part two
Posted 03-09-2009 at 01:29 PM by Terimarie
There are several matters of magnitude to be considered about the Indians and the buffalo:
First, there is the matter of the buffalo’s place in the sphere of Indian religion. Unfortunately, since this function is connected to so many aspects of the Indians life-way, mention of it must be made in many places, and to cover the entire subject here might cause a vital connection to be missed in another chapter. Therefore, the remarks made at this point will include only what is necessary to round out the total picture.
Second, a visual display of the infinite uses made of the buffalo is essential, for it shows the true importance of the buffalo, and also helps to draw a sharper impression of the creative talents of the Plains Indians.
Third, as one ponders the uses made of the bison, he inevitably wants to know how the Indians themselves were able to make so much of it. The answer is found in ferreting out what the Indians learned over the years about the intriguing types and habits of the buffalo. Ultimately it becomes clear that the buffalo’s sex, age, seasons, and varieties offered advantages to the Indian which were so profuse as to be amazing, to say the least.
Fourth, the buffalo hunting and procurement methods used by the Indians need to be set forth.
And finally, a summary of hide preparation methods will complete the vital picture of Indians and buffalo living in what can only be called an “interdependent” state. After all, the Indians trimmed the excess from the herds season by season, and thus made it easier for their vast remaining numbers to exist. The Indians also provided fresh and succulent grass for the herds by burning off areas of prairie at regular intervals to promote new growth. New grass was always an inducement to the herds, and it was common for some of the tribes in the north to burn off certain sections of the plains each spring.
If a child’s name included the word “buffalo” in it, the Indians believed that the child would be especially strong and would mature quickly. And though a name in itself is not the guarantee of automatic transformation, a “buffalo” child usually fulfilled the expectations of others by striving to accomplish what his name implied. If a warrior was renamed after a vision or great hunting or war accomplishment, and his new name included the word “buffalo,” it meant that the buffalo was his supernatural helper, or that he exhibited the strength of a buffalo, or that he was an extraordinary hunter. In other words, the name described the powers of the man.
First, there is the matter of the buffalo’s place in the sphere of Indian religion. Unfortunately, since this function is connected to so many aspects of the Indians life-way, mention of it must be made in many places, and to cover the entire subject here might cause a vital connection to be missed in another chapter. Therefore, the remarks made at this point will include only what is necessary to round out the total picture.
Second, a visual display of the infinite uses made of the buffalo is essential, for it shows the true importance of the buffalo, and also helps to draw a sharper impression of the creative talents of the Plains Indians.
Third, as one ponders the uses made of the bison, he inevitably wants to know how the Indians themselves were able to make so much of it. The answer is found in ferreting out what the Indians learned over the years about the intriguing types and habits of the buffalo. Ultimately it becomes clear that the buffalo’s sex, age, seasons, and varieties offered advantages to the Indian which were so profuse as to be amazing, to say the least.
Fourth, the buffalo hunting and procurement methods used by the Indians need to be set forth.
And finally, a summary of hide preparation methods will complete the vital picture of Indians and buffalo living in what can only be called an “interdependent” state. After all, the Indians trimmed the excess from the herds season by season, and thus made it easier for their vast remaining numbers to exist. The Indians also provided fresh and succulent grass for the herds by burning off areas of prairie at regular intervals to promote new growth. New grass was always an inducement to the herds, and it was common for some of the tribes in the north to burn off certain sections of the plains each spring.
If a child’s name included the word “buffalo” in it, the Indians believed that the child would be especially strong and would mature quickly. And though a name in itself is not the guarantee of automatic transformation, a “buffalo” child usually fulfilled the expectations of others by striving to accomplish what his name implied. If a warrior was renamed after a vision or great hunting or war accomplishment, and his new name included the word “buffalo,” it meant that the buffalo was his supernatural helper, or that he exhibited the strength of a buffalo, or that he was an extraordinary hunter. In other words, the name described the powers of the man.
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Societies named after the buffalo had the animal as their patron. The founder’s vision would have featured the buffalo in a prominent way, and quite probably, all or most of the society members would also have seen buffalo in their dreams or visions.
Holy men who saw buffalo in the vision during which they were called to the practice of medicine would seek thereafter to commune with the Great Spirit through the buffalo. This might be done by prayers spoken to living buffalo, and thus sent through them to God. or by the ritualistic use of buffalo parts such as the skull. Then too, their medicine bundles would always feature parts of the buffalo and or stones associated in the mind of the holy man with the buffalo.
Buffalo calling was a constant and essential practice on the Plains. Since the Indians believed that the buffalo existed for their particular use, it followed that the migrations of the herds were according to a divinely controlled pattern. Whenever, then, the season came for the great herds to approach their area, the Indians of each band sought to assist the process by “calling” the buffalo. Any delay in their appearance would, of course, intensify the calling procedures and amplify the medicine rites.
Buffalo often licked themselves, and in the process swallowed some of the hair. Over the years the years the hair sometimes formed itself into a perfectly round ball two inches or more in diameter. Such a ball was a great find, and it immediately became a buffalo calling item for ritual use.
The Blackfoot had special mystic rites for calling buffalo herds into their area. The medicine person employing the rites had the good fortune to own one or more of the unusual stones called “buffalo stones.” These were small reddish-brown rocks from two to four inches longPosted 03-09-2009 at 01:30 PM by Terimarie
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and naturally shaped something like a buffalo. At least, to an Indian, they looked more like a buffalo than they did anything else. The stones were very rare, and the few that existed were only discovered now and then in the stream beds by searchers.
All that is known about the rites themselves is that the owner of a stone would invite a group of renowned hunters to his tipi to participate in the calling ceremony. There was no dancing in the preliminary rite, but the group did dance in thanksgiving at the conclusion of a successful hunt. All the Plains tribes had special songs which they believed would make the buffalo approach their camp areas. And all the tribes had Dreamers and Holy men who would conduct secret rites and then prophesy where the buffalo were most plentiful. The Mandan’s. after completing a meal, would present a bowl of food to a mounted buffalo head in belief that it would send out messages to living animals, telling them of the Indians’ generosity, and thus inducing them to come closer. They also prayed constantly to the Great Spirit to send them meat, and sometimes pleaded with a mystic “Spiritual Great Bull of the Prairie” to come to them with his cow, and with the herd close behind, naturally!
The Holy men of the Sioux, Assiniboines, and Pawnees used buffalo skulls in rituals designed to entice the herds, and the carcass of the first animal slain in a large hunt was always sacrificed to God. On occasion, Comanche hunters would find a horned toad and ask it where the buffalo were. They believed the toad would scamper off in the direction of the nearest herd. Or the same hunters would watch a raven flying in a circle over their camp and caw to it, thinking it would answer by flying off toward the animals closest to them. They also held a nighttime hunting dance before the men left the main camp to look for buffalo. After the hunt there was a buffalo-tongue ritual and feast which they celebrated as a thanksgiving ceremony. Some of the tribes had a unique hoop game which “called” the buffalo as it was played.Posted 03-09-2009 at 01:31 PM by Terimarie
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In a time of great scarcity, the Mandan White Buffalo Cow Woman Society held a special dance to draw the herds near the village.
George Catlin gives a vivid description of the buffalo calling dance of the Mandan men. The dance lasted three days, with new dancers constantly taking the places of those who became exhausted. About fifteen men danced at a time, each wearing a huge mask made of an entire buffalo’s head, the only change being the insertion of wooden eyes and nosepieces with slits in them to admit air to the dancer. Painted bodies and a buffalo tail tied at the back to a belt completed the costume. Each dancer imitated a buffalo, and when exhausted, sank to the ground. In moments another dancer took his place while he was dragged from the circle of dancers by the bystanders, and ceremonially skinned and butchered.
The Hidatsa tribe had a calling dance in which six elderly men played the parts of buffalo bulls. After dancing for a time in imitation of the bulls, they tasted dishes of boiled corn and beans. Following this, empty bowls were given to them, and each man acted as though he was eating the wonderful buffalo meat which would shortly fill the bowls when the buffalo responded to the rite and came into hunting range.
Speaking generally, when considering the energy put into buffaloPosted 03-09-2009 at 01:32 PM by Terimarie
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calling, it should be recognized that there were many reasons to want the buffalo herds to come close to the camps. First, the transportation problems was a monumental one, since the enormous quantities of meat and heavy hides were not easy to carry from the hunting areas to the camp sites. Second, it was much safer to hunt in one’s own domain. In particular, the penetration of enemy territory or even of contested areas was extremely hazardous. A Ponca spokesman, in describing the plight of his tribe to George Catlin, tearfully stated that the Ponca warriors, who were few in number, were being cut to pieces by the more numerous Sioux because they had to go into Sioux territory to obtain buffalo. And third, without the ever present buffalo all the Indians could not have survived, at least on the Great Plains.
No one knows how many buffalo there were in North America before the White men came. Most estimates for peak period of Plains Indian occupation range from sixty to seventy-five million head. As late as 1830, White hunters guessed that forty million were left. Although the larger herds lived on the Plains, smaller ones also ranged from northern Georgia to Hudson Bay and from the Appalachians to the Rockies and beyond.
The buffalo of North America were not all the same color or size. The Plains type, with which everyone is familiar, was not the largest. The wood buffalo, found in small herds in the eastern parts of the United States and Canada, which some called the Pennsylvania buffalo, was slightly larger. Although it grazed on the open prairies in the summer, it generally sought the protection of the woods in the winter. Another type was the less common mountain buffalo of the Rockies and Pacific coast region. It was smaller, but more fleet than the Plains bison. Unfortunately, both the wood and the mountain buffalo became extinct before scientists could learn much about them.Posted 03-09-2009 at 01:32 PM by Terimarie
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The need for grass and water kept the buffalo on the move most of the time. After a herd had consumed the grass on one part of the range, it was forced to move on to fresh forage. With luck, about every third day the animals would come to water, and did their drinking mostly at night. hunters said that when a herd left a river and started up a canyon, the sound was like distant thunder and often could be heard for miles. Some early explorers believed that the herds made long seasonal migrations, moving from south to north in the spring and returning in the fall. Others maintained that the herd movements were more local. George Catlin, who went west in 1832 to study and paint the Indians, decided that the buffalo seemed to enjoy travel, but were not truly migratory. “They graze in immense herds and almost incredible numbers at times,” he wrote. “They roam over vast tracts of country, from east to west and from west to east as often as from north to south.”
A early writer named J.A.Allen supported Catlin’s view. He noted that, while most of the buffalo abandoned the hot Texas plains in the summer for those farther north, “it is improbable that the buffalos of Saskatchewan ever wintered in Texas. Doubtless the same individuals never moved more than a few hundred miles in a north and south direction, the annual migration being merely a moderate swaying northward and southward of the whole mass with the changes of the season.”
Apparently, there were at least two, and probably three, herds moving in smaller circles within their own areas, north, south, and central. This took some of them in and out of each tribal area more than once during the year, whereas if the single herd idea applied they would have passed through many tribal domains but once.Posted 03-09-2009 at 01:36 PM by Terimarie
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Ordinarily the herd moved at a leisurely pace, with each animal nibbling at tufts of grass as it went along. Yet the buffalo was easily frightened, and sudden movement, sound, or unusual odor could cause a terrifying and crushing stampede. A wind-blown leaf, the bark of a prairie dog, or the passing shadow of a cloud could put the entire herd into a headlong flight. Even a small grass fire could send them running for many miles. The smell or sight of man would do the same, and for this reason the Indians evolved some careful and strict regulations to govern the great annual hunts.
The size, appearance, and grazing habits of the buffalo help us to understand why early explorers referred to it as a cow. To them, its only difference from cattle lay in its having a hump on its back, a larger head and front legs, and a mat of purple shaggy hair over its foreparts.
The color of the buffalo’s coat varied with its age, and from one geographical area to another. Some southern buffalo were tawny, and others were almost black. Farther north, one might find an occasional blue or mouse colored buffalo, or even a pied or spotted one. Rarest of all was the albino, of which few existed, and even they varied from dirty gray to pale cream.Posted 03-09-2009 at 01:37 PM by Terimarie
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The Indian warriors set a high value on a white buffalo robe and were reluctant to part with one. A certain Cheyenne war chief wore a white robe when he led his warriors into battle, and believed that it would shield him from all harm. Some of the holy men used white robes in their medical curing rituals.
To a unschooled person, all buffalo in a herd looked alike. But there were many kinds and sizes, and their hide qualities varied considerably with the seasons. In fact, one had to know a great deal about them to utilize their fullest capabilities.
Mating time was in July. Throughout the winter the bachelor breeding bulls, grouped in small and large herds, roamed peacefully by themselves. But about mid-July, when the running season began, they joined the cows. During this period the bull buffalo became exceedingly vicious toward one another, and toward any Indians foolish enough to approach them. Any cow in breeding condition would be closely followed by a pugnacious bull, and “tending” pairs would be a common sight on the outskirts of every band until late August.Posted 03-09-2009 at 01:37 PM by Terimarie
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Whenever bulls contend with each other for the right to a cow, the rest of the herd circled restlessly around the two antagonists. Other bulls would be pawing dirt and bellowing deep down in their throats, while the cows looked on as avid spectators. Battles were often to the death, and the larger and stronger animals were usually the victors. Bulls fought forehead to forehead, roaring, heaving, and seeking to push each other backward. Much of the fighting was ritual, but the moment one gave up the jousting and turned away he was promptly gored. A swift move and quick turn of the head, left a long, deep gash in his side. The intestines immediately came out, and the loser died. The victor paid no attention to the victim after the fatal hook was made, and the cow in question was calmly escorted away. Such battles were so intense while they were going, though, that bulls would ignore human beings. Even though the main herd fled at the approach of a mounted Indian, the titanic gladiators fought on. So Indian onlookers frequently saw these Herculean contest at close range, and were able to tell about them later on.
Strangely enough, old bulls mated with young cows, and young bulls with the matured cows. In the early part of the mating season, perhaps to avoid fighting, a bull with one or more cows would stay in deep coulees which were some distance from the large part of the herd.
From late summer to early fall, the buffalo grouped together in small and large herds. Bull fights at this time were rare. With grass at its plentiful best, the buffalo became fat and robust. Long lines made their leisurely way to water and back again to the feeding grounds. Usually they traveled single file, and the primary buffalo trails became three or more feet deep in places.Posted 03-09-2009 at 01:38 PM by Terimarie
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When a herd crossed a large river, such as the Missouri, they swam in small groups, one group after the other. Because of the vast size of the herds, the leaders were already across and on their way to new feeding grounds before the last of the groups had moved up to the river. Often several hours had passed before the last group was across. When buffalo were swimming they occasionally blew water through their nostrils. This made a peculiar noise which could be heard underwater for amazing distances. The bellowing of the bulls was itself a sound which could be heard for as much as ten miles! By October of a good year, all the buffalo were fat and the bulls were still moving with the herds, and it was the best time for tribal hunting. The first days of the hunt were devoted to obtaining all the meat needed for the winter. The chase for robes came later.
In August the bulls left the herds. They gathered in small groups and remained away from the cows until breeding time. During this period the hides from four year old cows were taken. The hair was not prime, but the hides were just right for new lodges.
Buffalo calves, weighing from twenty five to forty pounds at birth, started to drop about April, and continued to appear till May. As far as is known there were no twins, but a Assiniboine named Crazy Bull claimed he saw a two headed unborn calf while butchering a cow which he killed in March. In a chase, calves never ran close to their mothers. All of them fell to the rear, so even if there were twins, they were not discernible as such by the IndiansPosted 03-09-2009 at 01:39 PM by Terimarie
