The admirable training of the horse, to whom the rider is obliged to give loose rein as he approaches his object and prepares to inflict the deadly wound, is no less noticeable than the spirit and energy of the rider. Such is the force with which the arrow is thrown, that repeated instances are related of its complete passage through the huge body of the buffalo, and its exit upon the opposite side. This near approach to the powerful and infuriated animal is by no means without danger. Although the horse, from instinctive fear of the buffalo's horns, sheers off immediately upon passing him, it is not always done with sufficient quickness to avoid his stroke. The hunter is said to be so carried away by the excitement and exhilaration of pursuit, as to be apparently perfectly reckless of his own safety; trusting entirely to the sagacity and quickness of his horse to take him out of the danger into which he is rushing. The noose, or lasso, used in catching wild horses, is often left trailing upon the ground during the chase, to afford the hunter an easy means of securing and remounting his horse in case he should be dismounted, by the attack of the buffalo or otherwise. In the winter season it is common for the Indians of the northern latitudes to drive the buffalo herds from the bare ridges, where they collect to feed upon the exposed herbage, into the snow-covered valleys. The unwieldy beasts, as they flounder through the drifts, are easily overtaken by the hunters, supported by their snow-shoes, and killed with the lance or bow. Another method, adopted by the Indians, is to put on the disguise of a white wolfskin, and steal unsuspected among the herd, where they can select their prey at leisure. Packs of wolves frequently follow the herds, to feed upon the carcasses of those that perish, or the remains left by the hunters. They dare not attack them in a body, and are consequently no objects of terror to the buffaloes; but, should an old or wounded animal be separated from the company, they collect around him, and gradually weary him out and devour him. When buffalo are plenty, and the Indians have fair opportunity, the most astonishing and wasteful slaughter ensues. Besides the ordinary methods of destruction, the custom of driving immense herds over some precipitous ledge, where those behind trample down and thrust over the foremost, until hundreds and thousands are destroyed, has been often described. Even at seasons in which the fur is valueless, and little besides a present supply of food can be obtained by destroying the animal which constitutes their sole resource, no spirit of forethought or providence restrains the wild hunters of the prairie. Mr. Catlin, when at the mouth of Teton river, Upper Missouri, in 1832, was told that a few days previous to his arrival, a party of Sioux had returned from a hunt, bringing fourteen hundred buffalo tongues, all that they had secured of their booty, and that these were immediately traded away for a few gallons of whiskey. The author goes, at considerable length, into a calculation of the causes now at work, which must, in his opinion, necessarily result in the entire extinction of these animals, and the consequent destitution of the numerous tribes that derive support from their pursuit. According to his representations, we "draw from that country one hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand of their robes annually, the greater part of which are taken from animals that are killed expressly for the robe, at a season when the meat is not cured and preserved, and for each of which skins the Indian has received but a pint of whiskey! Such is the fact, and that number, or near it, are annually destroyed, in addition to the number that is necessarily killed for the subsistence of three hundred thousand Indians, who live entirely upon them." When this extermination shall have taken place, if, indeed, it should take place before 'other causes shall have annihilated the Indian nations of the west, it is difficult to conceive to what these will resort for subsistence. Will they gradually perish from sheer destitution, or, as has been predicted, will they be driven to violence and plunder upon our western frontier? CHAPTER IV. INDIANS OF THE GREAT WESTERN PRAIRIES. THEIR SUMMER AND UPON the Yellowstone, and about the head-waters of the Missouri, the most noted tribes are the Crows and Blackfeet. Bordering upon them at the north and northeast, are their enemies, the Ojibbeways, Knisteneaux, and Assinaboins, of some of whom brief mention has been made in former chapters. In 1834 the Blackfeet were computed to number over thirty thousand, but when the small-pox swept over the western country, in 1838, they were frightfully reduced. By the returns of 1850, they were represented as amounting to about thirteen thousand. As these Indians are among the farthest removed from the contaminating influence of the whites, and as the prairie abounds in all that is requisite for their subsistence, viz., horses and buffalo, they present fine specimens of the aboriginal race. They are of manly proportions, active, and capable of great endurance: their dress is particularly comfortable and ornamental, bedecked with all the embroidery and fringes characteristic of savage finery. The style of dress, dwellings, means of subsistence, &c., among the Indians of the western prairies, is in many respects so similar, that we shall only avoid wearisome repetition by omitting minute descriptions in speaking of the different tribes. The summer lodge, necessarily made movable to suit their migratory habits, is a tent of buffalo-skins, supported by pine poles brought from the distant mountains. These skins are neatly and substantially stitched together, and often highly painted and ornamented. The tent is transported by tying the poles in two bundles, the small ends of which, bound together, are hung over the shoulders of a horse, while the butts trail upon the ground, loaded with the weight of the skins and other paraphernalia of the lodge. The dogs are also pressed into the same service, and loaded, in much the same manner, with as large a load as they can carry. The cold winter is passed in some spot protected by high bluffs or heavy timber, either in these skin lodges, or in rude wigwams of logs. It is among these remote races that we may still see many of the ancient superstitious observances (formerly, with slight variation, common to nearly the whole population of the west,) retained with all their original solemnity. One of the most singular and universal is the preparation of a "medicine-bag," which every man carries with him upon all occasions, as being intricately involved with his own safety and success in war, hunting, or any of the occupations of life. At about the age of puberty the Indian boy bethinks himself of taking the necessary steps for the preparation of this mysterious amulet or charm. He retires to some solitary spot, where he spends several |