The Last of the Buffalo 



before the coming of the whites their 

 knives and arrow-heads were merely sharp- 

 ened stones, weapons which would be in- 

 efficient against such great, thick-skinned 

 beasts. Even under the most favorable 

 circumstances, with these primitive imple- 

 ments, they could not kill food in quanti- 

 ties sufficient to supply their needs. They 

 must have some means of taking the 

 buffalo in considerable numbers. Such 

 wholesale capture was accomplished by 

 traps or surrounds, which all depended for 

 success on one characteristic of the animal, 

 its curiosity. 



The Blackfeet, Plains Crees, Gros Ven- 

 tres of the Prairie, Sarcees, some bands 

 of the Dakotas, Snakes, Crows, and some 

 others, drove the herds of buffalo into 

 pens from above, or over high cliffs, where 

 the fall killed or crippled a large majority 

 of the herd. The Cheyennes and Ara- 

 pahoes drove them into pens on level 

 ground; the Blackfeet, Aricaras, Mandans, 

 Gros Ventres of the Village, Pawnees, 

 Omahas, Otoes, and others, surrounded 

 the herds in great circles on the prairie, 

 and then frightening them so that they 

 started running, kept them from breaking 

 through the line of men, and made them 

 race round and round in a circle, until 



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