American Big-Game Hunting 



This method of securing meat has been 

 practised in Montana within thirty years, and 

 even more recently among the Plains Crees 

 of the north. I have seen the remains of old 

 piskuns, and the guiding wings of the chute, 

 and have talked with many men who have 

 taken part in such killings. 



All this had to do, of course, with the 

 primitive methods of buffalo killing. As 

 soon as horses became abundant, and sheet- 

 iron arrow-heads and, later, guns were se- 

 cured by the Indians, these old practices 

 began to give way to the more exciting pur- 

 suit of running buffalo and of surrounding 

 them on horseback. Of this modern method, 

 as practised twenty years ago, and ex- 

 clusively with the bow and arrow, I have 

 already written at some length in another 

 place. 



To the white travelers on the plains in 

 early days the buffalo furnished support and 

 sustenance. Their abundance made fresh 

 meat easily obtainable, and the early travel- 

 ers usually carried with them bundles of 

 dried meat, or sacks of pemmican, food made 

 from the flesh of the buffalo, that contained a 



190 



