Buffalo Hunting on the Plains

The Indians of the pioneer High Plains took to riding horses as easily as a bird to flight, as they say.  Their equestrian skills for buffalo hunting were superb - a game they found thrilling and perilous.

Killing buffalo demanded great skill in both horsemanship and marksmanship.  An Indian could send off eight arrows in the time it took to reload a gun.  An injured buffalo was dangerous, so a hunter had to hit the right spot or risk dying himself.

With mobility and speed on horseback, all agricultural pursuits disappeared.  They became totally nomadic and spent most of the year in pursuit of the herds.  Entire families went on the chase, carrying all their belongings on travois (a type of sled on poles to pull).

In times of plenty, only the choice meat was taken, but when the times were scarce, the buffalo became a supermarket on the hoof.  Hides for tepee coverings, clothes, drums, robes, moccasins, quivers, medicine bags, shields, saddles, stirrups, dolls, and gun cases.  Even the stomach was used as a water container, its contents as skin ointments.

Next time...The Code of the Warrior


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Today in Pioneer History:  On April 28, 1897,  the Chickasaw and Choctaw, two of the Five Civilized Tribes, become the first to agree to abolish tribal government and communal ownership of land. The other tribes soon followed, finally throwing open all of Indian Territory to white settlement.

Plains Indian Rituals and Visons

While some of the rituals of the Plains Indians were celebrations somewhat reserved in our traditions such as the Mandan Indians' celebration of the harvest with the corn dance - symbolic cornstalks, ears of corn and food bowls - most of the rituals of these tribes was quite brutal to us.

Torture played a major role in many rituals of the Plains Indians.  The vision quest, common to all Plains tribes was particularly important.  It was through a regiment of self denial and torture that a young man made contact with his personal protector from the spirit world by calling him forth in a vision.

The spirit usually appeared in the form of an animal or a bird - the buffalo, elk, bear and eagle were common, but even mice and mosquitoes might appear.  Such conjuring was vital to the brave's success when he hunted buffalo, the primary staple of all Plains Indians.

Before the arrival of the horse in the 17th century, Plains Indians lived on corn and a few buffalo which they could kill on foot.  Warriors (and sometimes squaws) would stampede the buffalo, driving them over the cliffs.  Other times, covered in wolf skins, they would sneak up on the herds with bow and arrow range, and with luck kill a few before the herd stampeded off. 

Next time...The Movie Star Indians
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On this Day in Pioneer History:  On April 21, 1895, Woodville Latham and his sons, Otway and Gray, demonstrate their “Panopticon,” the first movie projector developed in the United States.