THE AMERICAN BISONS. 187 
annual aggregate of nearly three and a half millions as the number de- 
stroyed by the Upper Missouri tribes alone. South of this region there 
were at this time upwards of forty thousand Indians belonging to other 
tribes living within the range of the buffalo, besides the numerous populous 
tribes inhabiting the buffalo range north of the United States. The number 
that must have been killed each year by all these tribes together is a start- 
ling sum to contemplate. 
In 1854 the Hon. H. H. Sibley, in his paper on the buffalo contained in 
Schooleraft’s “ History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the 
United States,” gives a later estimate of their annual destruction in the Mis- 
souri region. He says: “From data which, although not mathematically 
correct, are sufficiently so to enable us to arrive at conclusions approxi- 
mating the truth, it has been estimated that for each buffalo-robe transported 
from the Indian country, at least five animals* are destroyed. If it be borne 
in mind that very few robes are manufactured of the hides of buffalo except 
such as, in hunter’s parlance, are killed when they are in season, that is 
during the months of November, December, and January, and that even of 
these a large proportion are not used for that purpose, and also that the 
skins of the cows are principally converted into robes, those of the males 
being too thick and heavy to be easily reduced by the ordinary process of 
scraping; together with the fact that many thousands are annually destroyed 
through sheer wantonness, by civilized as well as savage men, it will be found 
that the foregoing estimate is a moderate one. From the Missouri region 
the number of robes received varies from forty thousand to one hundred 
thousand, so that from a quarter to half a million of buffaloes are destroyed 
in the period of each twelvemonth.” ¢ 
From the preceding remarks it is evident that Mr. Sibley’s estimate is far 
below the truth. Since as many robes are doubtless used by the Indians 
themselves as they sell, this number must include not more than half of the 
robes taken during only three or four months of the year. Hence instead 
of one fourth to half a million representing the number annually killed at 
this date in the Missouri region, probably a million to a million and a half 
would be a much nearer estimate. : 
In June, 1873, I met at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory, Mr. F. 
* Evidently quite too low an estimate. 
} Schooleraft’s History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, Vol. IV, 
p. 94, 
