Survival Skills of the Native Americans by Stephen Brennan

Author:Stephen Brennan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2016-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

The building of one of these traps involved a great deal of labor and so took a long time, but after it had been completed, it was practically indestructible, and with annual repairs would last for generations.

Buffalo Hunt on Horseback

In the 1800s a traveler described the buffalo hunt.

“News of the buffalo approaching an Indian camp is received several days before the animals appear, as they only move forward when the grazing is not sufficient. Where a large camp is stationed they usually hunt by ‘surround,’ which is as follows:

“The hunters hold a council with the chief in the hunters’ lodge and prohibit any individual hunting ahead of the buffalo, they also send runners daily on discovery, to observe what progress they are making toward the camp, their numbers, etc. When they report them to be near enough another meeting is held in the lodge, the time for the hunt appointed, and notice given to the camp by the haranguing of the public crier. At daybreak all the horses are caught and saddled, and each of the horsemen is provided with a bow and a quiver of arrows. A number who have no horses arm themselves with guns, and at a signal from one of the hunters the party moves off in single file or line. Those who have the fastest horses go in front, and after them come the other horsemen. Then come the foot hunters, and lastly the women with their dogs and travois. The soldiers ride along each side the line (which is sometimes a mile and more in length) and observe whether the line of march is preserved, and that no one leaves singly. Were a dog to run out of the line it would be shot with an arrow immediately.

“Their march is conducted in silence, with the wind in their faces, consequently blowing the scent away from the buffalo while they are coming near them. The animal is not quick sighted but very keen scented, and a man can, in passing across the wind blowing toward them, raise a herd at the distance of two or three miles, without their seeing him.

“The party proceeds in this order, taking every advantage of concealment the country affords in hills, bushes, long grass, etc., endeavoring to get around the herd. As soon, however, as they are close and see a movement among the buffalo intimating flight, they push their horses at full speed, and riding entirely around, commence shooting the buffalo, which run in the direction of the footmen, these in their turn shoot, and the animals are driven back toward the horses. In this way they are kept running nearly in a circle until very tired, and the greater part are killed. Those on horseback shoot arrows into all they can at the distance of from two to six paces, and the footmen load and fire as often as the animals come near them.

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