Herd on the Move, W. J. Hays, 1862 At the time of the mountain men, the Indians upon the great plains were dependent upon the bison and the horse. But scarely a hundred years before, when the first white men ventured into the northern Rocky Mountain West, not all tribes had horses. Thus, in 1731, when Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye (1685-1749), began his expeditions in search of a route across the continent to the Pacific, the Indians had no horses. Thirteen years later, when his two sons, François and Louis-Joseph de la Verendrye, continued their father's quest, horses amongst the Indians they encountered appeared to be common. The two sons were the first white men to venture into present day Wyoming, reaching an area near present-day Sheridan in January 1743. The expedition, however, could not proceed when it lost its Indian guides. François explained: We continued our march until the 8th of January. On the 9th we left the village, and I left my brother behind to guard our baggage which was in the lodge of the Bow chief. Most of the people were on horseback marching in good order. Finally on the twelfth day we arrived at the mountains. For the most part they are well wooded with timber of every kind and appear very high. Being near the main village of the Gens du Serpent our scouts came to inform us that they had all made their escape with great precipitation, and that they had abadoned their lodges and a large part of their effects. this report caused terror among all our people, for they feared that the enemy, having discovered them, had made for their villages and would get there before they could. The chief of the Gens de l'Arc did what he could to get that idea out of their heads and persuade them to go forward, but no one would listen to him. "It is very annoying," he said to me, "that I have brought you so far and that we cannot go any farther." I was greatly mortified not to be able to climb the mountains as I had wished. We then decided to return. Journal of the Expedition of the Chevalier de La Vérendrye and One of His Brothers to Reach the Western Sea, Addressed to M. the Marquis de Beauharnois, 1742-43 Buffalo Hunt Under the White Wolf Skin, George Catlin, 1844. In the above painting, the Indians, disquised as white wolves, are creeping up on the bison. Catlin (1796-1872) toured the American West five times beginning in 1830. His purpose was to document scenes that he believed would be shortly gone. Prior to the coming of the horse, the Indians' only beast of burden was the domestic dog. Thus, travel was limited, tipis were small and the transportation of provisions was only that which could be carried by hand or on small travois pulled by dogs. The Indians were, thus, confined mainly to the periphery of the Great Plains. Game and bison were only those caught by braves on foot. Bison could be killed by sneaking up on the animals in disquise, by surrounding a small number of the beasts, or by stampeding a herd from a precipice, a method later to be referred as a "buffalo jump." Edward S. Curtis described the method used: The earliest method of killing buffalo was by making camp around the herd, with the tipis pitched close together, side by side; then two young men with waka bows and arrows ran around the entrapped animals, singing medicine-songs to bring them under a spell, so that the people could close in and kill large numbers. Following this primitive method, they slaughtered numberless bison by driving them into a compound -- a stockade-like enclosure, usually of logs, at the foot of some abrupt or sheer depression, its plan of construction depending on the nature of the ground. In a mountainous region, where the buffalo plains might end at a high cliff, no enclosure was needed. The long line of stampeded animals would flow over the precipice like a stream of water, to be crushed to death in their fall. There was no possibility of drawing back at the brink; the solid mass was irresitibly forced on by its own momentum, and the slaughter ended only with the passing of the last animal that had been decoyed or driven into the stampede. At other times the embankment over which the buffalo ran was only high enough to form one side of the enclosure. In rare instances pens were built on the open prairie, and at one side of the stockade was thrown up an inclined approach along with the buffalo were driven to fall at its end into the corral. The most famous of Wyoming's buffalo jumps is the Vore Buffalo Jump located near Beulah. From the layers of bones, scientists have estimated that some 20,000 bison were killed at the site and that it was in use as late as 1800 A.D. Other buffalo jumps have been located near Sheridan, the Big Goose Jump, used about 1500 A.D.; the Glenrock Jump and one on Steamboat Mountain in the Red Desert. Buffalo Jump Curtis continues: The manner of driving and decoying the bison was a varied as the form of the slaughter-pen; but whatever the method, the purpose and results were the same -- the object was to stampede the herd, or a part of it, and to direct the rapidly moving animals to a given point, the Indians knowing that, once well in motion, they would run into their own destruction. The Sioux built out in rapidly diverging lines from the pen a light brush construction, not in truth a fence, as it was only substantial enough to form a line. Men concealed themselves behind this brush, and when the herd was well inside the lines the hunters rose up and by shouting and waving their blankets frightened the animals on. Sometimes a man skilful in the ways of the bison would disguise himself in one of their skins and act as leader of the drove to the extent of starting them in their mad rush. By this method the Indians simply took advantage of a characteristic habit of the buffalo -- to follow their leader blindly. The movement grew into a stampede, and forced the leading animals before it. If the advance was toward a sharp gully, it was soon filled with carcasses over which the stream of animals passed; if toward swampy land or a river with quicksand bed, numbers were swalllowed in the treacherous depths. If it happened that the route took the herd across a frozen lake or stream, the ice might collapse with their combined weight and drown hundreds; and the Indians relate many instances in which during winter the herd failed to see the edge of an arroyo or a small cañon filled with drifted snow and were buried one after another in its depths, the buffalo seemingly not having sufficient instinct of self-preservation to stop or turn aside. Wild Horses, George Catlin The coming of the horse to the Great Plains was as a result of the Indians driving the Spanish out of New Mexico at the time of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. The Revolt was one of only three times, that the Indians successfully drove (albeit temporarily) white men out of an area. See Note below. The Spanish in the conquest of the Aztec Empire utilized horses, an animal which to the Indians must have seemed terrifying. In the years following the defeat of the Aztecs, the Spanish moved northward in their quest for gold and the salvation of the souls of the Indians. In 1598, Juan de Oñate had established the mission pueblo of San Juan along the Rio Grande River in present day New Mexico. In New Mexico, ranchos were established on which the Spanish bred horses. The Indians who worked on the ranchos were, however, forbidden to own horses. Conflicts arose between the military and the Church in the administration of the new territory. Under the Spanish bureauacracy, canon law was supreme and military administration was subordinate. The method of converting the Indians to Chirstianity and the forced abandonment of the old gods was often at the end of a whip. For eighty-two years, the Indians in New Mexico endured what was, in essence, slavery. They were forced to toil in the fields for the benefit of the Spanish, to construct the mission churches, abandon their religion and adopt Christian names. In 1675, the Spanish governor seized 47 of the Indian medicine men. In Sante Fe, the Indians were publicly whipped, three were hanged, and one committed suicide. One of the Indian medicine men who tasted the end of the Spanish lash was Juan de Popé. Under threat of a revolution by the Inidans, the governor released the remaining 43 medicine men including Popé. Popé returned to the pueblo of Taos. There, he received a revalation from the god Poheyemo that he was to lead his people against the Spanish. Supplies to the Spanish colonies in New Mexico came by wagon from old Mexico but once every three years. The scheduled supply wagon train was for 1680. Knowing that the Spanish were low on supplies pending the arrival of the train, Popé quietly spread word amongst the different pueblos for a simultaneous uprising. On August 10, the Pueblo Indians arose and took control of all pueblos except Isleta. There, the Lieutenant Governor Alonso Garcia was beseiged. In Sante Fe, Governor and Captain-General, Don Antonio de Otermin, recieved word of the uprising and the killing of priests and the alcalde mayors of other towns. And even before orders could be relayed, the captain-general, on his way to mass, received news of yet more deaths of priests, governmental officials, ranchers, and messengers and their escorts. Refugees informed of Otermin of the burning of the convents and churches. Soon the governor found himself under seige in the governmental houses. The Indians gave Otermin a choice, to go in peace or death. The governor made no response. The Indians dammed off the stream which provided water to the plaza in front of the governor's palace. In Isleta, Lt. Governor Garcia, believing the captain-general to be dead, began a retreat to El Paso del Rio del Norte, present-day Juárez City. With no relief from the Lt. Governor and thrice wounded, Otermin fought on. But without water or other supplies, the Governor found it necessary to abandon Sante Fe. The Indians watched without attacking as he retreated all the way to El Paso del Rio del Norte. The Indians burned the ranchos, the churches, and convents. The holy objects within the churches were defiled. Christian names were banned. Spanish crops such as barley and wheat were destroyed, to be replaced by the traditional maize and beans. The bodies of the dead priests were dumped in garbage pits or in front of the doors of their churches. Yet there one thing the Indians did not destroy, the herds of Spanish horses. Thus, the Pueblo Indians continued the breeding of horses, trading them to the Utes and the Commanches. In turn, horses were adopted by the Cheyenne, the Araphaho, the Crow, the Sioux, and the Shoshoni. Lassoing Wild Horses, F. O. C. Darley. By about 1740, horses reached present-day Wyoming. Today, descendents of those horses wander the Red Desert, the Prior Mountains, and, until recently, between Meeteetse and Cody. DNA testing has confirmed that those mustangs are almost pure-blooded Spanish horses descended from those captured at the time of the Pueblo Revolt. Wild Horses, George Catlin Writer's note: The Spanish apparently did not learn from the lessons of New Mexico, allegedly in El Paso del Rio del Norte, Governor Otermin continued his practice of torture, one source describing in gruesome detail the insertion of meat hooks between Indian breast bones so that the screams would provide warning to others. In Las Floridas, the Spanish resumed control from the British in 1783. Under the British, the Indians were peaceful and large indigo, citrus, cattle, and naval stores plantations were developed along the St. Johns River south of Cowford (present day Jacksonville). During peace conclaves, the British provided as tokens of goodwill British army blankets, the Spanish provided beads and mirrors. Within 15 years of the Spanish return, the plantation houses had been burned by the Indians and the owners had fled. By 1808, the Spanish found it necessary to reinforce the walls surrounding their capital of San Augustin. The third time that Indians sucessfully drove whites from an area was Red Cloud's War discussed on a subsequent page. The effect of the introduction of the horse into Indian society, was to permit the Indians an increased mobility. Thus, Indians moved out into the Great Plains. The change in the methods of buffalo hunting, if anything, increased the dependence of the Indians upon the bison. The buffalo provided clothing, blankets, the covering for the tipis, and food. Trade of buffalo hides with the fur companies provided access to other goods. As Francis Parkman observed: The buffalo supplies the Indians with the necessities of life; with habitations, food, clothing, beds and fuel, strings for their bows, glue, thread, cordage, trail ropes for their horses, covering for their saddles, vessels to hold water, boats to cross streams, and the means of purchasing all they want from the traders. When the buffalo are extinct, they too must dwindle away. Buffalo Hunt, Karl Bodmer Karl Bodner toured the west fron 1832 to 1834. With the coming of the railroad discussed subsequently, the slaughter of the bison by hunters became more efficient. The railroads could carry the hides to markets in St. Louis. During the Crimean War, the leather used by the British was primarily made from buffalo hide. The buffalo were divided into three great ranges, the northern in Wyoming, Montana, Dakota Territory, and in the British territories north of the Medicine Line; the central in Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado; and the southern in Texas, Indian Territory, and New Mexico. The first to go was the central. The hunters then moved south to Texas, and then to the northern range. Dakota ranchman, Theodore Roosevelt, in 1885, explained: GONE forever are the mighty herds of the lordly buffalo. A few solitary individuals and small bands are still to be found scattered here and there in the wilder parts of the plains; and though most of these will be very soon destroyed, others will for some years fight off their doom and lead a precarious existence either in remote and almost desert portions of the country near the Mexican frontier, or else in the wildest and most inaccessible fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains; but the great herds, that for the first three quarters of this century formed the distinguishing and characteristic feature of the Western plains, have vanished forever. It is only about a hundred years ago that the white man, in his march westward, first encroached upon the lands of the buffalo, for these animals had never penetrated in any number to the Appalachian chain of mountains. Indeed, it was after the beginning of the century before the inroads of the whites upon them grew at all serious. Then, though constancy driven westward, the diminution in their territory, if sure, was at least slow, although growing progressively more rapid. Less than a score of years ago the great herds, containing many millions of individuals, ranged over a vast expanse of country that stretched in an unbroken line from near Mexico to far into British America; in fact, over almost all the plains that are now known as the cattle region. But since that time their destruction has gone on with appalling rapidity and thoroughness; and the main factors in bringing it about have been the railroads, which carried hordes of hunters into the land and gave them means to transport their spoils to market. Not quite twenty years since, the range was broken in two, and the buffalo herds in the middle slaughtered or thrust aside; and thus there resulted two ranges, the northern and the southern. The latter was the larger, but being more open to the hunters, was the sooner to be depopulated; and the last of the great southern herds was destroyed in 1878, though scattered bands escaped and wandered into the desolate wastes to the southwest. Meanwhile equally savage war was waged on the northern herds, and five years later the last of these was also destroyed or broken up. The bulk of this slaughter was done in the dozen years from 1872 to 1883; never before in all history were so many large wild animals of one species slain in so short a space of time. Carcasses of Bison killed by hide hunters, 1872 The slaughter was incredible. In one small town in Texas, Rath City, some 1.1 million hides were shipped out in a three year period. By 1890, it is estimated that only 750 bison were left in the United States. Today's herds are descended for the most part from 23 bison in Yellowstone's Pelican Valley, a herd developed by Charles J. "Buffalo" Jones, and the Goodnight-Thayer Cattle Company herd of 250 animals. That herd owed its existence to the adoption and care of orphaned calves by the wife of Charles Goodnight, Mary Ann Dyer Goodnight. Wolves Devouring Carcasses of Bison, Harper's Philip H. Sheridan observed in his Personal Memoirs that the wolves would follow the droves of buffaloes. He noted: In the wake of every drove invariably followed a band of wolves. This animal is a great coward usually, but hunger had made these so ravenous that they would come boldly up to the column, and as quick as a buffalo was killed, or even disabled, they would fall upon the carcass and eagerly devour it. It has been repeatedly contended that the extinction of the bison was an intentional policy of the military to tame the Indian. The argument is almost solely based on a single passage fron a 1907 book by former buffalo hunter John Cook: The Texas legislature, while we were here among the herds to destroy them, was in session at Austin, with a bill drawn up for their protection. General Phil Sheridan was then in command of the military department of the Southwest, with headquarters in San Antonio. When he heard of the nature of the Texas bill for the protection of the buffaloes, he went to Austin, and appearing before the joint assembly of the house and senate, so the story goes, told them that they were making a sentimental mistake by legislating in the interest of the buffalo. He told them that instead of stopping the hunters they ought to give them a hearty vote of thanks, and appropriate a sufficient sum of money to stroke and present to each one a medal of bronze, with a dead buffalo on one side and a discouraged Indian on the other. He said: "These men have done in the last two years, and will do more in the next year, to settle the vexed Indian question, than the entire regular army has done in the last thirty years. They are destroying the Indians' commissary; and it is a well known fact that an army losing its base of supplies is placed at a great disadvantage. Send them powder and lead, if you will but, for the sake of a lasting peace let them kill, skin and sell until the last buffalo is exterminated. Then your prairies can be covered with speckled cattle, and the festive cowboy, who follows the hunters as a second forerunner of an advance civilization." The Border and the Buffalo: An Untold Story of the Southwest Plains (Topeka, Kansas: Crane, 1907 Whether Little Phil actually made such a speech may be questioned. One source indicates that the alleged speech was give in in 1875. The writer has found no contemporenous accounts of the alleged remarks. Sheridan had long since been removed as the commander in Texas. Sheridan did, indeed, serve as military commander in Texas for six months in 1867. For most of that period he was devoted to assisting Mexicans supporting President Juarez or was headquartered in New Orleans. At that time, the buffalo was in no way endangered, nor would the quoted lanquage have been used. The term "festive cowboy" certainly would not have been used. The term "cowboy" was not in common use. In Texas the term used was "drover" or "waddy." The term "cowboy" when it first came into common use was as a pejorative. Only much later was the word cowboy utilized in a positive sense. For further discussion of the derivation of the term "cowboy" see Cheyenne. The mass slaughter did not occur until later. Sheridan was removed by President Johnson. Gen. Sheridan was later stationed in St. Louis and Chicago. Additionally, he travelled to Europe in order to observe the Prussian Army defeat the French. Assuming that the alleged speech was ever given, it is doubtful that it would have represented official policy. The near extinction of the bison was more of a matter of some 5,000 buffalo hunters being inspired by old fashioned greed to supply a public demand for buffalo robes, much in the same manner as the near extinction of the egret was as a result of the demand for feathers for women's hats, the near extinction of the American elk was as a result of the demand for elk teeth for fraternal jewelry, and the endangerment of the American alligator was as a result of the demand for alligator shoes and handbags. Next page: The beginnings of the Indian Wars.