Texts of the North American Indian

Writings of E.S. Curtis
Excerpts from "The North American Indian" Set #254, Vol. 3

The earliest method of killing buffalo was by making camp around the herd, with the tipis pitched close together, side by side; then two young men with waka bows and arrows ran around the entrapped animals, singing medicine-songs to bring them under a spell, so that the people could close in and kill large numbers. Following this primitive method, they slaughtered numberless bison by driving them into a compound -- a stockade-like enclosure, usually of logs, at the foot of some abrupt or sheer depression, its plan of construction depending on the nature of the ground. In a mountainous region, where the buffalo plains might end at a high cliff, no enclosure was needed. The long line of stampeded animals would flow over the precipice like a stream of water, to be crushed to death in their fall. There was no possibility of drawing back at the brink; the solid mass was irresitibly forced on by its own momentum, and the slaughter ended only with the passing of the last animal that had been decoyed or driven into the stampede. At other times the embankment over which the buffalo ran was only high enough to form one side of the enclosure. In rare instances pens were built on the open prairie, and at one side of the stockade was thrown up an inclined approach along with the buffalo were driven to fall at its end into the corral.

The manner of driving and decoying the bison was a varied as the form of the slaughter-pen; but whatever the method, the purpose and results were the same -- the object was to stampede the herd, or a part of it, and to direct the rapidly moving animals to a given point, the Indians knowing that, once well in motion, they would run into their own destruction. The Sioux built out in rapidly diverging lines from the pen a light brush construction, not in truth a fence, as it was only substantial enough to form a line. Men concealed themselves behind this brush, and when the herd was well inside the lines the hunters rose up and by shouting and waving their blankets frightened the animals on. Sometimes a man skilful in the ways of the bison would disguise himself in one of their skins and act as leader of the drove to the extent of starting them in their mad rush. By this method the Indians simply took advantage of a characteristic habit of the buffalo -- to follow their leader blindly. The movement grew into a stampede, and forced the leading animals before it. If the advance was toward a sharp gully, it was soon filled with carcasses over which the stream of animals passed; if toward swampy land or a river with quicksand bed, numbers were swalllowed in the treacherous depths. If it happened that the route took the herd across a frozen lake or stream, the ice might collapse with their combined weight and drown hundreds; and the Indians relate many instances in which during winter the herd failed to see the edge of an arroyo or a small canon filled with drifted snow and were buried one after another in its depths, the buffalo seemingly not having sufficient instinct of self-preservation to stop or turn aside.

The sportsman and the utilitarian join with the Indians in their cry of regret at the ruthless slaughter of the millions of bison which composed the great western herd, and during the last quarter-century all the harsh language at the command of American writers has been hurled at those directly responsible for the extermination. That the destruction was the most brutal and improvident of its kind in the history of civilization there is no question, and that those who went out and mowed the animals down by scores and hundreds in a single day are deserving of every criticism there is no doubt; but when we view the question in a broader way, the blame would seem to rest not entirely with those who shouldered the guns. It was public sentiment that slaughtered the western herd of the American bison -- a sentiment which, fostered by our desire further to oppress, to bring under subjection, and to rob of their birthright a people already driven for two generations before a greedily advancing civilization, was supported by the people as represented in the halls of Congress, and which became the governmental policy. Here lay the blame. We slaughtered the buffalo in order to starve the Indians of the plains into submission, thereby forcing them into a position in which they must take what we saw fit to dole out to them.

In 1871, which might be called the beginning of the last decade of the buffalo, the friends of these animals, and of the Indians, made an effort to promote legislation designed to protect the herds from wanton destruction. In June, 1874, the Senate and the House passed a bill for the protection of the buffalo, but the enactment unfortunately failed to receive the President's signature. During the next four years feeble efforts to the same end were made, but without result. By this time the southern herd was represented only by bleaching bones, while the northern herd was within four years of its extinction. The sentiment of the people at this time is reflected in a contemporary report of the Secretary of the Interior, which says:

"The rapid disappearance of the game from the former huntinggrounds must operate largely in favor of our efforts to confine the Indians to smaller areas, and compel them to abandon their nomadic customs, and establish themselves in permanent homes. So long as the game existed in abundance there was little disposition manifested to abandon the chase, even though Government bounty was dispensed in great abundance, affording them ample means of support. When the game shall have disappeared, we shall be well forward in the work in hand. . .

"I cannot regard the rapid disappearance of the game from its former haunts as a matter of prejudicial to our management of the Indians. On the contrary, as they become convinced that they can no longer rely upon the supply of game for their support, they will turn to the more reliable source of subsistence furnished at the agencies, and endeavor to so live that supply will be regularly dispensed. Afew years of cessation from the chase will tend to unfit them for their former mode of life, and they will be the more readily led into new directions, toward industrial pursuits and peaceful habits."

To have thus husbanded such a vast natural food supply would have been of inestimable value to the white settler, saved untold expenditure in caring for the Indians and many hundreds of them from pitiful starvation, and preserved the virility of the plains tribes. Those therefore, who feel that the sooner the Indian, like the buffalo, is exterminated the better, must realize that the most effective effort toward this end was the sweeping of the buffalo from the land.

The political organization of the Teton Sioux could not be termed a confederacy. There were seven tribes composing this sub-family - the Ogalala, Brules, Miniconjou, Sans Arcs, Two Kettles, Blackfeet (Sihasapa), and Hunkpapa -- and each comprised several smaller groups or bands. Each tribe had a head-chief, wichashayatapika, and usually each smaller unit a sub-chief, itacha.

In serious warfare these several tribes were apt to form a close alliance for greater strength, but it was not considered obligatory for any one chief to aid another. Generally, at the inception of a hostile movement of importance, a man of recognized leadership would take the initiative by organizing a war-party, and those who felt so disposed would join him, either as individuals or under the leadership of their own chief. A notable instance is their last great war, which terminated in the victory of the Sioux and their allies over the troops at the battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876. Five of the Teton tribes were strongly represented: the Ogala, Sans Arcs, Brules, Miniconjou, and Hunkpapa, and these united Sioux tribes were aided by a large party of Cheyenne, while individual members of the other two Teton tribes also joined the hostile forces.

EDWARD S. CURTIS