The Bison - Part two

By Dan R. Conway

(Originally printed in the Hysham Echo on February 24, 1927)

(Cont. from last week)

As the spring grows into summer, the thicket that cloaks yonder mountainside is dotted with squaws picking the fruits from Nature’s garden - wild strawberries, raspberries, huckleberries, buffaloberries, chokecherries, servisberries, which with the tender portions of buffalo meat will form the winter’s store of pemmican.

The Silver-Tip

Lord of all these mountain defiles his domain extending over divides and along rivers for some distance from the foothills, the great silver-tip, or grizzly bear, huge wonderful domain. Here roam the brown bear here the mountain lion has his lair; and here prowl forth at night the lynx, the coyote, the wolf, the wild cat, to prey upon the mountain sheep and goat, the deer or antelope. Down along the willowed stream, industrious, labor colonies of beaver, while otter, mink and martin sport along the bank at the water’s edge; and the little furry folks of the trees - squirrels and chipmunks are a chattering, playful crew seeming to taunt the marmot as he whistles from the rocks, which also house the weasel and the coney. These were the mountain folks.

Monarch of the Wilderness

But of all the animals of the wilderness - plains or mountains - the buffalo was the monarch. These, in unreckoned hosts formed a different picture. Out across the rolling stretches they pass - the thundering herds - literally millions in number. The earth fairly quakes beneath their ponderous tread as they bound forth, startled by some intrusion.
The number of buffalo in the west, when the first free trappers and traders ventured forth into the domain of the redman was estimated variously from twenty to one hundred millions or more. They ranged north to the Arctic Circle was far as the Great Slave lake, but their natural home was on the plains between the Missouri river and the Rocky Mountains and not farther south than the Rio Grande river. Outside the limits of their real habitat, the few small herds that existed were stragglers. Daniel Boone once found a herd in Kentucky that numbered 1,000, but that was an exceptionally large one for that territory.
The building of the first railroad to cross the continent was made possible in no small sense, at that early date, because the buffalo existed to supply fresh meat to the army of railroad builders. Literally thousands of these animals were slaughtered annually while the work of laying the steel rails was in progress. For a few years the railroads of the west did an enormous business transporting hides and bones which, for a period, formed the principal commercial product of the plains territory. At that time, many settlers beset by crop failures and other adversities, gathered bones and sold them to make a living.

The B-I-S-O-N

In color, the buffalo is brown, but the shade varies as the seasons advance. In every respect it is a very peculiar animal, unlike any other. One characteristic of the buffalo is that it never trots, but either walks or gallops, and it usually travels against the wind. Its sense of scent is so keen that it can smell a foe two miles away to the windward.
The American bison differs materially from the buffalo of the old world. At first view, his red, fiery eyes, shaggy mane and long beard, the long lustrous hair on his shoulders and fore quarters and the comparative nakedness of his hind quarters, suggest a strong likeness to the lion. The buffalo carries his great head low and is enormously powerful in neck and shoulders.

The most prominent distinguishing trait of the American bison from the European buffalo is the fact that the cow refuses to breed with the European buffalo, and such is the aversion between these creatures that they always keep separate, even if bred in the same pasture and raised together. The American bison, however, breed freely with domestic cattle.

Buffalo “Wallows”

Colonel Harry Young in his book, “Hard Knocks”, wherein he narrates some of his experiences on the plains of Kansas in the early seventies, says as follows regarding the buffalo:
“During the summer months the buffalo would travel in immense herds and were continually attacked by an insect called the buffalo gnat. These gnats would work their way down through the hair into the hide of the buffalo and cause constant itching. In desperation, the buffalo would tear up the earth with his horns and with his front foot throw loose dirt over his body, and then lie down, rolling over and over until his body was completely covered with the dirt. This made a depression in the ground. The buffalo would then rise to his feet, shaking his body, causing great clouds of dust which exterminated the gnat. This same performance would be gone through by others until a large, deep hole was the result; thus the name of ‘buffalo wallow.’ Thousands of these holes were to be found on the prairie, and were all formed in this manner.

“It is wonderful the uses that were made of these buffalo wallows after the buffalo were exterminated, as many a tired emigrant found water for himself and stock; many of them also using these holes as breastworks when attacked by Indians. In the vicinity of these holes was also found a vast amount of offal from the buffalo, called buffalo chips, which was used for fuel for cooking purposes.”

Meat for the Pioneers

For years a goodly portion of the meat consumer by early settlers of the west and middle west was cut from the carcass of the shaggy animal which so long existed as monarch of the plains. Thousands of people who came overland in wagon trains drew their supply of meat from the same source. Buffalo trails were followed westward, because it was known that these would lead to water. “Buffalo chips,” (the dry offal of the animals), furnished the fuel for the fires which cooked the meals of the plainsmen and the emigrants. Buffalo hides furnished white men as well as red, with garments, moccasins and bedding.

Boston Eats Buffalo

The best meat obtainable in the early frontier towns was buffalo. The markets of such places as Atchison, Topeka, Leavenworth, and other Kansas “settlements,” as early as 1857 and for some years following, were often supplied with buffalo meat. The hump on the shoulder was an exceptionally choice morsel, as was also the tongue. Rich, juice steaks and roasts of the buffalo were unexcelled by any other meat. Thousands of tongues were dried and shipped to Boston and New York markets, where they became greatly in demand, commanding fancy prices.

Indian Delicacies

“Jerked buffalo” was one of the most common of foods in the pioneer days. In this case the buffalo meat was cut into thin strips and hung in the open air to dry. The high and dry atmosphere of the upper plains region made it possible to in this manner quickly cure meat, and meat thus prepared would keep indefinitely. It was this that the Indian war parties took with them on their forays into the country of their enemies, or on trips to trading posts, when it became necessary for them to traverse regions where game was scarce. “Pemmican” was the favorite Indian dish among the northern tribes. The squaws would grind the dried meat into small particles. With this was mixed the tallow and fat, and then crushed buffalo berries or servisberries would be added, and the preparation pressed very tightly into cleaned entrails and kept for winter use. Explorers and trappers and traders have tested this delicacy and almost without exception they have pronounced it one of the most savory dishes of which they have ever partaken.

Wilderness Battles

The bison was monarch of the wilderness, but not without effort or dispute. His two most aggressive enemies were the wolves and the grizzly bear. In the early spring of the year, when the buffalo calves came, their lives were constantly menaced by the hungry gray wolves and marauding coyotes. At this time of the year, the bulls would form a circle, or a solid living corral around the cows and calves, and woe unto the luckless wolf which hunger drove too near that forest of protecting horns. For more than a month in the spring time, the bulls would stand guard, never relaxing their vigilance for a movement. So faithful to this duty were they that in some seasons when the spring was delayed, bulls would go without food for so long a period that they would be but shadows of their former selves. Weak, but steadfast, they would stand in this encircling ring almost until they dropped in their tracks from exhaustion.

Early-day hunters and trappers have left some very interesting accounts of the battles staged between these contenders for dominion of the plains and foothills. Many writers have referred to one exceptionally sever winter in the early thirties, during which the famished wolves became a menace to every form of life in the wilderness. Chief Clear Face of the Crow Indians, in one of his legends narrated by Lieutenant Bradley, depicts that winter as one of the scourges foretold by their great medicine man, Long Hair. Chief Clear Face states that the wolves became so numerous and so vicious that it was unsafe for tribesmen to leave their lodges, and horses tied close to tepees were killed and devoured while their owners looked on.

The Wolves

“Jim” Bridger, the famous plainsman, tells of being in camp that winter, not far from where a great band of buffalo stood guard over their females and young for more than three weeks. Circling about this living wall of giants of the prairies were thousands of hungry wolves. Bridger was in a cabin and had plenty of food and fuel, but he dared not venture forth because of the wolves. He was thus compelled to remain under cover, just so long as the wolves remained in the vicinity.

On one occasion during this “siege,” the wolves attached the buffalo. As fast as they could come up to the guards many of their number would be impaled on the sharp horns and tossed high in the air, sometimes landing inside of the guarding circle, where they were quickly trampled to death. After several hundred of them had been killed the wolves withdrew. The buffalo herd resumed its trek, and Bridger was enabled to leave his cabin. He went over the site of the unique battle and counted the carcasses of more than 300 wolves and coyotes while two or three bulls had fallen in their tracks more as the result of starvation than because of wounds received. In his combats with the grizzly, the bison was not always so successful, for the silver-tip was a far more formidable enemy with individual strength that was unequalled by any denizen of the wilderness. If the grizzly was able to secure his vicious hold on the hump of the buffalo, the odds were generally in bruin’s favor.

Bull Fights

The buffalo bulls were always fighting each other in a domestic battle for supremacy and leadership. Great herds were split into small bands, with at the head of each some bulls of greater fighting prowess. Bulls of different bands did not fight each other, but younger bulls of the same band, growing strong with years, would try conclusions with each other, and finally with the older leader, until one was victorious.

They fought like men fencing, always endeavoring to strike their adversary in the tender flank, where a well-directed stroke of the sharp horn was generally sufficient to rip a bull wide open, which was usually the “coup de grace.” The leader had to accept all challenges, and once whipped, his chieftanship was over, but while the bulls were always ready to fight each other, they would forget their antagonisms, and present a solid and united front in the face of common danger.
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