254 
[Feb. 16, 1907. 
Cliffs over which buffalo were driven. 
chiefs or leaders by whom the motions of the 
rest are determined.” 
The situation of the man who led the buffalo 
was often one of considerable danger. Some¬ 
times the buffalo followed him slowly, but some¬ 
times they became excited and followed rapidly. 
In the latter case, there was not a little danger 
that he might be overtaken and trampled by the 
herd, and he was likely as soon as he dared, to 
hide out of the immediate path of the buffalo, 
and either take refuge behind the stone piles or 
possibly dodge into some side ravine where he 
might lie hidden; or, if the buffalo followed de¬ 
liberately, he usually had time to run to the edge 
of the cliff or mouth of the pen, and there slip 
aside and hide. 
Since the procuring of food was the most im¬ 
portant thing that the Indian had to think of, 
the calling of the buffalo into one of these traps 
was a vital matter of Indian life. As with most 
other things, it was preceded by elaborate re¬ 
ligious ceremonials. Prayers were made, sacred 
songs were sung, and sacred objects were un- 
wrapoed and treated in various ceremonial ways. 
The act w^s often preceded by long fasting. 
Among the Blackfeet Indians the most potent 
charm for calling the buffalo was I-nis'-kim, 
which they commonly call the buffalo stone. 
Such a stone was believed to possess mysterious 
power and to give to its possessor a great in¬ 
fluence over the buffalo. Such stones are usually 
small ammonites or sections of baculites, or other 
petrified shells, or sometimes are merely small 
pieces of flint of unusual shape. They are always 
treated with reverence, usually painted with red 
paint—a sacred color—and are kept wrapped up 
in buckskin, the little package being kept in the 
“medicine” bundles. It is said that if an 
I-nis'-kim is wrapped up and left undisturbed for 
a considerable time, it will have young ones; in 
other words, when the bundle is next opened one 
or two small stones similar to the original will 
be found in the package with it. In the Black- 
foot country these fossil shells have usually split 
off from large clay concretions found on the 
prairie, and these concretions are made up almost 
wholly of petrified cretaceous shells closely packed 
together. The young ones believed to be pro¬ 
duced by the I-nis'-kim may be supposed often to 
be small shells which were a part of or were 
attached to the original I-nis'-kim, and which 
have afterwards become freed from it. 
It is said that these buffalo stones make a 
cry of their own. Sometimes a man riding along 
over the prairie may hear a peculiar chirp such 
as a little bird might utter, and he knows that 
this chirp is made by the buffalo stones. He 
stops and searches for the stone, but if after 
looking for it he cannot find it, he is likelv to 
mark the spot and next day to return to renew 
his search. If it is found, there is great rejoic¬ 
ing. How the first stone was found and how its 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
power was made known I have already told. 
The story is as follows: 
One winter, long ago, the buffalo suddenly 
disappeared. The snow was so deep that the 
people could not move in search of them, so 
the hunters killed deer and elk and other small 
game near the camp, and after the supply of 
these was exhausted the people began to starve. 
One day a young married man killed a rabbit 
and ran home with it, and said to one of his 
wives: “Hurry now and get some water in 
which we may cook this food.” The girl took 
a skin and went down to the river, and as she 
was passing along the trail down near the water’s 
edge she heard a beautiful song. It sounded 
close to her, but as she looked about she could 
see no one. The song continued, and now it 
seemed to come from the cottonwood tree near 
the trail. Although the girl was frightened, the 
song was so pretty that she drew near to the 
tree, listening all the time, and as she looked 
closely at the tree trunk, she saw fastened in 
a fork where the tree was split, a stone and with 
the stone some buffalo wool. This was the song 
the stone sang: 
You woman, I possess spiritual power. 
Take me with you. 
I shall be a help to you. 
You will find something to eat. 
Then make a place for me, a pis-kun, 
Pile them in rows, the stones, 
Pile them in rows, the stones, 
The white stones. 
Presently the singing stopped, and the stone 
spoke to the woman and said: “Take me to your 
lodge and when it is dark call in the people 
and teach them the song that you have just 
heard. Pray that you may not starve until the 
buffalo come again. Do this and when day 
comes, your hearts will be glad.” It told her 
also what the people must do and how the 
pis-kun must be built and used. 
The woman did as she was bade, and took the 
stone back to' the lodge and gave it to her hus¬ 
band, telling him about the song, and what the 
stone had said. When it grew dark the man 
called the chiefs and old men to his lodges and 
his wife sang the song. They prayed too, as the 
stone had said should be done. While they 
were praying they heard a noise far off. At first 
it was very low and then louder. It was the 
tramping of a great herd of buffalo coming. 
Ever since that time the people have known that 
this stone was very powerful, and have taken 
care of it and prayed to it. 
These traps varied more or less with the dif¬ 
ferent tribes, and in the same tribe were modi¬ 
fied according to the conditions of the locality 
where the trap was built. The Indians had few 
tools, few means to transporting material from 
place to place, and so the building of any of these 
traps was a long and laborious task. After it 
had been built, however, it was there for a long 
time, and with annual repairs to the walls might 
last for many generations. In some valley a 
place was selected beneath a cut bank and to 
those places the Indians brought trunks of trees, 
brushwood, stones, poles and so on, and built 
a wall six or eight feet high and so tight that 
it could not be seen through. No effort was 
made to make it very strong, for the buffalo that 
might be brought into it would not dash them¬ 
selves against it, but would run around and 
around within it. If at any point the wall was 
low, some great bull might try to leap over it, 
but usually there was no> danger of the wall being 
thrown down. 
While the pen was being constructed, other 
people, usually women and boys, were working 
on the prairie bringing together, often from a 
considerable distance, stones which should mark 
the arms of the chute. Sometimes instead of 
bringing stones, poles were set up in the ground, 
or again bushes. They were placed at a distance 
of from twenty to thirty feet apart. These served 
as guides to direct the buffalo toward the de¬ 
sired point, and also marked the places where 
people were to conceal themselves while the buf¬ 
falo were being called. 
It is evident that this calling of the buffalo 
could be practiced only at times and places when 
the buffalo showed themselves in convenient 
proximity to the arms of the V. A herd could 
be decoyed for a few miles, perhaps, but not for 
a considerable distance. In my book, “The 
Story of the Indian,” I have described at length 
the method of calling the buffalo and what 
took place. 
“Early in the morning, long before the dawn, 
the Blackfoot man arose from his short sleep 
and prepared for his undertaking. He neither 
ate nor drank, but spoke earnestly to his wives, 
bidding them remain within the lodge until his 
return, and telling them that they must burn 
sweet grass to the sun and pray for his suc¬ 
cess. Then he left the lodge and climbed the 
bluffs toward the upper prairie where the arms 
of the chute were. Some men went forth naked, 
others carried a dress made of the entire skin 
of a buffalo, the head and horns arranged like a 
buffalo head, while the rest of the skin hung 
down over the wearer’s back. He marched 
steadfastly along, speaking to no one, for he felt 
the solemnity of the occasion. When the caller 
set out, all the men and boys, and many of the 
women of the camp followed him up on the 
prairie, and by twos and threes lay down behind 
the piles of stones which formed the arms of the 
chute. The caller proceeded on his way until 
he had come near to a herd of buffalo, whose 
position had been ascertained the night before. 
When he was near enough to be seen, yet not 
so close that they could clearly distinguish what 
he was, he began to act very strangely. _ He 
raised himself up so as to be in plain sight, 
then ducked out of view, stood up again and 
whirled round and round, hid again, and then 
walked to and fro, half concealed. 
“This had not gone on long before the nearest 
buffalo began to stare at the man, looking for a 
long time in the endeavor to make out what the 
moving object was, and then taking a few steps 
toward him to get a nearer view. This attracted 
the attention of others of the herd, and they 
began to look and to move a few steps at a 
time after their fellows. When the caller had 
succeeded in fairly attracting the attention of 
the nearest buffalo he began to move slowly 
away in the direction of the chute. He still con¬ 
tinued his antics, and perhaps also called to the 
buffalo ‘Hoo, hoo, hoo, ini'uh, ini'uh, ini'uh.’ As 
he repeated the buffalo followed, at first walk¬ 
ing, but gradually, as they became more excited, 
going faster, trotting a little, and then stopping 
to look, and at last breaking into a gallop. As 
they increased their speed, the man changed his 
pace from a walk to a trot and then to a run, 
and so they went on, at last at top speed, into 
the chute, the man running down between the 
piles of stone and the buffalo in hot pursuit. As 
soon as they were well within the chute, how¬ 
ever, the attention of the buffalo was distracted 
from the man who was leading them. For now. 
