract from the account of a late
writer. It affords a wild picture of the scenes which present themselves
to the notice of the traveller as he passes through the great prairies of
the west.
We passed a precipice of about one hundred and twenty feet high, under
which lay scattered the fragments of at least one hundred carcases of
buffaloes, although the water, which had washed away the lower part of
the hill, must have carried off many of the dead. These buffaloes had
been chased down the precipice, in a way very common on the Missouri, and
by which vast herds are destroyed in a moment. The mode of hunting is, to
select one of the most active and fleet young men, who is disguised, by a
buffalo skin around his body, the skin of the head, with the ears and the
horns, fastened on his own head, in such a way as to deceive the buffalo.
Thus dressed, he fixes himself at a convenient distance, between a herd
of buffaloes and any of the river precipices, which sometimes extend
for some miles. His companions, in the meantime, get into the rear,
and on the side of the herd, and, at a given signal, show themselves,
and advance towards the buffalo: they instantly take the alarm; and,
finding the hunters beside them, they run towards the disguised Indian or
decoy, who leads them on at full speed toward the river, when, suddenly
securing himself in some crevice of the cliff which he had previously
fixed on, the herd is left on the brink of the precipice. It is then in
vain for the foremost to retreat, or even to stop—they are pressed on
by the hindmost rank, who, seeing no danger, but from the hunters, goad
on those before them, till the whole are precipitated, and the shore is
strewed with their dead bodies. Sometimes, in this perilous seduction,
the Indian is himself either trodden under foot, by the rapid movements
of the buffaloes or missing his footing in the cliff, is urged down the
precipice along with the falling herd.
The Indians now select as much meat as they choose, and the rest is
abandoned to the wolves, and creates a most dreadful stench. The wolves
who had been feasting on these carcases were very fat, and so gentle,
that one of them was killed with an espontoon.