The Bison Hunt: Methods Used In

PLAINS BISON

is smaller than Wood Bison, lighter in colour, has thick wool-like cap between horns, and a thick beard and mane around it's throat. Highest point  is directly over front legs (Wood Bison-Highest point fore of front legs).

For most of their history, the hunt was primarily opportunistic and--although I very much doubt that it was EVER any great concern-- bison supposedly were killed by the tribes only for their own needs.

They soon learned from the Europeans, however, and as trade with Europeans became more important; or at least more appealing, they too began killing bison and took only the hides and tongues, to exchange for trade goods. 

By the 1840, the number of hides prepared for trade was far greater--almost equal to the numbers killed by European settlers. One estimate is that native North Americans were eating or using only four out of every 1000 bison they killed. 

In 1839 the U.S.  Fur Company bought 4500, native killed, bison robes and 6700 the next. It is estimated that the Comanche nation alone were killing 280,000 bison a year, strictly for the fur and hide trade. While the commercial take of anywhere from 2,000 to 100,000 animals per day depending on the season; vastly exceeded the take by Indian or individual meat hunters; with a hide selling for anywhere between$3.00 and $15.00 at a time when $15.00 a month was considered very good pay, the natives soon learned to grab their share.

Before the arrival of man, the bison herds had little to fear from predators. Due to their large size their ONLY natural predator the wolf, would only attack the weak, sick or crippled (thus improving the herd);rarely daring to attack even a small united herd. While grizzly bears would on occasion do the same, or they would attack a cow with a new born calf, black and grizzly bears are not predators, the only carnivorous bear in the entire world being the POLAR BEAR.

Even Europeans had trouble handling heavy bull hides; which may have been one reason the United States insisted on calling the North American animal a buffalo. They were probably hoping Old Word customers would think they were buying much lighter and more pliable raw buffalo hides. Professional commercial skinners would drive an iron spike through the nose of each dead animal with a sledgehammer, hook up to a team of horses or preferably mules, and pull the hide from the carcass. The hides were dressed, prepared, and stacked on the wagons by other members of the organization.

THE BISON HUNT: METHODS USED IN

Many different methods were employed in hunting bison.

Prior to the acquisition of horses, sometimes men covered in wolf skins (bison have a very keen sense of smell, can smell water three miles away, and would be aware that the hunters were not wolves but, like prey animals the world over, they ignore predators that are not in hunting mode, even if that predator is following. Wolves do not attack a herd.), often followed bison, sometimes for days waiting for the best time to attack and kill them. If possible, if there were enough hunters in the party, they would surround a herd, creep up as close as possible; then on a given signal each hunter (or hunters, again if there were enough) would attack an assigned target animal with spears--never arrows-- they had to be very quick and very accurate, before the bison stampeded; which was inevitable. Even a bison struck through the lungs does not die instantaneously. They can sometimes travel for great distances and will attempt to gore anything that moves.

When the Bison pound method was used, the hunters first, built two stout fences forming a funnel shape, through which the bison were chased; or bison were lured into a coulee or ravine by a hunter who dressed in bison robes. Then the other hunters, who were lined up along the ravine, or fence stampeded the animals into a log corral where they killed the bison with spears. the only problems with this scenario is that the bison can easily out run a man on foot and any such fences would have to be over a mile long and six feet high--at least. and, on the plains, where heavy timber is scarce, ; they would have to be very stoutly built.

Sometimes hunters drove bison into DEEP SNOW and then (equipped with snow shoes) killed them. The problem here is that bison avoid snow drifts and areas of deep snow and in most areas, a bison will be able to travel a great deal faster than a man through snow, even if he is equipped with snow shoes. The same is true of water. Bison are very good swimmers and a hunter on foot is very, very, unlikely to have a boat or canoe in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.

Bison are very conscious of and will usually follow a lead bull or cow. However, I very much doubt that they would follow a hunter dressed in bison hide, because as already stated, they have a very keen sense of smell and would be aware that the much smaller hunter was not a bison.

Stampeding--if they could be stampeded --the bison onto thin ice sometimes worked and the bison broke through and drown. But then, the hunters had the problem of trying to get the dead bison out of the water.

After the North American Natives acquired horses:

The most universally glamorized, or romanticized, hunting method and the one favoured by the "Buffalo Bill Wild West Show" and modern Hollywood movie producers was the chase on horseback. In reality, for several different reasons this method was seldom--IF EVER--used. to begin with, It could NOT BE USED until after 1800, the natives did not have the horses. Secondly, only a complete idiot, or someone with a severe suicide compulsion, would ride into a herd of bison or chase them on horseback, causing them to stampede away to Hell and Gone.

Although not really a common occurrence when they are on a dead run, a bison can and will pivot around in almost a complete circle, to attack a chaser. Or, the stampeding bison may-- just swerve. In which case the much smaller, slower, less manoeuvrable native ponies would simply be trampled over. But that is not the greatest danger. Unlike the smooth stadium floors on which the Wild West shows were held, or the like-wise smooth movie sets; the Canadian country side is not smooth. Great as it is, the real danger so much from the bison; as from the fact that neither man, or horse, can see the ground, which may be rough and broken, or perforated with prairie-dog or gopher (ground squirrel) holes. The danger is so imminent, that a man who runs into a herd of bison had best kiss his ass good-bye before he starts, because he is not going to be able to do it any later.

As for driving bison off a cliff-(about as practical and realistic as the horse chase)--only a fool would approach several thousand of these 2000 pound (1 ton) beasts on foot and attempt to drive them anywhere--the natives were not likely to risk the survival of their entire clan by asking twenty or thirty hunters (a very large clan) to risk their lives in doing so; the results of such an attempt were very likely to have been the other way around.  The jumps--such as Head Smashed in Bison Jump outside of Fort McLeod Alberta were used--after the introduction of the horse--not before. Bison are among the most potentially dangerous animals encountered by visitors to the various Canadian National Parks. Although they are not carnivorous, they will attack humans; especially if the humans are on foot and the bison is provoked. Visitors to Elk Island National Park have learned better than to sound their car horns, if bison are blocking the road. Such action is far more likely to cause them to attack than to move out of the way. Bison may appear slow because of their lethargic movements, but they can easily outrun humans-they have been clocked running at 35 miles per hour and they have endurance. Between 1980 and 2000, over four times as many people have be killed or injured by bison (close to a hundred) as have been killed by bears, cougars and all other predators combined. Bison also have the unexpected ability, given the animals' huge size and body structure, to easily leap over a standard barbed wire fence. Even after the introduction of the horse, it is a certainty that far more bison were killed with a lance than ever had been by an arrow. The process of collecting all the necessary materials and producing a single arrow would take up to two weeks; the natives could not afford to lose them. The common weapons of war were clubs, lances, spears and knives made from stone or more often tree bark. The making of a bow string, usually from plant fibre or sometimes three strands of fine sinew was a major undertaking. Later, after the acquisition of rifles; natives like whites, shot bison from a "stand", and at a distance. 

The still-hunt; which was, supposedly, considered the most brutal, and least sportsman like, and CONTRARY TO NATIVE HONOUR,(yea! I'm sure you believe that) was, none-the less,  the method that the North American Native actually used to hunt and kill bison. It took advantage of the bison’s herd animal tendencies and their reliance on having a leader. It involved sitting from a vantage point above the herd and using the rifle to pick off the lead bull or cow and then the rest of the bison. This method allowed for easy massacres One occasion one hundred and twelve rotting bison carcasses were counted "inside of a semi-circle of 200 yards radius, all of which were killed by one NATIVE HUNTER, from the same spot, and in less than three quarters of an hour. Only the tongues and hides had been removed. As stated, only a complete idiot would chase after a herd, causing them to stampede to "Hell and Gone.

Instead the savvy hunter would customarily locate the herd in the early morning, and station himself about 150 yards from it. The animals were always shot broadside through the lungs, still the bullets would often flatten and fail to penetrate, especially if the animal was matted with mud as they most often were. If done properly, using some care a large number of bison could be felled at one time; usually until a wounded animal attacked another, causing the herd to disperse. Because of the added likelihood that they would only wound rather than kill; head, or neck, shots were never used.

To get the optimum use out of bison the Natives had a specific method of butcher. The method involves skinning down the back in order to get at the tender meat just below the surface. This is now known as the "hatch" or "hatched area". After removal of the hatched area, the front legs were cut off as well as the shoulder blades. Doing so exposes the hump meat (in the Wood Bison), as well as the meat of the ribs and the bison's important inner organs. After everything was exposed, the spine was then severed and the pelvis and hind legs removed. Finally, the neck and head were removed as one. This allowed the tough meat to be dried and made into pemmican.©