February, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
81 
having been educated at the Agency. 
On the morning of the fourth day the 
camp was thrown into a state of excite¬ 
ment by the appearance of one of the 
scouts who, although a long distance from 
camp, by riding his horse in a certain man¬ 
ner conveyed to them the intelligence that 
he had located buffalo. The headman in a 
powerful voice was shouting orders; some 
men mounted and dashed away to drive 
in the horse herd, while others rushed 
around getting their equipment ready and 
by the time the scout had arrived 70 well 
mounted Indians were ready to start. At 
the very first, Big Elk had sent me word 
to be ready if I wished to go with them, 
and I lost no time in saddling “Doc’ - —dear 
old Doc, for nine years my constant com¬ 
panion and one of the fleetest horses on 
the plains. In a few minutes we had 
•started and for nearly 1 2 miles kept up a 
'steady gallop. The horses were soon in a 
lather of sweat, but the Indians showed 
them no mercy, which surprised me as I 
■knew a sharp fierce run was yet /to follow. 
After crossing, the Saline River and going 
■far up the opposite slope nearly to the 
table-land midway between the Saline and 
South Fork of the Solomon River we sud¬ 
denly drew rein and dismounted, and while 
Big Elk and the scout rode off, the Indians 
flinging themselves on the ground drew 
from arrow quivers at their backs, their 
long-stemmed red-clay pipes, and seemed 
to take great satisfaction in inhaling deeply 
and exhaling the smoke through the nose. 
The horses after getting their breath were 
permitted to graze. 
I took occasion to notice their various 
arms. Most of them still used the bow 
and arrow, a few had Spencer rifles simi¬ 
lar to those used by U. S. Cavalry at that 
time; a few, in addition to bows and ar¬ 
rows, carried the old fashioned cap and 
ball Colts Dragoon pistols, while two of 
them had long barrel muzzle-loading Ken¬ 
tucky squirrel rifles. The arrows had one 
uniform groove along the shaft to desig¬ 
nate the tribe, while each family had its 
particular tepee groove; these grooved ar¬ 
rows not only showed to which tepee the 
game belonged, but made a channel for 
the blood to flow along freely. 
A FTER an absence of about an hour 
Big Elk returned and following his 
instructions the men rapidly mounted 
and departed, some going westward and 
some to the east while Big Elk and the re¬ 
mainder, including myself, remained where 
we were. After what seemed to me an 
interminable wait we suddenly saw a col¬ 
umn of smoke shoot up to the north almost 
directly opposite us, followed immediately 
by similar ones to the east and west of us. 
Big Elk had collected a few handfuls of 
dry sage brush which he ignited and with 
a deft and peculiar twist of his blanket 
made a funnel which sent the thick smoke 
skyward in a straight column; then care¬ 
fully stamping out the fire, the order to 
mount was given. 
As we neared the plateau the Indians 
spread out fan-shaped to the right and left 
and as we came over the crest of the divide 
we saw the buffalo quietly lying down 
about a mile away; at the same moment, 
Indians could be seen closing in from 
every direction, racing their horses at top 
speed. The startled buffalo knew not 
which way to turn for escape, and indeed 
for them there was no escape. In a mo¬ 
ment each buffalo was tearing across the 
plain in a mad dash for life, but there was 
an Indian for each buffalo, in fact there 
were 70 Indians and only 65 .buffalo. 
Cody’s Wild-West show could not begin 
to offer the wild excitement that prevailed 
for the next half hour; it was simply glo¬ 
rious. Frank La Fleche, mounted on a 
magnificent rangy American horse, was the 
hero of the chase and killed five of the 
buffalo. It was a wonderful sight to see 
the Indians stripped to the waist and rid¬ 
ing like centaurs, guiding their horses by 
their knees and the bending of their bod¬ 
ies, allowing free action of the arms to 
use the bow. They shot their arrows with 
such force that missing a bone it would 
go entirely through the body. For close 
range I think these arrows were as effec¬ 
tive as the Colts pistol which was the white 
man’s chosen weapon for shooting buffalo 
from horseback. 
The run over, the Indians gathered to¬ 
gether, laughing and chattering in great 
spirits, to my surprise paying no attention 
whatever to the dead buffalo, which was 
soon explained; it was for the women to 
attend to saving meat and hides, and soon 
a large number of them arrived from camp, 
many of their ponies dragging travois on 
which to carry the spoils of the hunt. The 
travois were made from tent poles fastened 
on either side the pony like buggv-thills, 
except that one end drags upon the ground; 
just back of the pony’s legs cross pieces 
are fastened between the travois poles and 
a lace work of rawhide thongs made, on 
which rests the load. I have seen expert 
butchers skinning cattle at slaughter houses 
but have never seen the work of the Indian 
squaws surpassed in this direction They 
used a knife that had a thick blade, per¬ 
fectly flat on one side and with a beveled 
edge on the other which greatly lessened 
the risk of cutting the hide. They had 
provided themselves with large quantities 
of small wooden pegs and as soon as the 
hides were stripped off small holes were 
cut around the edges and the hide was 
pegged to the ground stretched out to its 
fullest extent. Fleshing hoes were then 
used to remove all flesh and indeed the 
thickness of the skin of the older animals 
was considerably reduced. After the hides 
were dried they were tied into compact 
bundles for transportation. 
T HE white buffalo hunters wasted all 1 
the meat except the small amount 
they ate. The Indians sayfed every¬ 
thing; they cut the meat inta'Uong strips 
which were exposed to the sun and quickly 
cured. The whites call this “jerked beef.” 
It was a staple article of diet. 
Every particle of the sinew was saved 
for thread and bow-strings. The Indians 
returned to camp later in the afternoon, 
but the squaws did not return until they 
had cured and baled all the meat and. hides, 
which occupied them several days. The 
Indians maintained their camp at Buffalo 
station for nearly a month and killed a 
good many buffalo, but I was only privi¬ 
leged to accompany them on their first hunt. 
[Francois La Fleche, no longer a young 
buffalo hunter, has of late years been con¬ 
nected with the Indian service and now 
resides in Washington, D. C.— Editors. 1 
1 ifflQkiai.. 
Once possessors of the prairies, today the bison exists only in a few protected herds 
