V 



t 



THE AMEEICAE" BISOXS, 



187 







I 



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 buftalo, 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 

 Schoolcraft'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 mathematical 

 correct, are sulEciently so to enable us to arrive at conclusions approxi- 

 matiiig 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. 



" J 



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 



r 



of one fourth to half a million representing the number annually killed at 



r 



this date in the Missouri region, probably a million to a million and a half 

 would be a much neai'er estimate. 



In June, 1873, I met at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory, Mr. F. 



Y 



\ 



* Evidently quite too low an estimate. 



t Sclioolcraft's, History, Condition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States, Vol. IV, 



p. 94. 



: 



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