To the Indian hunting and fishing were serious business. Upon the man’s
success depended the comfort and even the life of the household. Game was
needed as food. The Indians had to learn the habits of the different
animals so as to be able to capture or kill them. Boys tried early to
learn how to hunt.
Clark tells of an Indian, more than eighty years old, who recalled with
great delight the pleasure caused by his first exploit in hunting. “When I
was eight years of age,” he said, “I killed a goose with a bow and arrow
and took it to my father’s lodge, leaving the arrow in it. My father asked
me if I had killed it, and I said, ‘Yes; my arrow is in it.’ My father
examined the bird, fired off his gun, turned to an old man who was in the
lodge, presented the gun to him and said, ‘Go and harangue the camp;
inform them all what my boy has done.’ When I killed my first buffalo I
was ten years old. My father was right close, came to me and asked if I
killed it. I said I had. He called some old men who were by to come over
and look at the buffalo his son had killed, gave one of them a pony, and
told him to inform the camp.” Such boyish successes were always the
occasion of family rejoicing.
To the Indians of the Plains the important game was buffalo; and for
buffalo two great hunts were made each year,—a summer and a winter hunt.
Sometimes whole villages together went to these hunts. Few cared to stay
behind, for fear of attack by hostile Indians. Provisions and valuables
which were not needed on the journey were carefully buried, to be dug up
again on the return. At times the people of a village went hundreds of
miles on these expeditions. Baggage was carried on ponies in charge of the
women. At night it took but a few minutes to make camp, and no more was
necessary in the morning for breaking camp and getting on the way.
In journeying they went in single file. Scouts constantly kept a lookout
for herds. When a herd was sighted, it was approached with the greatest
care: everything was done according to fixed rules and under appointed
leaders. When ready for the attack, the hunters drawn up in a single row
approached as near as possible to the herd and waited for the signal to
attack. When it was given, the whole company charged into the herd, and
each did his best to kill all he could. All were on horseback, and armed
with bows and arrows. They tried to get abreast of the animal and to
discharge the weapon to a vital spot. One arrow was enough to kill
sometimes, but usually more were necessary. A single successful hunter
might kill four or five in a half hour.
After the killing a lively time ensued. The dead animals were skinned, cut
up, and carried on ponies into camp. There the skins were pegged out to
dry, the meat was cut up into strips or sheets for drying, or made up into
pemmican. Every one was busy and happy in the prospect of plenty of food.
Sometimes, however, no herds could be found. Day after day passed without
success. The camp was well-nigh discouraged. Then a buffalo dance was
held. In this the hunters dressed themselves in the skins and horns of
buffalo, and danced to the accompaniment of special music and songs.
In dancing, they imitated the movements of the buffalo, believing that
thus they could compel the animals to appear. Hour after hour, even day
after day, passed in such dancing until some scout hurrying in reported a
herd in sight. Then the dance would abruptly cease, its object being
gained.
Of course many ingenious devices were employed in hunting. Antelope were
stalked; fur-bearing animals were trapped or snared. Sometimes all the
animals in a considerable area were driven into a central space where they
were killed, or from which they were driven between lines of stones or
brush, to some point where they would fall over a cliff and be killed in
the fall. Such drives used to be common in the Pueblo district. To-day
deer are rarer there; so are the mountain lion and the bear. Hunts there
are more likely nowadays to be for rabbits than for larger game. These are
caught in nets, but are more frequently killed by rabbit sticks, which may
be knot-ended clubs or flat, curved throwing sticks, a little like the
boomerangs of Australia.
[Illustration.]