 Section 21 of the Extermination of the American Bison. The Extermination of the American Bison by William T. Hornaday. Part 2 Progress of the Extermination continued. Section B. Parts 4 and 5. Part 4. The Division of the Universal Herd. Until the building of the first transcontinental railway made it possible to market the Buffalo product, Buffalo hunting as a business was almost wholly in the hands of the Indians. Even then the slaughter so far exceeded the natural increase that the narrowing limits of the Buffalo range was watched with anxiety and the ultimate extinction of the species confidently predicted. Even without railroads the extermination of the race would have taken place eventually. But it would have been delayed perhaps twenty years. With the recklessness of the future that was not to be expected of savages, though perhaps perfectly natural to civilized white men, who placed the possession of a dollar above everything else, the Indians with one accord singled out the cows for slaughter, because their robes and their flesh better suited the fastidious taste of the noble red skin. The building of the Union Pacific Railway began at Omaha in 1865 and during that year forty miles were constructed. The year following saw the completion of 265 miles more and in 1867 245 miles were added which brought it to Cheyenne. In 1868 350 miles were built and in 1869 the entire line was opened to traffic. In 1867 when major J. W. Powell and Professor A. H. Thompson crossed the plains by means of the Union Pacific Railway as far as it was constructed and thence onward by wagon, they saw during the entire trip only one live buffalo, a solitary old bull wandering aimlessly along the south bank of the Platte River. The completion of the Union Pacific Railway divided forever the buffaloes of the United States into two great herds which thereafter became known respectively as the northern and southern herds. Both retired rapidly and permanently from the railway and left a strip of country over fifty miles wide almost uninhabited by them. Although many thousand buffaloes were killed by hunters who made the Union Pacific Railway their base of operations, the two great bodies retired north and south so far that the greater number were beyond striking distance from that line. Section 5 The Destruction of the Southern Herd The geographical center of the great southern herd during the few years of its separate existence previous to its destruction was very near the present site of Garden City, Kansas. On the east, even as late as 1872, thousands of buffaloes ranged within ten miles of Wichita, which was then the headquarters of a great number of buffalo hunters who plied their occupation vigorously during the winter. On the north, the herd ranged within twenty-five miles of the Union Pacific until the swarm of hunters coming down from the north drove them farther and farther south. On the west, a few small bands ranged as far as Pikes Peak and the South Park, but the main body ranged east of the town of Pueblo, Colorado. In the southwest, buffaloes were abundant as far as the Pecos and the Staked Plains, while the southern limit of the herd was about on a line with the southern boundary of New Mexico. Regarding this herd, Colonel Dodge writes as follows. Quote, their most prized feeding-ground was the section of country between the South Platte and Arkansas Rivers, watered by the Republican, Smoky, Walnut, Pawnee, and other parallel or tributary streams, and generally known as the Republican Country. Hundreds of thousands went south from here each winter, but hundreds of thousands remained. It was the chosen home of the buffalo. End quote. Although the range of the northern herd covered about twice as much territory as did the southern, the latter contained probably twice as many buffaloes. The number of individuals in the southern herd in the year 1871 must have been at least three millions, and most estimates place the total much higher than that. During the years from 1866 to 1871, inclusive, the Atchison, Topeka, and Satefe Railway, and what is now known as the Kansas Pacific or Kansas Division of the Union Pacific Railway, were constructed from the Missouri River westward, across Kansas, and through the heart of the Southern Buffalo Range. The southern herd was literally cut to pieces by railways, and every portion of its range rendered easily accessible. There had always been a market for buffalo robes at a fair price, and as soon as the railways crossed the buffalo country the slaughter began. The rush to the range was only surpassed by the rush to the gold mines of California in earlier years. The railroad builders, teamsters, fortune-seekers, professional hunters, trappers, guides, and every one out of a job turned out to hunt buffalo for hides and meat. The merchants who had already settled in all the little towns along the three great railways saw an opportunity to make money out of the buffalo product, and forthwith began to organize and supply hunting parties with arms, ammunition, and provisions, and send them to the range. An immense business of this kind was done by the merchants of Dodge City, Fort Dodge, Wichita, and Leavenworth, and scores of smaller towns did a corresponding amount of business in the same line. During the years 1871 to 1874, but little else was done in that country except buffalo killing. Central depots were established in the best buffalo country from whence hunting parties operated in all directions. Buildings were erected for the curing of meat, and corrals were built in which to heap up the immense piles of buffalo skins that accumulated. At Dodge City, as late as 1878, Professor Thompson saw a lot of baled buffalo skins in a corral, the solid cubicle contents of which he calculated to equal one hundred twenty cords. At first the utmost wastefulness prevailed. Everyone wanted to kill buffalo, and no one was willing to do the skinning and curing. Thousands upon thousands of buffaloes were killed for their tongues alone, and never skinned. Thousands more were wounded by unskillful marksmen and wandered off to die and become a total loss. But the climax of wastefulness and sloth was not reached until the enterprising buffalo butcher began to skin his dead buffaloes by horse power. The processes of interest as showing the depth of degradation to which a man can fall and still call himself a hunter. The skin of the buffalo was ripped open along the belly and throat, the legs cut around at the knees and ripped up the rest of the way. The skin of the neck was divided all the way around the back of the head, and skinned back a few inches to afford a start. A stout iron bar, like a hitching-post, was then driven through the skull, and about eighteen inches into the earth, after which a rope was tied very firmly to the thick skin of the neck, made ready for that purpose. The other end of this rope was then hitched to the whiffle-tree of a pair of horses, or to the rear axle of a wagon. The horses were whipped up and the skin was forthwith either torn in two or torn off the buffalo with about fifty pounds of flesh adhering to it. It soon became apparent to even the most enterprising buffalo skinner that this method was not an unqualified success and it was presently abandoned. The slaughter which began in 1871 was prosecuted with great vigor and enterprise in 1872, and reached its height in 1873. By that time the buffalo country fairly swarmed with hunters, each party putting forth its utmost efforts to destroy more buffaloes than its rivals. By that time experience had taught the value of thorough organization, and the butchering was done in a more business-like way. By a coincidence that proved fatal to the bison, it was just at the beginning of the slaughter that breech-loading, long-range rifles attained what was practically perfection. The Sharps 4090 or 45120 and the Remington were the favorite weapons of the buffalo hunter, the former being the one in most general use. Before the leaden hail of thousands of these deadly breech-loaders the buffaloes went down at the rate of several thousand daily during the hunting season. During the years 1871 and 1872 the most wanton wastefulness prevailed. Colonel Dodge declares that, though hundreds of thousands of skins were sent to market, they scarcely indicated the extent of the slaughter. Through want of skill and shooting and want of knowledge in preserving the hides of those slain by green hunters, one hide sent to market represented three, four, or even five dead buffalo. The skinners and cures knew so little of the proper mode of curing hides that at least half of those actually taken were lost. In the summer and fall of 1872 one hide sent to market represented at least three dead buffalo. This condition of affairs rapidly improved, but such was the furor for slaughter and the ignorance of all concerned that every hide sent to market in 1871 represented no less than five dead buffalo. By 1873 the condition of affairs had somewhat improved, through better organization of the hunting parties and knowledge gained by experience in curing. For all that, however, buffaloes were still so exceedingly plentiful, and shooting was so much easier than skinning, the latter was looked upon as a necessary evil and still slighted to such an extent that every hide actually sold and delivered represented two dead buffaloes. In 1874 the slaughterers began to take alarm at the increasing scarcity of buffalo, having a much smaller number of dead animals to take care of than ever before, were able to devote more time to each subject and do their work properly. As a result Colonel Dodge estimated that during 1874, and from that time on, one hundred skins delivered represented not more than one hundred and twenty-five dead buffaloes. But that no parties have ever got the proportion lower than this. The greatest southern herd was slaughtered by still hunting, a method which has already been fully described. A typical hunting party is thus described by Colonel Dodge. Note 64. Quote The most approved party consisted of four men, one shooter, two skinners, and one man to cook, stretch hides, and take care of camp. Where buffalo were very plentiful, the number of skinners was increased. A light wagon drawn by two horses or mules takes the outfit into the wilderness and brings into camp the skins taken each day. The outfit is most meager. A sack of flour, a side of bacon, five pounds of coffee, tea, and sugar, a little salt, and possibly a few beans, is a month's supply. A common or a tent furnishes shelter. A couple of blankets for each man is a bed. One or more of Sharps or Remington's heaviest sporting rifles, and an unlimited supply of ammunition, is the armament. While a coffee pot, Dutch oven, frying pan, four tin plates, and four tin cups constitute the kitchen and table furniture. The skinny knives do duty at the platter, and fingers were made before forks, nor must be forgotten one or more ten-gallon kegs for water as the camp may of necessity be far away from a stream. The supplies are generally furnished by the merchant for whom the party is working, who in addition pays each of the party a specified percentage of the value of the skins delivered. The shooter is carefully selected for his skill and knowledge of the habits of the buffalo. He is captain and leader of the party. When all is ready he plunges into the wilderness, going to the center of the best buffalo region known to him, not already occupied, for there are unwritten regulations recognized as laws giving to each hunter certain rights of discovery and occupancy. Arrived at the position he makes his camp in some hidden ravine or thicket and makes all ready for work. Note 64 Plains of the Great West Page 134 Of course the slaughter was greatest along the lines of the three great railways, the Kansas Pacific, the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe, and the Union Pacific, about in the order named. It reached its height in the season of 1873. During that year the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, carried out of the buffalo country, 251,443 robes, 1,017,600 pounds of meat, and 2,743,100 pounds of bones. The end of the southern herd was then near at hand. Could the southern buffalo range have been roofed over at that time it would have made one vast charnel house. Putrefying carcasses, many of them with the hide still on, lay thickly scattered over the thousands of square miles of the level prairie, poisoning the air and water and offending the site. The remaining herds had become more scattered bands, harried and driven hither and thither by the hunters, who now swarmed almost as thickly as the buffaloes. A cordon of camps was established along the Arkansas River, the South Platte, the Republican, and the few other streams that contained water. And when the thirsty animals came to drink they were attacked and driven away and with the most fiendish persistency kept from slaking their thirst so that they would again be compelled to seek the river and come within range of the deadly breech-loaders. Colonel Dodge declares that in places favorable to such warfare as the South Bank of the Platte, a herd of buffalo has, by shooting at it by day and by lighting fires and firing guns at night, been kept from water until it has been entirely destroyed. In the autumn of 1873, when Mr. William Blackmore traveled for some thirty or forty miles along the North Bank of the Arkansas River to the east of Port Dodge, quote, there was a continuous line of putrescent carcasses so that the air was rendered pestilential and offensive to the last degree. The hunters had formed a line of camps along the banks of the river and had shot down the buffalo, night and morning, as they came to drink. In order to give an idea of the number of these carcasses it is only necessary to mention that I counted sixty-seven on one spot, not covering four acres, end quote. White hunters were not allowed to hunt in the Indian territory, but the southern boundary of the state of Kansas was picketed by them and a herd no sooner crossed the line, going north, than it was destroyed. Every water-hole was guarded by a camp of hunters and whenever a thirsty herd approached it was promptly met by rifle bullets. During this entire period the slaughter of buffaloes was universal. The man who desired buffalo meat for food almost invariably killed five times as many animals as he could utilize and after cutting from each victim its very choicest parts, the tongue alone, possibly, or perhaps the hump and hind-quarters, one or the other, or both. Fully four-fifths of the really edible portion of the carcass would be left to the wolves. It was no uncommon thing for a man to bring in two barrels of salted buffalo tongues without another pound of meat or a solitary robe. The tongues were purchased at twenty-five cents each and sold in the markets farther east at fifty cents. In those days of criminal wastefulness it was a very common thing for buffaloes to be slaughtered for their tongues alone. Mr. George Catlin, note sixty-five, relates that a few days previous to his arrival at the mouth of the Teton River, Dakota, in 1832, quote, an immense herd of buffaloes had showed themselves on the opposite side of the river, end quote, whereupon a party of five or six hundred Sioux Indians on horseback forded the river, attacked the herd, recrossed the river about sunset, and came into the fort with fourteen hundred fresh buffalo tongues, which were thrown down in a mass and for which they required only a few gallons of whisky, which was soon consumed in a little harmless corouse. Mr. Catlin states that from all he could learn not a skin or a pound of meat other than the tongues was saved after this awful slaughter. Note sixty-five, North American Indians, one, two hundred fifty-six. Judging from all accounts it is making a safe estimate to say that probably no fewer than fifty thousand buffaloes had been killed for their tongues alone, and that most of these are undoubtedly chargeable against white men who ought to have known better. A great deal has been said about the slaughter of buffaloes by foreign sportsmen, particularly Englishmen, but I must say that from all that can be ascertained on this point this element of destruction has been greatly exaggerated and overestimated. It is true that every English sportsman who visited this country in the days of the buffalo always resolved to have and did have a buffalo hunt, and usually under the auspices of United States Army officers. Undoubtedly these parties did kill hundreds of buffaloes, but it is very doubtful whether the aggregate of the number slain by foreign sportsmen would run up higher than ten thousand. Indeed for myself I am well convinced that there are many old extil-hunters yet living, each of whom is accountable for a greater number of victims than all buffaloes killed by foreign sportsmen would make added together. The professional butchers were very much given to crying out against them English lords and holding up their hands in holy horror at buffaloes killed by them for their heads, instead of for hides to sell at a dollar apiece. But it is due the American public to say that all this outcry was received at its true value and deceived very few. By those in possession of the facts it was recognized as a blind to divert public opinion from the real culprits. Nevertheless it is very true that many men who were properly classed as sportsmen in contra-distinction from the pot-hunters did engage in useless and inexcusable slaughter to an extent that was highly reprehensible to say the least. A sportsman is not supposed to kill game wantonly when it can be of no possible use to himself or anyone else, but a great many do it for all that. Indeed the sportsman who kills sparingly and conscientiously is rather the exception than the rule. Colonel Dodge thus refers to the work of some foreign sportsman. Quote, In the fall of that year, 1872, three English gentlemen went out with me for a short hunt, and in their excitement bagged more buffalo than would have supplied a brigade. End quote. As a general thing, however, the professional sportsman who went out to have a buffalo hunt for the excitement of the chase and the trophies it yielded nearly always found the bison so easy a victim, and one whose capture brought so little glory to the hunter that the chase was voted very disappointing and soon abandoned in favor of nobler game. In those days there was no more to boast of in killing a buffalo than in the assassination of a Texas steer. It was, then, the hide-hunters, white and red, but especially white, who wiped out the great southern herd in four short years. The prices received for hides varied considerably according to circumstances, but for the greener undressed article it usually ranged from fifty cents for the skins of calves to a dollar and twenty-five cents for those of adult animals in good condition. Such prices seemed ridiculously small, but when it is remembered that when buffaloes were plentiful it was no uncommon thing for a hunter to kill from forty to sixty head in a day, it will readily be seen that the chances of making very handsome prophets were sufficient to tempt hunters to make extraordinary exertions. Moreover, even when the buffaloes were nearly gone the country was overrun with men who had absolutely nothing else to look to as a means of livelihood, and so no matter whether the prophets were great or small, so long as enough buffaloes remained to make it possible to get a living by their pursuit, they were hunted down with the most determined persistency and pertinacity. Section 22 of the Extermination of the American Bison. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. The Extermination of the American Bison by William T. Hornaday. Part 2 Chapter 3 Progress of the Extermination Continued. Part 6 Statistics of the Slaughter. The most careful and reliable estimate ever made of results of the slaughter of the southern buffalo herd is that of Colonel Richard Irving Dodge, and it is the only one I know of which furnishes a good index of the former size of that herd. Inasmuch as this calculation was based on actual statistics supplemented by personal observations and inquiries made in that region during the great slaughter, I can do no better than to quote Colonel Dodge almost in full. Note 66. Plains of the Great West, pages 139 to 144. The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad furnished the following statistics of the buffalo product carried by it during the years 1872, 1873, and 1874. The metal product. Year, number of skins carried, meat carried, bone carried. Year, 1872, number of skins carried, 165,721. Meat carried, no amount given. Bone carried, 1,135,300 pounds. year 1873, number of skins carried 251,443, meat carried 1,617,600 pounds, bone carried 2,743,100 pounds, year 1874, number of skins carried 42,289, meat carried 632,800 pounds, bone carried 6,914,950 pounds, total number of skins carried 459,453, meat carried 2,250,400 pounds, bone carried 10,793,300 The officials of the Kansas Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads either could not or would not furnish any statistics of the amount of the buffalo product carried by their lines during this period, and it became necessary to proceed without the actual figures in both cases. In as much as the Kansas Pacific Road cuts through a portion of the buffalo country, which was in every respect as thickly inhabited by those animals as the region traversed by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe, it seemed absolutely certain that the former road hauled out fully as many hides as the latter, if not more, and its quota is so set down. The Union Pacific line handled a much smaller number of buffalo hides than either of its southern rivals, but Colonel Dodge believes that this, quote, with the smaller roads which touched the buffalo region, taken together, carried about as much as either of the two principal buffalo roads, end quote. Colonel Dodge considers it reasonably certain that the statistics furnished by the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe road represent only one third of the entire buffalo product, and there certainly appears to be good ground for this belief. It is therefore in order to base further calculations upon these figures. According to evidence gathered on the spot by Colonel Dodge during the period of the Great Slaughter, one hide sent to market in 1872 represented three dead buffalos in 1873, two, and in 1874 one hundred skins delivered represented one hundred and twenty five dead animals. The total slaughter by white men was therefore about as below. Year Hides shipped by Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. Hides shipped by other roads during the same period. Total number of buffalo utilized. Total number killed and wasted. Total buffalos slaughtered by whites. Year 1872 Hides shipped by Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. One hundred sixty-five thousand, seven hundred twenty-one. Hides shipped by other railroads during the same period. Three hundred thirty-one thousand, four hundred forty-two. Total number of buffalo utilized. Four hundred ninety-seven thousand, one hundred sixty-three. Total number killed and wasted. Nine hundred ninety-four thousand, three hundred twenty-six. Total slaughtered by whites. One million, four hundred ninety-one thousand, four hundred eighty-nine. Year 1873 Hides shipped by Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. Two hundred fifty-one thousand, four hundred forty-three. Hides shipped by other roads during the same period. Five hundred two thousand, eight hundred eighty-six. Total number of buffalo utilized. Seven hundred fifty-four thousand, three hundred twenty-nine. Total number killed and wasted. Seven hundred fifty-four thousand, three hundred twenty-nine. Total slaughtered by whites. One million, five hundred eight thousand, six hundred fifty-eight. Year 1874 Hides shipped by Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. Forty two thousand, two hundred eighty-nine. Hides shipped by other roads during the same period. Eighty four thousand, five hundred seventy-eight. Total number of buffalo utilized. One hundred twenty-six thousand, eight hundred sixty-seven. Total number killed and wasted. Thirty one thousand, seven hundred sixteen. Total slaughtered by whites. One hundred fifty-eight thousand, five hundred eighty-three. Total. Hides shipped by Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. Four hundred fifty-nine thousand, four hundred fifty-three. Hides shipped by other roads during the same period. Nine hundred eighteen thousand, nine hundred six. Total number of buffalo utilized. One million, three hundred seventy-eight thousand, three hundred fifty-nine. Total number killed and wasted. One million, seven hundred eighty thousand, four hundred eighty-one. Total slaughtered by whites. Three million, one hundred fifty-eight thousand, seven hundred thirty. During all this time the Indians of all tribes within striking distance of the herds killed an immense number of buffaloes every year. In the summer they killed for the hairless hides to use for lodges and for leather, and in the autumn they slaughtered for robes and meat, but particularly robes, which were all they could offer the white trader in exchange for his goods. They were too lazy and shiftless to cure much buffalo meat, and besides it was not necessary, for the government fed them. In regard to the number of buffaloes of the southern herd killed by the Indians, Colonel Dodge arrives at an estimate as follows. Quote, it is much more difficult to estimate the number of dead buffaloes represented by the Indian tanned skins or robes sent to market. This number varies with the different tribes, and they're greater or less contact with the whites, thus the Cheyennes, Arapahos, and Kaowas of the southern plains, having less contact with whites, use skins for their lodges, clothing, bedding, parfleshes, saddles, lariats, for almost everything. The number of robes sent to market represent only what we may call the foreign exchange of these tribes, and it is really not more than one-tenth of the skins taken. To be well within bounds I will assume that one robe sent to market by these Indians represents six dead buffaloes. Those bands of Sioux, who live at the agencies, and whose peltries are taken to market by the Union Pacific Railroad, live in lodges of cotton cloth furnished by the Indian Bureau. They use much civilized clothing, bedding, boxes, robes, etc. For these luxuries they must pay in robes and as the buffalo range is far from wide, and their yearly crop small, more than half of it goes to market. End quote. Leaving out of the account at this point all consideration of the killing done north of the Union Pacific Railroad, Colonel Dodge's figures are as follows. Southern Buffaloes slaughtered by southern Indians. Indians. Kaowas, Comanches, Cheyennes, Arapahos, and other Indians whose robes go over the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. Sent to market 19,000. Number of dead buffaloes 114,000. Sioux at agencies Union Pacific Railroad. Sent to market 10,000. Number of dead buffaloes 16,000. Total slaughtered per annum. Sent to market 29,000. Number of dead buffaloes 130,000. Total for the three years 1872 to 1874. Sent to market no estimate. Number of dead buffaloes 390,000. Reference has already been made to the fact that during those years an immense number of buffaloes were killed by the farmers of eastern Kansas and Nebraska for their meat. Mr. William Mitchell of Wabansi, Kansas, stated to the writer that, quote, in those days when buffaloes were plentiful in western Kansas, pretty much everybody made a trip west in the fall and brought back a load of buffalo meat. Everybody had it in abundance as long as buffaloes remained in any considerable number. Very few skins were saved. In fact, hardly any for the reason that nobody knew how to tan them and they always spoiled. At first a great many farmers tried to dress the green hides that they brought back, but they could not succeed and finally gave up trying. Of course a great deal of the meat killed was wasted for only the best parts were brought back. End, quote. The Wichita, Kansas, world of February 9, 1889 contains the following reference. Quote, in 1871 and 1872 the buffalo ranged within ten miles of Wichita and could be counted by the thousands. The town then in its infancy was the headquarters for a vast number of buffalo hunters who plied their occupation vigorously during the winter. The buffalo were killed principally for their hides and daily wagon trains arrived in town loaded with them. Meat was very cheap in those days, fine tender buffalo steak selling from one to two cents per pound. The business was quite profitable for a time, but a sudden drop in the price of hides brought them down as low as twenty-five and fifty cents each. It was a very common thing in those days for people living in Wichita to start out in the morning and return by evening with a wagon load of buffalo meat. End, quote. Unquestionably a great many thousand buffaloes were killed annually by the settlers of Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. And the mountain Indians living west of the great range. The number so slain can only be guessed at, for there is absolutely no data on which to found an estimate. Judging merely from the number of people within reach of the range it may safely be estimated that the total number of buffaloes slaughtered annually to satisfy the wants of this heterogeneous element could not have been less than fifty thousand, and probably was a much higher number. This, for the three years, would make one hundred and fifty thousand, and the grand total would therefore be about as follows. The slaughter of the southern herd. Killed by professional white hunters in eighteen seventy-two, eighteen seventy-three, and eighteen seventy-four. Three million, one hundred fifty-eight thousand, seven hundred thirty. Killed by Indians, same period, three hundred ninety thousand. Killed by settlers and mountain Indians, one hundred fifty thousand. Total slaughter in three years, three million, ninety-eight thousand, seven hundred thirty. These figures seem incredible, but unfortunately there is not the slightest reason for believing they are too high. There are many men now living who declare that during the great slaughter they each killed from twenty-five hundred to three thousand buffaloes every year. With thousands of hunters on the range, and such possibilities of slaughter before each, it is after all no wonder that an average of nearly a million and a quarter buffaloes fell each year during that bloody period. By the close of the hunting season of eighteen seventy-five the great southern herd had ceased to exist. As a body it had been utterly annihilated. The main body of the survivors, numbering about ten thousand head, fled southwest, and dispersed through that great tract of wild desolate and inhospitable country, stretching southward from the simmering country across the public land strip, the Panhandle of Texas, and the Yano Estecado, or Staked Plain, to the Pecos River. A few small bands of stragglers maintained a precarious existence for a few years longer on the headwaters of the Republican River and in southwestern Nebraska, near Ogallala, where calves were caught alive as late as eighteen eighty-five. The buffaloes were seen in southwestern Kansas for the last time in 1886, and the two or three score of individuals still living in the Canadian river country of the Texas Panhandle are the last wild survivors of the great southern herd. The main body of the fugitives, which survived the great slaughter of eighteen seventy-one to seventy-four, continued to attract hunters who were very hard up, who pursued them often at the risk of their own lives, the Yano Estecado. In Montana in eighteen eighty-six, I met on a cattle ranch an ex-buffalo hunter from Texas, named Harry Andrews, who from eighteen seventy-four to eighteen seventy-six continued in pursuit of the scattered remnants of the great southern herd through the Panhandle of Texas and on into the Staked Plain itself. By that time, the market had become completely overstocked with robes, and the prices received by Andrews and other hunters for sixty-five cents each for cow robes and one dollar and fifteen cents each for bull robes, delivered on the range, the purchaser providing for their transportation to the railway. But even at those prices, which were so low as to make buffalo killing seem like downright murder, Mr. Andrews assured me that he made big money. On one occasion, when he got a stand on a large bunch of buffalo, he fired one hundred and fifteen shots from one spot, sixty-three buffaloes in about an hour. In eighteen eighty, buffalo hunting as a business ceased forever in the southwest, and so far as can be ascertained, but one successful hunt for robes has been made in that region since that time. That occurred in the fall and winter of eighteen eighty-seven, about one hundred miles north of Tascosa, Texas, when two parties, one of which was under the leadership of Lee Howard, attacked the only band of buffaloes left alive in the southwest, and which at that time numbered about two hundred head. The two parties killed fifty-two buffaloes, of which ten skins were preserved and tired for mounting. Of the remaining forty-two, the heads were cut off and preserved for mounting, and the skins were prepared as robes. The mountable skins were finally sold at the following prices. Young cows, fifty dollars to sixty dollars. Adult cows, seventy-five dollars to one hundred dollars. Adult bull, one hundred fifty dollars. The unmounted heads sold as fellows. Young bulls, twenty-five dollars to thirty dollars. Adult bulls, fifty dollars. Young cows, ten dollars to twelve dollars. Adult cows, fifteen dollars to twenty-five dollars. A few of the choicest robes sold at twenty dollars each, and the remainder, a lot of twenty-eight of prime quality and in excellent condition, were purchased by the Hudson's Bay Fur Company for three hundred fifty dollars. Such was the end of the great southern herd. In eighteen-seventy-one it contained certainly no fewer than three million buffaloes, and by the beginning of eighteen-seventy-five its existence as a herd had utterly ceased, and nothing but scattered fugitive bands remained. End of Section B, part six. Section twenty-three of the extermination of the American bison. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Extermination of the American Bison by William T. Hornaday. Part two, Chapter three. Progress of the extermination continued. Section B, part seven. The destruction of the northern herd. Until the building of the northern Pacific Railway, there were but two noteworthy outlets for the buffalo robes that were taken annually in the northwestern territories of the United States. The principal one was the Missouri River, and the Yellowstone River was the other. Down these streams the hides were transported by steamboats to the nearest railway shipping point. For fifty years prior to the building of the northern Pacific Railway, in 1880 to 1882, the number of robes marketed every year by way of these streams was estimated variously at from fifty to one hundred thousand. A great number of hides taken in the British possessions fell into the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company and found a market in Canada. In May 1881, the Sioux City, Iowa Journal, contained the following information in regard to the buffalo robe crop of the previous hunting season, the winter of 1880 to 1881. Quote, It is estimated by competent authorities that one hundred thousand buffalo hides will be shipped out of the Yellowstone country this season. Two firms alone are negotiating for the transportation of twenty-five thousand hides each. Most of our citizens saw the big load of buffalo hides that the C.K. Peck brought down last season, a load that hid everything about the boat below the roof of the hurricane deck. There were ten thousand hides in that load, and they were all brought out of the Yellowstone on one trip and transferred to the C.K. Peck. How such a load could have been piled on the little terry, not even the men on the boat appear to know. It hid every part of the boat, barring only the pilot house and smokestacks. But such a load will not be attempted again. For such boats as ply the Yellowstone, there are at least fifteen full loads of buffalo hides and other pelts. Reckoning one thousand hides to three car loads and adding to this fifty cars for the other pelts, it will take at least three hundred and fifty box cars to carry this stupendous bulk of peltry east to market. These figures are not guesses, but estimates made by men whose business it is to know about the amount of hides and furs awaiting shipment. Nothing like it has ever been known in the history of the fur trade. Last season the output of buffalo hides was above the average and last year only about thirty thousand hides came out of the Yellowstone country or less than a third of what is there now awaiting shipment. The past severe winter caused the buffalo to bunch themselves in a few valleys where there was pastureage and there the slaughter went on all winter. There was no sport about it, simply shooting down the famine-tamed animals as cattle might be shot down in a barnyard. To the credit of the Indians it can be said that they killed no more than they could save the meat from. The greater part of the slaughter was done by white hunters or butchers, rather, who followed the business of killing and skinning buffalo by the mouth, leaving the carcasses to rot. End quote At the time of the Great Division made by the Union Pacific Railway, the northern body of buffalo extended from the valley of the Platte River northward to the southern shore of Great Slave Lake, eastward almost to Minnesota, and westward to an elevation of eight thousand feet in the Rocky Mountains. The herds were most numerous along the central portion of this region, Seamap, and from the Platte Valley to Great Slave Lake the range was continuous. The buffalo population of the southern half of this great range was, according to all accounts, nearly three times as great as that of the northern half. At that time, or let us say, 1870, there were about four million buffaloes south of the Platte River, and probably about one million and a half north of it. I am aware that the estimate of the number of buffaloes in the Great Northern Herd is usually much higher than this. But I can see no good grounds for making it so. To my mind the evidence is conclusive that although the northern herd ranged over such an immense area, it was numerically less than half the size of the overwhelming multitude, which actually crowded the southern range, and at times so completely consumed the herbage of the plains that detachments of the United States Army found it difficult to find sufficient grass for their mules and horses. Note 67 As an instance of this, see Forest and Stream volume 2, page 184. Quote, Horace Jones, the interpreter here, Fort Sill, says that on his first trip along the line of the 100th Meridian, in 1859, accompanying Major Thomas, since our noble old general, they passed continuous herds for over sixty miles, which left so little grass behind them that Major Thomas was seriously troubled about his horses. End quote. End note 67 The various influences which ultimately led to the complete blotting out of the great northern herd were exerted about as follows. In the British possessions, where the country was immense and game of all kinds except Buffalo very scarce indeed, wherein the language of Professor Keniston, the explorer, quote, there was a great deal of country around every wild animal, end quote, the Buffalo constituted the main dependence of the Indians who would not cultivate the soil at all, and of the half-breeds who would not so long as they could find Buffalo. Under such circumstances the Buffalo's of the British possessions were hunted much more vigorously and persistently than those of the United States, where there was such an abundant supply of deer, elk, antelope, and other game for the Indians to feed upon, and a paternal government to support them with annuities besides. Quite contrary to the prevailing idea of the people of the United States, Viz, there were great herds of Buffalo's in existence in the Saskatchewan country long after ours had all been destroyed. The herds of British America had been almost totally exterminated by the time the final slaughter of our northern herd was inaugurated by the opening of the Northern Pacific Railway in 1880. The Canadian Pacific Railway played no part whatever in the extermination of the bison in the British possessions, for it had already taken place. The half-breeds of Vanitoba, the plains Crees of Capel and the black feet of the South Saskatchewan country swept bare a great belt of countries stretching east and west between the Rocky Mountains and Manitoba. The Canadian Pacific Railway found only bleaching bones in the country through which it passed. The buffalo had disappeared from that entire region before 1879 and left the black-feet Indians on the verge of starvation. A few thousand buffaloes still remained in the country, around the headwaters of the Battle River, between the North and South Saskatchewan. But they were surrounded and attacked from all sides and their numbers diminished very rapidly until all were killed. The latest information I have been able to obtain in regard to the disappearance of this northern band has been kindly furnished by Professor C. A. Caniston, who in 1881 and also in 1883 made a thorough exploration of the country between Winnipeg and Fort Edmonton for the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. His four routes between the two points covered a vast scope of country, several hundred miles in width. In 1881, at Moose Jaw, 75 miles southeast of the elbow of the South Saskatchewan, he saw a party of Cree Indians who had just arrived from the northwest with several carts laden with fresh buffalo meat. At Fort Saskatchewan, on the northern Saskatchewan River, just above Edmonton, he saw a party of English sportsmen who had recently been hunting on the battle and Red Deer Rivers between Edmonton and Fort Calgary, where they had found buffaloes and killed as many as they cared to slaughter. In one afternoon they killed fourteen and could have killed more had they been more bloodthirsty. In 1883, Professor Caniston found the fresh trail of a band of twenty-five or thirty buffaloes at the elbow of the South Saskatchewan. Accepting in the above instances he saw no further traces of buffalo, nor did he hear of the existence of any in all the country he explored. In 1881 he saw many Cree Indians at Fort Capelle in a starving condition and there was no Pemmican or buffalo meat at the fort. In 1883, however, a little Pemmican found its way to Winnipeg, where it sold at fifteen cents per pound at a price. It had been made that year evidently in the mouth of April as he purchased it in May for his journey. The first really alarming impression made on our northern herd was by the Sioux Indians who very speedily exterminated that portion of it, which had previously covered the country lying between the North Plat and a line drawn from the center of Wyoming to the center of Dakota. All along the Missouri River the slaughter went bravely on. All the Indian tribes of that vast region, Sioux, Cheyennes, Crows, Blackfeet, Bloods, Peagans, Asinoboins, Grove Ventre, and Shoshonis found their most profitable business and greatest pleasure next to scalping white settlers in hunting the buffalo. It took from eight to twelve buffalo hides to make a covering for one ordinary teepee and sometimes a single teepee extra size required from twenty to twenty-five hides. The Indians of our northwestern territories marketed about seventy-five thousand buffalo robes every year so long as the northern herd was large enough to afford the supply. If we allow that for every skin sold to white traders four others were used in supplying their own wants, which must be considered a very moderate estimate. The total number of buffalo slaughtered annually by those tribes was about three hundred and seventy-five thousand. The end which so many observers had for years been predicting really began with the northern herd in eighteen seventy-six, two years after the great annihilation which had taken place in the south, although it was not until four years later that the slaughter became universal over the entire range. It is very clearly indicated in the figures given in a letter from Messer's I.G. Baker & Company of Fort Benton, Montana and the writer, dated October 6th, 1887, which reads as follows. Quote, There were sent east from the year eighteen seventy-six from this point about seventy-five thousand buffalo robes. In eighteen eighty it had fallen to about twenty thousand, in eighteen eighty-three not more than five thousand, and in eighteen eighty-four none whatever. We are sorry we cannot give you a better record, but the collection of hides which exterminated the buffalo was from the Yellowstone country on the northern Pacific, instead of northern Montana. The beginning of the final slaughter of our northern herd may be dated about eighteen eighty, by which time the annual robe crop of the Indians had diminished three-fourths, and when summer killing for hairless hides began on a large scale. The range of this herd was surrounded on three sides by tribes of Indians armed with breech-loading rifles and abundantly supplied with fixed ammunition. To the year eighteen eighty the Indians of the tribes previously mentioned killed probably three times as many buffaloes as did the white hunters, and had there not been a white hunter in the whole northwest the buffalo would have been exterminated there just as surely, though not so quickly, by perhaps ten years as actually occurred. Along the north from the Missouri river to the British line and from the reservation in northwestern Dakota to the main divide of the Rocky Mountains, one hundred fifty miles as the crow flies, the country was one continuous Indian reservation who slaughtered buffalo in season and out of season, in winter for robes and in summer for hides and meat to dry. In the southeast was the great body of Sioux, and on the southwest the crows and northern Cheyennes, all engaged in the same relentless warfare. It would have required a body of armed men larger than the whole United States to have withstood this continuous hostile pressure without ultimate annihilation. Let it be remembered, therefore, that the American Indian is as much responsible for the extermination of our northern herd of bison as the American citizen. I have yet to learn of an instance wherein an Indian refrained from excessive slaughter of game through motives of economy or care for the future or prejudice against wastefulness. From all accounts the quantity of game killed by an Indian has always been limited by two conditions only. Lack of energy to kill more or lack of more game to be killed. White men delight in the chase and kill for the sport it yields regardless of the effort involved. Indeed, to a genuine sportsman nothing in hunting is sport which is not obtained at the cost of great labour. An Indian does not view the matter in that light and when he is killed enough to supply his wants he stops because he sees no reason why he should exert himself any further. This is given rise to the statement so often repeated that the Indian killed only enough buffaloes to supply his wants. If an Indian ever attempted or even showed any inclination to husband the resources of nature in any way and restrain wastefulness on the part of Indians it would be gratifying to know of it. The building of the northern Pacific Dakota and Montana hastened the end that was fast approaching but it was only an incident in the annihilation of the northern herd. Without it the final result would have been just the same but the end would probably not have been reached until about 1888. The northern Pacific railway reached Bismarck Dakota on the Missouri River in the year 1876 and from that date onward received before transportation eastward all the buffalo robes and hides that came down the two rivers Missouri and Yellowstone. Unfortunately the northern Pacific railway company kept no separate account of its buffalo product business and is unable to furnish a statement of the number of hides and robes it handled. It is therefore impossible to even make an estimate of the total number of buffaloes killed on the northern range during the six years which ended with the annihilation of that herd. The business done by the northern Pacific railway and the precise points from whence the bulk of the robes were shipped, the following letter from Mr. J. M. Hannaford, traffic manager of the northern Pacific Railroad under date of September 3rd, 1887 is of interest. Quote, your communication addressed to President Harris has been referred to me for the information desired. I regret that our accounts are not so kept as to enable you accurate data, but I have been able to obtain the following general information which may prove of some value to you. From the years 1876 and 1880 our line did not extend beyond Bismarck which was the extreme easterly shipping point for buffalo robes and hides, they being brought down the Missouri River from the north for shipment from that point. In the years 1876, 1877, 1878 and 1879 they were handled at that point yearly from 3 to 4,000 bales of robes about one half the bales containing 10 robes and the other half 12 robes each. During these years practically no hides were shipped. In 1880 the shipment of hides dry and untanned commenced. Note 68. And in 1881 and 1882 our line was extended west and the shipping points increased reaching as far west as Terry Sully Springs in Montana. During these years 1880, 1881 and 1882 which practically finished the shipments of hides and robes it is impossible for me to give you any just idea of the numbers shipped. The only figures obtainable are those of 1881 when over 75,000 dry and untanned buffalo hides came down the river for shipment from Bismarck. Some robes were also shipped from this point that year and a considerable number of robes and hides were shipped from several other shipping points. Note 68. It is to be noted that hairless hides taken from buffaloes killed in summer are what the writer refers to. It was not until 1881 when the end was very near that hunting buffalo in summer as well as winter became a wholesale business. What hunting can be more disgraceful than the slaughter of females and young in summer are almost worthless. End note The number of pounds of buffalo meat shipped over our line has never cut any figure. The bulk of the meat having been left on the prairie has not being of sufficient value to pay the cost of transportation. The names of the extreme eastern and western stations from which the shipments were made are as follows. In 1880 Bismarck was the only shipping point. In 1881 Glendive, Bismarck and Beaver Creek. In 1882 Terry and Sully Springs, Montana, with the chief shipping points and in the order named so far as numbers and amount of shipments are concerned Bismarck on the east and Forsythe on the west were the two extremities. Up to the year 1880 so long as buffalo were killed only for robes the bands did not decrease very materially but beginning with that year when they were killed for their hides as well most indiscriminate slaughter commenced and from that time on they disappeared very rapidly. Up to the year 1881 there were two large bands one south of the Yellowstone and the other north of that river. In the year mentioned those south of the river were driven north and never returned having joined the northern band and become practically extinguished. Since 1882 there have of course been occasional shipments both of hides and robes. But in such small quantities and so seldom that they cut practically no figure the bulk of them coming probably from north Missouri points down the river to Bismarck. End quote. In 1880 the northern buffalo range embraced the following streams the Missouri and all its tributaries from Port Shaw, Montana to Fort Bennett, Dakota and the Yellowstone and all its tributaries. Of this region was the geographical center. The grass was good over the whole of it and the various divisions of the Great Herd were continually shifting from one locality to another often making journeys several hundred miles at a time. Over the whole of this vast area their bleaching bones lie scattered where they have not as yet been gathered up for sale from the upper Marius and Milk Rivers near the British boundary to the Platte and from the James River in central Dakota with an elevation of 8,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains. Indeed as late as October 1887 I gathered up on the open common within half a mile of the northern Pacific railway depot at the city of Helena the skull, horns and numerous odd bones of a large bold buffalo which had been killed there. Over many portions of the northern range the traveler may even now ride for days together without once being out of sight of buffalo carcasses or bones. Such was the case in 1886 and the country lying between the Missouri and the Yellowstone, northwest of Miles City. Go wherever we might on divides into badlands, creek bottoms around the highest plateaus. We always found the inevitable and omnipresent grim and ghastly skeleton with hairy head, dried up and shriveled nostrils, half-skinned legs stretched helplessly upon the Great Earth and the bones of the body bleached The year 1881 witnessed the same kind of a stampede for the northern buffalo range that occurred just ten years previously in the cell. At that time robes were worth from two to three times as much as they ever had been in the cell. The market was very active and the successful hunter was sure to reap a rich reward as long as the buffaloes lasted. At that time the hunters and hide buyers estimated that there were 500,000 buffaloes within a radius of 150 miles of Miles City and that they were still in the entire northern herd not far from one million head. The subsequent slaughter proved that these estimates were probably not far from the truth. In that year Fort Custer was so nearly overwhelmed by a passing herd that a detachment of soldiers was ordered out to turn the herd away from the post. In 1882 an immense herd appeared on the high level plateau on the north side of the Yellowstone which overlooks Miles City and Fort Keough in the valley below. A squad of soldiers from the 5th infantry was sent up on the bluff and in less than an hour had killed enough buffaloes to load six, four mule teams with meat. In 1886 there were still about 20 bleaching skeletons lying in a group on the edge of this plateau at the point where the road from the ferry reaches the level but all the rest were gathered up. In 1882 there were so it is estimated by men who were in the country no fewer than 5,000 white hunters and skinners on the northern range. Lieutenant J. M. T. Partello declares that a cordon of camps from the upper Missouri where it bends to the west stretched toward the setting sun as far as the dividing line of Idaho completely blocking in the great ranges of the Milk River, the Muscle Shell, the Yellowstone, and the Marius and rendering it impossible for scarcely a single bison to escape through the chain of sentinel camps to the Canadian Northwest. Hunters of Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado drove the poor hunted animals north directly into the muzzles of the thousands of repeaters ready to receive them. Only a few short years ago as late as 1883 a herd of about 75,000 crossed the Yellowstone River a few miles south of here, Fort Keel, scores of Indians, pot hunters and white butchers on their heels bound for the Canadian Dominions where they hoped to find a haven of safety, alas not 5,000 of that mighty mass ever lived to reach the British borderline. It is difficult to say at least to the satisfaction of old hunters which were the most famous hunting grounds on the northern range. Lieutenant Partello states that when he hunted in the great triangle bounded by the three rivers Missouri, Musselshell and Yellowstone, it contained to the best of his knowledge and belief 250,000 buffaloes. Unquestionably, that region yielded an immense number of buffalo robes and since the slaughter thousands of tons of bones have been gathered up there. Another favorite locality was the country lying between the Powder River and the Little Missouri particularly the valleys of Beaver and O'Fallon creeks. Further went scores of outfits and hundreds of hunters and skinners from the northern Pacific Railway towns from Miles City to Glendive. The hunters from the towns between Glendive and Bismarck mostly went south to Cedar Creek and Grand and Moreau rivers. But this territory was also the hunting ground of the Sioux Indians from the great reservation farther south. Thousands upon thousands of buffaloes were killed on the milk and Marius rivers in the Judith Basin and in northern Wyoming. The method of slaughter has already been fully described under the head of the still hunt and need not be recapitulated. It is some gratification to know that the shocking and criminal wastefulness which was so marked a feature of the southern butchery was almost totally unknown in the north. Robes were worth from $1.50 to $3.50 according to size and quality and were removed and preserved with great care. Every one hundred robes marketed represented not more than one hundred and ten dead buffaloes and even this small percentage of loss was due to the escape of wounded animals which afterward died and were devoured by the wolves. After the skin was taken off the hunter or skinner stretched it carefully upon the ground inside uppermost, cut his initials in the adherent subcutaneous muscle and left it until the season for hauling in the robes which was always done in the early spring. Immediately following the hunt. As was the case in the south it was the ability of a single hunter to destroy an entire bunch of buffalo in a single day that completely annihilated the remaining thousands of the northern herd before the people of the United States even learned what was going on. For example, one hunter of my acquaintance Vic Smith, the most famous hunter in Montana, killed one hundred and seven buffaloes in one stand in about one hour's time and without shifting his point of attack. This occurred in the red water country about one hundred miles northeast of Miles City in the winter of 1881-82. During the same season another hunter named Doc Ogle killed eighty-five buffaloes at one stand and John Edwards killed seventy-five. The total number that Smith claims to have killed that season is about five thousand. Where buffaloes were at all every man who called himself a hunter was expected to kill between one and two thousand during the hunting season from November to February and when the buffaloes were to be found it was a comparatively easy thing to do. During the year 1882 the thousands of bison that still remained alive on the range indicated above and also marked out on the accompanying map were distributed over that entire area very generally. In February of that year a Fort Benton correspondent of Forest and Stream wrote as follows quote, it is truly wonderful how many buffaloes are still left thousands of Indians and hundreds of white men depend on them for a living. At present nearly all the buffalo in Montana are between Milk River and Bear Paw Mountains there are only a few small bands between the Missouri and the Yellowstone end quote. There were plenty of buffalo on the Upper Marius River in October 1882 in November and December there were thousands between the Missouri and the Yellowstone Rivers South of the Northern Pacific Railway the range during the hunting season of 1882 to 1883 was thus defined by a hunter who has since written out the confessions of a buffalo butcher for Forest and Stream page 489 quote then October 1882 the western limit was defined in a general way by Powder River and extending eastward well toward the Missouri and south to within 60 or 70 miles of the Black Hills it embraces the valleys of all tributaries to Powder River from the east all of the valleys of Beaver Creek, O'Fallon Creek and the Little Missouri and Morrill Rivers and both forks of the river for almost half their length this immense territory lying almost equally in Montana and Dakota had been occupied during the winters by many thousands of buffaloes from time immemorial and many of the cows remained during the summer and brought forth their young undisturbed end quote the three hunters composing the party whose record is narrated in the interesting sketch referred to went out from Miles City on October 23 due east to the badlands between the Powder River and O'Fallon Creek and were on the range all winter they found comparatively few buffaloes and secured only 286 robes which they sold at an average price of $2.20 each they saved and marketed a large quantity of meat for which they obtained $0.03 per pound they found the whole region in which they hunted fairly infested with Indians and half breeds all hunting buffalo the hunting season which began in October 1882 and ended in February 1883 finished the annihilation of the great northern herd and left but a few small bods of stragglers numbering only a very few thousand individuals all told a noted event of the season was the retreat northward across the yellow stone of the immense herd mentioned by Lieutenant Partello as containing $75,000 head others estimated the number at $50,000 and the event is often spoken of today by frontiersmen who were in that region at the time many think that the whole great body went north into British territory and that there is still a goodly remnant of it in some remote region between the Peace River and the Cesscatchewan or somewhere there which will yet return to the United States nothing could be more illusory than this belief in the first place the herd never reached the British line and if it had it would have been promptly annihilated by the hungry black feet and Cree Indians who were declared to be in a half starved condition through the disappearance of the buffalo as early as 1879 the great herd that went north was utterly extinguished by the white hunters along the Missouri river and the Indians living north of it the only vestige of it that remained was a band of about 200 individuals that took refuge in the labyrinth of ravines and creek that lay west of the mussel shell between Flat Willow and Box Elder creeks and another band of about 75 which settled in the badlands between the head of the big dry and the big porcupine creeks where a few survivors were found by the writer in 1886 south of the northern Pacific railway a band of about 300 settled permanently in and around the Yellowstone National Park but in a very short time the animal outside the protected limits of the park was killed and whenever any of the park buffalo strayed beyond the boundary they too were promptly killed for their heads and hides at present the number remaining in the park is believed by Captain Harris the superintendent to be about 200 about one third of which is due to breeding in the protected territory in the southeast the fate of that portion of the herd is well known the herd which at the beginning of the hunting season in 1883 was known to contain about 10,000 head arranged in western Dakota about halfway between the Black Hills and Bismarck between the Moreau and Grand Rivers was speedily reduced to about 1,000 head Vic Smith who was in at the death says there were 1,100 others say 1,200 just at this juncture October 1883 sitting bull in his whole band of nearly 1,000 braves arrived from the standing sock agency and in two days time slaughtered the entire herd Vic Smith and a host of white hunters took part in the killing of this last 10,000 and he declares that quote when we got through the hunt there was not a hoof left that wound up the buffalo in the far west only a stray bull being seen here and there afterwards end quote curiously enough not even the buffalo hunters themselves were at the time aware of the fact that the end of the hunting season of 1882 to 1883 was also the end of the buffalo at least as an inhabitant of the plains and a source of revenue in the autumn of 1883 they nearly all outfitted as usual often at an expense of many hundreds of dollars and blithely sought the range that had up to that time been so prolific in robes the end was in nearly every case the same total failure and bankruptcy it was indeed hard to believe that not only the Indians but also the thousands had actually gone and forever I have found it impossible to ascertain definitely the number of robes and hides shipped from the northern range during the last years of the slaughter and the only reliable estimate I have obtained was made for me after much consideration and reflection by Mr. J. N. Davis of Minneapolis, Minnesota Mr. Davis was for many years a buyer of furs, robes and hides on a large scale throughout our northwestern territories and was actively engaged in buying up buffalo robes as long as there were any to buy in reply to a letter asking for statistics he wrote me as follows on September 27 1887 quote it is impossible to give the exact number of robes and hides shipped out of Dakota and Montana from 1876 to 1883 or the exact number of buffalo in the northern herd but I will give you as correct an account as anyone can in 1876 it was estimated that there were half a million buffaloes within a radius of 150 miles of Miles City in 1881 the northern Pacific railroad was built as far west as Glendive and Miles City at that time the whole country was a howling wilderness and Indians and wild buffalo were too numerous to mention the first shipment of buffalo robes killed by white men was made that year and the stations on the northern Pacific railroad between Miles City and Mandan sent out about 50,000 hides and robes in 1882 the number of hides and robes bought and shipped was about 200,000 and in 1883-40,000 in 1884 I shipped from Dickinson Dakota Territory the only carload of robes that went east that year and it was the last shipment ever made for a long time the majority of the ex-hunters cherished the fond delusion that the great herd had only gone north into the British possessions and would eventually return in great force scores of rumors of the finding of herds floated about all of which were eagerly believed at first but after a year or two had gone by without the appearance of a single buffalo and likewise without any reliable information of the existence of a herd of any size even in British Territory the butchers of the buffalo either hung sharp rifles or sold them for nothing to the gun dealers and sought other means of livelihood some took to gathering up buffalo bones and selling them by the ton and others became cowboys end of section B part 7 section 24 of the extermination of the American bison this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Maria Kasper the extermination of the American bison by William T. Hornaday part 2 chapter 4 congressional legislation for the protection of the bison the slaughter of the buffalo down to the very point of extermination has been so very generally condemned and the general government has been so unsparingly blamed for allowing such a massacre to take place on the public domain it is important that the public should know all the facts in the case to the credit of congress it must be said that several very determined efforts were made between the years 1871 and 1876 looking toward the protection of the buffalo the failure of all those well meant efforts was due to our republican form of government had this government been a monarchy the buffalo would have been protected but unfortunately in this case perhaps the only one on record wherein a king could have accomplished more than the representatives of the people the necessary act of congress was so hedged in and beset by obstacles that it never became an accomplished fact even when both houses of congress succeeded in passing a suitable act June 23, 1874 it went to the president in the last days of the session only to be pigeon-holed and die a natural death the following is a complete history of congressional legislation in regard to the protection of the buffalo from wanton slaughter and ultimate extinction the first step taken in behalf of this persecuted animal was on March 13, 1871 when Mr. McCormick of Arizona introduced a bill H.R. 157 which was ordered to be printed nothing further was done with it it read as follows be it enacted, etc. that accepting for the purpose of using the meat for food or preserving the skin it shall be unlawful for any person to kill the bison or buffalo found anywhere upon the public lands of the United States and for the violation of this law the offender shall upon conviction before any court of competent jurisdiction be liable to a fine of $100 for each animal killed one half of which some shall upon its collection be paid to the informer on February 14, 1872 Mr. Cole of California introduced in the Senate the following resolution which was considered by unanimous consent and agreed to resolved that the committee on territories be directed to inquire into the expediency of enacting a law for the protection of the buffalo, elk, antelope and other useful animals running wild in the territories of the United States against indiscriminate slaughter and extermination and that they report by bill or otherwise on February 16, 1872 Mr. Wilson of Massachusetts introduced a bill in the Senate S. 655 restricting the killing of the buffalo upon the public lands which was read twice by its title and referred to the committee on territories on April 5, 1872 Mr. B. C. McCormick of Arizona made a speech in the House of Representatives while it was in committee of the whole on the restriction of the killing of buffalo he mentioned a then recent number of Harper's Weekly in which were illustrations of the slaughter of buffalo and also read a partly historical extract in regard to the same he related how when he was once snowbound upon the Kansas Pacific Railroad the buffalo furnished food for himself and fellow passengers then he read the bill introduced by him March 13, 1871 and also copies of letters furnished him by Henry Berg, President of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals which were sent by the latter to General W. B. Hazen Lieutenant Colonel A. G. Brackett and E. W. Wincoop he also read a statement by General Hazen to the effect that he knew of a man who killed ninety-nine buffaloes with his own hand in one day he also spoke on the subject of cross-breeding the buffalo with common cattle and read an extract in regard to it from the San Francisco Post On April 6, 1872 Mr. McCormick asked Leave to have printed in the Globe some remarks he had prepared regarding restricting the killing of buffalo which was granted On January 5, 1874 Mr. Fort of Illinois introduced a bill, H.R. 921 to prevent the useless slaughter of buffalo within the territories of the United States which was read and referred to the committee on the territories On March 10, 1874 this bill was reported to the House from the committee on the territories with a recommendation that it be passed The first section of the bill provided that it shall be unlawful for any person who is not an Indian to kill, wound, or in any way destroy any female buffalo of any age found at large within the boundaries of any of the territories of the United States The second section provided that it shall be in like manner unlawful for any such person to kill, wound, or destroy in said territories any greater number of male buffaloes than are needed for food by such person or then can be used, cured, or preserved for the food of other persons or for the market It shall in like manner be unlawful for any such person or persons to assist or be in any manner engaged or concerned in or about such unlawful killing, wounding, or destroying of any such buffaloes that any person who shall violate the provisions of the act shall, on conviction, forfeit and pay to the United States one hundred dollars for each offence and each buffalo so unlawfully killed, wounded, or destroyed shall be and constitute a separate offence and on a conviction of a second offence may be committed to prison for a period not exceeding thirty days and that all United States judges justices, courts, and legal tribunals in said territories shall have jurisdiction in cases of violation of the law Mr. Cox said he had been told by old hunters that it was impossible to tell the sex of a running buffalo and he also stated that the bill gave preference to the Indians Mr. Fort said the object was to prevent early extermination that thousands were annually slaughtered for skins alone and thousands for their tongues alone that perhaps hundreds of thousands are killed every year in utter wantonness with no object for such destruction he had been told that the sexes could be distinguished while they were running the bill does not prohibit any person joining in a reasonable chase and hunt of the buffalo said Mr. Fort, so far as I am advised gentlemen upon this floor representing all the territories are favourable to the passage of this bill Mr. Cox wanted the clause accepting the Indians from the operations of the bill stricken out and stated that the secretary of the interior had already said to the house that the civilization of the Indian was impossible while the buffalo remained on the plains the clerk read for Mr. McCormick the following extract from the New Mexican a paper published in Santa Fe the buffalo slaughter which has been going on the past few years on the plains and which increases every year is wantonly wicked and should be stopped by the most stringent enactments and most vigilant enforcements of the law killing these noble animals for their hides simply or to gratify the pleasure of some Russian duke or English lord is a species of vandalism which cannot too quickly be checked United States surveying parties report that there are two thousand hunters on the plains killing these animals for their hides one party of sixteen hunters report having killed twenty-eight thousand buffaloes during the past summer it seems to us there is quite as much reason why the government should protect the buffaloes as the Indians Mr. McCormick considered the subject important and had not a doubt of the fearful slaughter he read the following extract from a letter that he had received from General Hazen I know a man who killed with his own hand ninety-nine buffaloes in one day without taking a pound of the meat the buffalo for food has an intrinsic value about equal to an average Texas beef or say twenty dollars there are probably not less than a million of these animals on the western plains if the government owned a herd of a million oxen they would at least take steps to prevent this wanton slaughter the railroads have made the buffalo so accessible as to present a case not dissimilar he agreed with Mr. Cox that some features of the bill would probably be impracticable and moved to amend it he did not believe any bill would entirely accomplish the purpose but he desired that such wanton slaughter should be stopped said he it would have been well both for the Indians and the white men if an enactment of this kind had been placed on our statute books years ago I know of no one act that would gratify the red men more Mr. Holman expressed surprise that Mr. Cox should make any objection to parts of the measure the former regarded the bill as an effort in a most commendable direction and trusted that it would pass Mr. Cox said he would not have objected to the bill but from the fact that it was partial in its provisions he wanted a bill that would impose a penalty on every man red, white or black who may wantonly kill these buffaloes Mr. Potter desired to know whether more buffaloes were slaughtered by the Indians than by white men Mr. Fort thought the white men were doing the greatest amount of killing Mr. Eldridge thought there would be just as much propriety in killing the fish in our rivers in destroying the buffalo in order to compel the Indians to become civilized Mr. Conjure said as a matter of fact every man knows the range of the buffalo has grown more and more confined year after year that they have been driven westward before advancing civilization but he opposed the bill Mr. Hawley of Connecticut said I am glad to see this bill I am in favor of this law but it will pass Mr. Low favored the bill and thought that the buffalo ought to be protected for proper utility Mr. Cobb thought they ought to be protected for the settlers who depended partly on them for food Mr. Parker of Missouri intimated that the policy of the secretary of the interior was a sound one and that the buffaloes ought to be exterminated to prevent difficulties in civilizing the Indians said Mr. Conjure I do not think the measure will tend at all to protect the buffalo Mr. McCormick replied the bill will not prevent the killing of buffaloes for any useful purpose but only their wanton destruction Mr. Casson said I wish to say one word in support of this bill because I have had some experiences to the manner in which these buffaloes are treated by hunters this is a creature of vast utility this animal ought to be protected the question being taken on the passage of the bill there were eyes 132 nose not counted so the bill was passed on June 23rd 1874 this bill HR 921 came up in the senate Mr. Harvey moved as an amendment to bring out the words who is not an Indian said Mr. Hitchcock that will defeat the bill Mr. Frillinghuisen said that would prevent the Indians from killing the buffalo on their own ground I object to the bill Mr. Sargent said I think we can pass the bill in the right shape without objection let us take it up it is a very important one Mr. Frillinghuisen withdrew his objection Mr. Harvey thought it was a very important bill and withdrew his amendment the bill was reported to the senate ordered to a third reading read the third time and passed it went to President Grant for his signature and expired in his hands at the adjournment of that session of Congress on February 2nd 1874 Mr. Fort introduced a bill HR 1689 to tax buffalo hides which was referred to the committee on ways and means on June 10th 1874 Mr. Dawes from the committee on ways and means reported back the bill adversely and moved that it be laid on the table Mr. Fort asked to have the bill referred to the committee of the whole and it was so referred on February 2nd 1874 Mr. R. C. McCormick of Arizona introduced in the house a bill HR 1728 restricting the killing of the bison or buffalo on the public lands which was referred to the committee on the public lands and never heard of more on January 31st 1876 Mr. Fort introduced a bill HR 1719 to prevent the useless slaughter of buffaloes in the territories of the United States which was referred to the committee on the territories the committee on territories reported back the bill without amendment on January 23rd 1876 its provisions were in every respect identical with those of the bill introduced by Mr. Fort in 1874 and which passed both houses in support of it Mr. Fort said the intention and object of this bill is to preserve them the buffaloes for the use of the Indians whose homes are upon the public domain and to the frontiersmen who may properly use them for food they have been and are now being slaughtered in large numbers thousands of these noble brutes are annually slaughtered out of mere wantonness this bill just as it is now presented past the last Congress it was not vetoed and merely for want of time to consider it after having passed both houses he also intimated that the government was using a great deal of money for cattle to furnish the Indians while the buffalo was being wantonly destroyed whereas they might be turned to their good Mr. Crounce wanted the words who is not an Indian struck out so as to make the bill general he thought Indians were to blame for the wanton destruction Mr. Fort thought that amendment unnecessary and stated that he was informed that the Indians did not destroy the buffaloes wantonly Mr. Donnell thought the bill one of great importance the clerk read for him a letter from AG Brackett Lieutenant Colonel 2nd United States Cavalry stationed at Omaha Barracks in which was a very urgent request to have Congress interfere to prevent the wholesale slaughter then going on Mr. Reagan thought the bill proper and right he knew from personal experience how the wanton slaughtering was going on and also that the Indians were not the ones who did it Mr. Townsend of New York saw no reason why a white man should not be allowed to kill a female buffalo as well as an Indian he said it would be impracticable to have a separate law for each Mr. McGinnis did not agree with him he thought the bill ought to pass as it stood Mr. Throckmorton thought that while the intention of the bill was a good one yet it was mischievous and difficult to enforce and would also work hardship to a large portion of our frontier people he had several objections he also thought a cow buffalo could not be distinguished at a distance Mr. Hancock of Texas thought the bill an impolicy and that the sooner the buffalo was exterminated the better Mr. Fort replied by asking him why all the game deer antelope etc. was not slaughtered also then he went on to state that to exterminate the buffalo would be to starve innocent children of the red man and to make the latter more wild and savage than he was already Mr. Baker of Indiana offered the following amendment as a substitute for the one already offered provided that any white person who shall employ hire or procure directly or indirectly any Indian to kill any buffalo forbidden to be killed by this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and punished in the manner provided in this act Mr. Fort stated that a certain clause in his bill covered the object of the amendment Mr. Jenks offered the following amendment strike out the fourth line of the second section the word can and insert shall and in the second line of the same section insert the word wantonly before kill so that the clause will read that it shall be in like manner unlawful for any such person to wantonly kill wound or destroy in the said territories any greater number of male buffaloes then are needed for food by such person or then shall be used cured or preserved for the food of other persons or for the market Mr. Conjure said I think the whole bill is unwise I think it is a useless measure Mr. Hancock said I move that the bill and amendment be laid on the table the motion to lay the bill on the table was defeated and the amendment was rejected Mr. Conjure called for a division on the passage of the bill the house divided and there were eyes 93 nose 48 he then demanded tellers and they reported eyes 104 nose 36 so the bill was passed on February 25th 1876 the bill was reported to the senate and referred to the committee on territories from whence it never returned on March 20th 1876 Mr. Fort introduced a bill HR 2767 to tax buffalo hides which was referred to the committee on ways and means and never heard of afterward this was the last move made in congress in behalf of the buffalo the philanthropic friends of the frontiersmen the indian and of the buffalo himself of accomplishing the worthy object for which they had so earnestly and persistently labored and finally gave up the fight at the very time the effort in behalf of buffalo protection was abandoned the northern herd still flourished and might have been preserved from extirpation at various times the legislatures of a few of the western states and territories enacted laws vaguely and feebly intended to provide some sort of protection to the fast disappearing animals one of the first was the game law of Colorado passed in 1872 which declared that the killers of game should not leave any flesh to spoil the western game laws in those days amounted to about as much as they do practically nothing at all I have never been able to learn of a single instance save in the Yellowstone park wherein a western hunter was prevented by so simple and innocuous thing as a game law from killing game laws were enacted but they were always left to enforce themselves the idea of the frontiersmen the average at least has always been to kill as much game as possible before some other fellow gets a chance at it and before it is all killed off so he goes at the game and as a general thing kills all he can while it lasts and with it feeds himself and family his dogs and even his hogs to repletion I knew one Montana man north of my old city who killed for his own use twenty six black tail deer in one season and had so much more venison could consume or give away that a great pile of carcasses lay in his yard until spring and spoiled during the existence of the buffalo it was declared by many an impossibility to stop or prevent the slaughter such an accusation of weakness and imbecility on the part of the general government is an insult to our strength and resources the protection of game is now and always has been simply a question of money a proper code of game laws and a reasonable number of salaried game wardens sworn to enforce them and punish all offenses against them would have afforded the buffalo as much protection as would have been necessary to his continual existence to be sure many buffaloes would have been killed on the sly in spite of laws to the contrary but it was wholesale slaughter that brought the extermination and that could easily have been prevented attacks of fifty cents each on buffalo robes would have maintained a sufficient number of game wardens to have reasonably regulated the killing and maintained for an indefinite period a bountiful source of supply of food and also raiment for both the white man of the plains and the Indian by judicious management the buffalo could have been made to yield an annual revenue equal to that that we now receive from the fur seals a hundred thousand dollars per year during the two great periods of slaughter eighteen seventy to seventy-five and eighteen eighty to eighty-four the principal killing grounds were as well known as the stockyards of Chicago had proper laws been enacted and had either the general or territorial governments entered with determination upon the task of predicting the killing of buffaloes to proper limits their enforcement would have been in the main as simple and easy as the collection of taxes of course the solitary hunter in a remote locality would have bowled over his half-dozen buffaloes in secure defiance of the law but such desultory killing could not have made much impression on the great mass for many years the business like wholesale wherein one hunter would openly kill five thousand buffaloes and market perhaps two thousand hides could easily have been stopped forever buffalo hides could not have been dealt in clandestinely for many reasons and had there been no sale for ill-gotten spoils the still hunter would have gathered no spoils to sell it was an undertaking of considerable magnitude and involving a cash outlay of several hundred dollars to make up an outfit of wagons horses arms and ammunition food etc for a trip to the range after buffaloes it was these wholesale hunters both in the north and the south who exterminated the species and to say that all such undertakings could not have been effectually prevented by the law is to accuse our lawmakers and law officers of imbecility to a degree hitherto unknown there is nowhere in this country nor in any of the waters adjacent to it a living species of any kind which the united states government cannot fully and perpetually protect from destruction by human agencies if it chooses to do so the destruction of the buffalo was a loss of wealth perhaps twenty times greater than the summit would have cost to conserve it and this stupendous waste of valuable food and other products was committed by one class of the american people and permitted by another with a prodigality and wastefulness which even in the lowest savages would be inexcusable end of section 24