REC REATION 



VOL. XXIII. 



JULY, 1905 



No. i 



BUFFALO HUNTING THIRTY-FIVE 



YEARS AGO 



By CAPT. JAMES W. DIXON, LATE U.S.A. 



Captain Dixon is deeply interested in our movement for the preservation 

 of the buffalo, and in giving us this description of conditions on the plains 

 thirty-five years ago he hopes to assist in the work by calling attention to the 

 important part the Bison played in the upbuilditfg of the Western frontier. 

 Coming from a veteran of the old Bison trails the article cannot but be of 

 lasting interest to our readers. — Editor. 



HE Kansas Pacific 

 Railroad had been 

 constructed only as 

 far West as Fort 

 Riley in 1867 an( ^ 

 the great plains with 

 their monotonous 

 undulations known in 

 Western parlance as 

 "divides," stretched away for hundreds 

 of miles North, West and South, un- 

 relieved by any sign of civilization, 

 save here and there a station of the 

 overland stage route, or a military post 

 or "fort." 



So numerous were buffaloes when 

 I first struck the plains that hundreds 

 of thousands of them were killed by In- 

 dians, tourists and traders, many for 

 their skins alone, and sometimes not 

 even that excuse was made for their 

 slaughter. Every traveling tourist who 

 had the means must needs have his 

 fling at the buffalo, and the only con- 

 solation in the contemplation of their 

 wanton butchery is that the buffalo 

 sometimes had his fling at them. 



At this time the buffalo furnished the 

 chief food of the five wild tribes of 

 plains Indians, the Sioux or "Cut- 

 throats, Cheyennes or Sacrificers, Kio- 

 was or "Prairie tribe," Arapahoes or 

 "Cutnoses," and Apaches, Lipans, or 

 "poor band." The estimated number 

 of buffaloes on the plains in 1868 was 

 2,000,000. 



With the Indians the buffalo was the 

 aboriginal occupant of the plains and 

 the movements of the immense herds 

 governed the location of the tribes. 

 Before the settlement of the country by 

 the whites, the buffalo roamed over the 

 whole territory, from the Missouri river 

 to the Rocky mountains and from the 

 plains of Western Texas to the head- 

 waters of the Missouri in the far North. 

 Thirty-five years ago the buffalo was 

 not found South of the Red river, or 

 within two hundred miles of the Mis- 

 souri at Kansas City. 



Like many wild animals the buffalo 

 was migratory in his habits, his move- 

 ments having been influenced by the 

 seasons and by abundance or scarcity 



