Restoring Buffalo to the Dakota Plains::

Indian Hunters on the Plains I

The American b. bison bison, or Plains bison, were descendents of a much larger species, the b. latifrons, whose earliest records on the American continent reach back beyond the last ice age to a time some 200,000 to 800,000 years ago. At their peak, their numbers reached around 40 million. Though they ranged a distance spanning the entire North American continent, their numbers were concentrated in the Plains region.

Though the total number of buffalo numbered in their millions, the individual bands in which they roamed were small, ranging anything from three to 200. But there were times during the year when one could see mile upon mile of buffalo blanketing the prairie. For the largest part of the year the bands consisted of cows and children. Bulls would feed nearby, probably a mile or so away.

The hunting of herds of grazing animals on the Plains goes back at least 12,000 years. The prehistoric hunters hunted the buffalo on foot, razing the earth with fire and propelling buffalo herds down ravines or over cliffs. With only spears, darts, and later, bows and arrows at their disposal, this combination was the most effective hunting method of killing enough buffalo at one time. Such hunting fires, recurring year after year and over many thousands of acres, kept the Plains grasslands free from encroaching trees and shrubs and pushed back the forests along the eastern edge.

Most tribes settled in small farming villages along the fringes of the buffalo country, venturing out onto the Plains to hunt during the summer and fall. A few remained permanently on the Plains, engaging in little gardening or farming, subsisting on the buffalo, smaller game and on fruits, nuts and seeds gathered sporadically. During the winter, shelter was sought in valleys or canyons.

Acquisition of the horse from the Spanish around the mid-to-late 1600s radically transformed the tribes' ability to hunt. By the late 1700s, both horses and guns had made their way onto the Plains, the combination of which allowed the Indians to hunt a wider range in pursuit of more buffalo. Buffalo were still run off cliffs or into ravines, but this time they driven off by mounted hunters rather than fires. The horse also enabled men to hunt off the hoof, so to speak: to charge after herds on horses and kill on horseback with guns, lances, and arrows. Buffalo hides became a primary currency of trade used by Indians at trading posts. Ironically, this began the first in a dramatic series of changes that would alter both the buffalo and the Indian way of life.

Not all tribes moved permanently onto the Plains with the advent of the horse. Nor did the advent of the horse necessarily lead to a uniform shift in subsistence activities of all tribes in the area. Some, such as the Santee Sioux and the Osage, remained in the eastern woodland fringes, raising crops such as squash, beans and corn, in their permanent farming villages, venturing out during the summer to hunt for meat and robes. The Caddoan-speaking villagers such as the Arikara, the Pawnee and the Wichita remained essentially horticulturist, certainly more so than their sedentary Siouan neighbours such as the Mandan-Hidatsa, Omaha, Ponca and Osage.

Others who lived on the western fringes of the buffalo range, in the Columbia Basin for example, also lived semi-nomadically. Though they ventured east to hunt, they depended on salmon runs for most of their food. Of these western tribes, the Nez Percé, Flatheads, and Coeur d'Alene were probably the most successful at buffalo hunting, spending up to two or three years on the range at a time.

The Teton, or western, Sioux were among those for whom the horse became a ticket to a new and almost exclusively nomadic existence. Indeed, these Dakotas were an example excellent equestrian nomads. In their hunger for meat, freedom, adventure and more land, this proud and aggressive nation moved onto the Plains around the mid-1700s. One band of the Teton Sioux encountered by the Lewis and Clark expedition in the early 1800s lived in tipis all year round, across a region of prairie between the mouths of the Cheyenne and White Rivers, planted no farms or gardens, and traded with the farming villages to the east for any corn or beans that they needed. The Teton Sioux followed the buffalo herds practically all year round, and soon nearly every aspect of their social and spiritual lives had become intertwined with their mighty brethren.

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