206 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



have been pushing them forward, they have galloped through 

 our encampment, jumping over our fires, upsetting pots and 

 kettles, driving horses from their fastenings, and throwing the 

 whole encampment into the greatest instant consternation and 

 alarm." 1 



This account of buffalo slaughter was written by George 

 Catlin, who toured the Indian country of the West between 

 1832 and 1839. Originally, the buffalo roamed over most of 

 what is now the United States. Father Hennepin found them 

 in the Great Lakes country in 1679. A half century later, 

 Colonel William Byrd's party came on buffalo when they were 

 surveying the boundary between North Carolina and Virginia. 2 

 In Pennsylvania there is a town named New Buffalo, because 

 it supposedly marks the spot of a buffalo ford across the Sus' 

 quehanna River. In 1871 there were supposed to be about 

 5,000,000 wild buffalo left in the United States. Eighteen years 

 later that number had shrunk to about 285. And eighteen years 

 after that only a small part of these were left, all of them in 

 Yellowstone National Park. 3 



The buffalo disappeared like snow in a summer sun. The 

 Indians depended on the buffalo for food and clothing. As 

 Walter P. Webb wrote, "The buffalo and the Plains Indian 

 lived together, and together passed away." 4 Before the coming 

 of the white men, there had been so many buffalo that the 

 Indian hunts had no effect on their number. But the white 

 men felt differently about them. They enjoyed riding into the 

 great herds and shooting them for the fun of it. There are 

 accounts of men shooting buffalo from the windows of moving 

 trains. If they were good shots, the bodies would be left behind 

 for the coyotes to eat. Many thousands were killed to supply 

 skins out of which to make the famous buffalo robes which at 



1 Catlin, op. cit., p. 86. 



2 Webb, op. cit., p. 43. 



3 Report of National Conservation Commission of 1909, Vol. Ill, p. 319. 



4 Op. cit., p. 44. 



