286 THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 



On our return to the fort a bottle or two of wine were sot forth upon the table, 

 and around it a half a dozen parched throats were soon moistened, and good cheer 

 ensued. Batiste, DeTonde, Chardon, &c, retired to their quarters, enlarging 

 smoothly upon the events of our morning's work, which they were reciting to their 

 wives and sweethearts, when about this time the gate of the fort was thrown open, 

 and the procession of carts and pack-horses laden with buffalo meat made its entree, 

 gladdening the hearts of a hundred women and children, and tickling the noses of as 

 many hungry dogs aud puppies who were stealing in and smelling at the tail of the 

 procession. The door of the ice-house was thrown open, the meat was discharged 

 into it, and I, being fatigued, went asleep. — Pages 25-28, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight 

 Years. 



408. Buffalo chase ; single death; an Indian just drawing his arrow to its head.* 

 (Plate No. 107, page 252, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years.) 



INDIAN MOUNT AND MANNER OF HUNTING THE BUFFALO. 



As my visit to these parts of the great far West has brought me into the heart of 

 the buffalo country, where I have had abundant opportunities of seeing this noble 

 animal in all its phases, its habits of life, and every mode of its death, I shall take 

 the liberty of being yet a little more particular, and of rendering some further ac- 

 counts of scenes which I have witnessed in following out my sporting propensities in 

 these singular regions. 



The chief hunting amusement of the Indians in these parts consists in the chase of 

 the buffalo, which is almost invariably done on horseback, with bow and lance. In 

 this exercise, which is highly prized by them, as one of their most valued amusements, 

 as \^ell as for the principal mode of procuring meat for their subsistence, they be- 

 come exceedingly expert, and ar3 able to slay these huge animals with apparent 

 ease. 



The Indians in these parts are all mounted on small, but serviceable horses, which 

 are caught by thern on the prairies, where they are often running wild in numerous 

 bands. The Indian, then, mounted on his little wild horse, whichhas been throughsome 

 years of training, dashes off at full speed amongst the herds of buffaloes, elks, or even 

 antelopes, and deals his deadly arrows to their hearts from his horse's back. The 

 horse is the fleetest animal of the prairie, and easily brings his rider alongside of his 

 game, which falls a certain prey to his deadly shafts at the distance of a few paces. 



In the chase of the buffalo, or other animal, the Indian generally " strips" himself 

 and his horse by throwing off his shield and quiver and every part of his dress, 

 which might be an incumbrance to him in running ; grasping his bow in his left 

 hand, with five or six arrows drawn from his quiver, and ready for instant use. In 

 his right hand (or attached to the wrist) is a heavy whip, which, he uses without 

 mercy, and forces his horse alongside of his game at the swiftest speed. 



* In 1838 Mr. Catlin had his gallery on exhibition in New York, at Stuyvesant Institute. Keokuk, 

 his wife, son, and some twenty warriors (on a visit to "Washington) were present, also some Sioux, 

 with Mr. Le Clair, the interpreter. Mr. Catlin says: "In a few minutes afterwards I was exhibiting 

 several of my paintings of buffalo hunts and describing the modes of slaying them with bows and ar- 

 rows, when I made the assertion, which I had often been in the habit of making, that there were 

 man3 T instances whore the arrow was thrown entirely through the buffalo's body, and that I had sev- 

 eral times witnessed this astonishing feat. (See No. 408.) I saw evidently, by the motions of my au- 

 dience, that many doubted the correctness of my assertion, and I appealed to Keokuk, who rose up, 

 when the thing was explained to him, and said that it had repeatedly happened amongst his tribe, 

 and he believed that one of his young men by his side had done it. The young man instantly stepped 

 up on the bench, and took a bow from under his robe, with which, he told the audience, he had driven 

 his arrow quite through a buffalo's body; and, there being forty of the Sioux from the Upper Mis- 

 souri also present, the same question was put to them, when the chief arose, and, addressing himself 

 to the audience, said that it was a thing very often done by the hunters in his tribe." — T. D. 



