As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
The Smithsonian Institution actually published a record of the culling of the North American buffalo herds and it is interesting to read the figures and those involved in the trade, as one has John Jacob Astor in the American fur trade, but no one has ever heard of the latter buffalo hide traders.
The fact of the buffalo was in order to keep Americans safe from Indian terrorists, it was early planned out as policy that it would be deemed more humane to kill the buffalo than the Indian terrorists. That point is debatable, but the fact in this is the Smithsonian numbers of actual plains Indians from the Rockies to the Mississippi was a number of bucks, squaws and papoose at 50,000.
1886 Census:
Sioux 30,561
Crow 3,226
Piegan, Blood, and Blackfeet 2,026
Cheyenne 3,477
Gros Ventres 856
Arickaree 517
Mandan 283
Bannack and Shoshone 2,001
Nez Percé 1,460
Assinniboine 1,688
Kiowas and Comanches 2,756
Arapahoes 1,217
Apache 332
Ute 978
Omaha 1,160
Pawnee 998
Winnebago 1,222
Total 54,758
William Temple Hornaday. The Extermination of the American Bison
That is not the millions of propanda, and the Smithsonian as a statement figures that if 500,000 buffaloes were killed annually, that the kill could have been carried on perpetually.
The problem with that utopia, is buffalo would have eaten all the farmers corn, wheat, oats and barley crops, meaning instead of the additional beef of millions of head ranched with sheep, that keeping the buffalo would have been a criminal misuse of land, much like leaving hundreds of millions of acres of land in the hands of a few nomadic terrorists.
Either America would be created or America would be a coastal people no more on the world stage than Chile or Panama.
The Red River expedition quoted by a Mr. Ross, would be the Red River of the North which now forms the Minnesota border to the west. This would be the Mettis Peoples or the Indian half breeds who by Lake Winnipeg moved in oxcarts south to St. Anthony's falls which would become St. Paul and Minneapolis.
An 1840 hunting expedition with 1,210 carts harvested 1,089,000 pounds of meat.
These carts were all of wood and would carry 39 buffalo hides.
They hauled 900 pounds of meat per cart. Of the 620 hunters, 47,770 buffaloes were killed for fresh use and for being put up for sale.
The first real hear of this was 1820 when 540 carts were sent out, and the number increased to the year 1840 AD in the year of our Lord.
The numbers were that for every buffalo utilized two and one third were wasted or eaten on the kill site. The effects of a week of rain would spoil hides or other circumstances for this waste, and it was constant as new hunters would arrive and not have any comprehension in how to deal with skinning buffalo which was greasy, filthy, sweaty, hard work.
In stating the above, the fact is the buffalo slaughter started in Canada, and the transhipping point was Minneapolis as that is where this northern St. Louis accumilated it's first wealth in hides and fur. One can trace the trail of this Mettis traffic from Lake Winnipeg, to Grand Forks and Fargo North Dakota on the Red River of the north which flows into Hudson's Bay.
At the juncture though of Lake Traverse and Lake of the Big Stone in what is the Minnesota - South Dakota border, there is a rather odd Continental Divide here, as while Traverse flows north, Lake of the Big Stone flows south into the Gulf of Mexico. It is at the base of Big Stone Lake, at a small town called Ortonville, which the Mettis carts crossed and followed the Little Minnesota River southeast and into the Mississippi which is now the Twin Cities of Minnesota.
I will add a Lame Cherry exclusive here in matter anti matter which is off subject, but in river headwaters, one traditionally tracks to the left, meaning that the headwaters of the Mississippi are not in Minnesota, but that the Minnesota tributary is the branch which should be followed for the headwaters. A futher tributary arrives at the Mettis crossing on Big Stone and the Little Minnesota River. That stream is called the Whetstone which arrises from a little spring in a French elevation called the Coteau des Prairie. That is where the headwaters of the Mississippi River arises, just as the Missouri, which is a branch of the Mississippi, arises on the left fork of the Yellowstone River in Wyoming.
Enough of that in rectifying history.
Two New York firms carried on the buffalo hide trade in Mssrs, J. & A. Boskowitz of 105 Green St. and Joseph Ullman 165 Mercer St. in the bulk.
In 1882, Boskowitz paid out $923, 075 and Ullman paid out $216, 250 for hides.
The hide market only lasted for approximately 10 years. The southern herd, the American north herd, and then the Saskatchewan Canadian herds, were culled in this era.
What followed was the bone pickers, who stacked the bones like cordwood, for sale to bonemeal outlets.
Memorandum of buffalo robes and hides bought by Messrs J. & A. Boskowitz,
101-105 Greene Street, New York,
and 202 Lake street, Chicago,
from 1876 to 1884.
Year Buffalo robes. Number. Cost.
1876 31,838 $39,620
1877 9,353 35,560
1878 41,268 150,600
1879 28,613 110,420
1880 34,901 176,200
1881 23,355 151,800
1882 2,124 15,600
1883 6,690 29,770
1884 None. …
One can see the northern herd kill started in the year the 7th Cavalry was sent out to be assassinated, and the kill only lasted 3 years.
The 1882 kill was typical as all fur trade and hide trade in approximately 40,000 hides maximum at a cost 3.50 per hide, and 10,000 hides being 8.50 average. Not all hides are premium, and there were silk hides which brought high prices as they were rate, but it was hard work, even if an expert could peal a hide in 5 minutes.
John S. Way Manufacturing Company of Bridgeport Connecticut led the small robe makers in dealing with the short heavy bull hides and the premium season hides for coats.
Like all fur from mink to coyote, there is a very short period of time that this fur remains at a premium, and is not flat, split haired or shows rubs.
For buffalo that period was October 15th to February 15th over the range. The reality though if one was not doing leather trade, the robe hides were only at a premium from November 15th to December 15th before the product went flat or was rubbed.
When one reads of Col. Meyers pompous German "buff runner" on the southern plains, the summer work was all leather tanning, when the robe season was approximately 30 days.
The leather tanners were led by the Wilcox Tanning Company of Wilcox Pennsylvania.
I make a point in this, that the Union Pacific Railroad opened up cheap shipping and it was the people of the east who so disdainfully were looking down on westerners, who were the ones engaged in the profits in the buffalo trade. New York, Connecticut, Illinois and Minnesota and Pennsylvania, all liberal affluent enclaves now were all built on the butchery and blood of the world from whale to buffalo.
The also included in the list of buffalo traders was: "were I. G. Baker & Co., of Fort Benton; P. B. Weare & Co., Chicago; Obern, Hoosick & Co., Chicago and Saint Paul; Martin Bates & Co., and Messrs. Shearer, Nichols & Co. (now Hurlburt, Shearer & Sanford), of New York."
- William Temple Hornaday. The Extermination of the American Bison
Pealing a buffalo was horrendous work, as it required first wrenching the head around back to the hump, to utilize it as a sort of block to keep the animal from rolling back to it's side, as the entire carcase was moved to it's back with legs up in the air.
The ripping knife was then used to open the carcase, in the legs cut to the bone, 8 inches above the hoof, with a rip cut from the tail to the nose.
On cows and calves, the nose and forehead hide was left on the skulls, on the bulls whose leather was too tough to deal with, an encircling cut behind the ears, and that fur was left on the skull.
One never finds historic photos of this, but that is what the buffalo skeletons looked like in white ribs and legs with black heads adorning them in contrast.
The photos one sees of clean buffalo skulls are those of the cows and calves, not the bulls.
After the ripping cuts, the skinner, usually a Green River type of swept blade was employed to free the hide from the carcase. The tail was always skinned and left attached to the hide.
The hides were not pegged as is usually noted, but were left hair side down on the buffalo grass, which adhered to each other well, until the hide was hard and dried.
The northern hunters, always cut their mark into the flank tissue which attached to the hide, "branding" them as to ownership.
The southern plains might press their hides as a beaver bundle of "made beaver", but the northern hunters simply arrived on scene with a 4 horse team, pulling a hayrack, and in folding the hides down the middle lengthwise, fur inside, would haul in as many as 100 skins to a load.
Cows, calves and bulls under 3 years of age were classed as robes, while the older bulls were classed as hides.
In the Montana range, robes were classed in 4 categories as follows:
Beaver Robes. These robes had long straight gaurd hairs which were plucked out in manufacture. In 3.50 robe average, a Beaver Robe would price at 75 dollars. They were though extremely rare specimens in one of thousands of robes would be found.
Black and Tan Robes. These had the nose, flanks and inside of leg a tan color, with the remainder of the hide black.
Bucksin Robes: These are the "white buffalo" which are not white at all, but a dirty cream color. Rarest of all, on would bring $200 dollars.
Blue Robes: These furs had bluish cast and were sometimes called mouse robes. Approximately 1% of the hides would be Blue Robes, and would bring $16 dollars in a $3.50 market of 1882 in Miles City, Montana.
In reality though for market prices, the last lot of robes purchased in 1887 in Texas priced from 65 cents to 10 dollars. In the southern ranges as of 1876 AD in the year of our Lord, cow hides brought 65 to 90 cents, while bull hides $1.15.
On the northern ranges the pricing was $2.50 to $4.00. That is what the fur trade is and always has been, as better fur comes from northern regions due to the necessity of fur in colder regions to keep animals alive, while southern furs are thinner and lack quality.
Add to this the "learning curve" on the southern plains in shoddy or poorly put up hides, and of course the prices would be on the bottom figure.
Two uses were found for the bones of the buffalo in being made into phosphate for fertilizer and the other was carbon for the making of sugar. The Southern Pacific railroad saw the first shipments and when the Northern Pacific railroad opened, the plains were gleaned there too.
In 1874, the Atechson, Topeka and Sante Fe railroad shipped a high of, 6,914,950 pounds of buffalo bones. In 1885, a Miles City Montana firm shipped 200 tons of buffalo bones alone.
Bones crushed and bagged were paid in Michigan $18 per ton for Missouri River steamers, while rail uncrushed bones brought $12 per ton.
As a side note to this for knowledge sake, the buffalo hair on it's head and neck is long and shaggy. It's kinked nature like will, will allow it to be spun into a form like Mohair in wool. It was soft and apparently as was quoted would have shoed an Israelite 40 years in the wilderness. It apparently was a most durable product.
One should spin yarns in this though thinking the buffalo is some sheep for profit for in 1821, the British colonists of the Red River Settlement, that would be Winnipeg, decided that their fortune would arise in buffalo wool.
They imported spinners and weavers, and then found that there was not enough wool to make a profit as the figures were in raw wool costing the Buffalo Wool Company, 1 shilling 6 d. per pound and the cloth cost 2 pounds 10 shillings to produce compared to 4 shillings 6 d in England to produce.
The wool makers were all drunks apparently, so that in the end the sutlers selling liquor made a nice profit even if the BWC went tits up.
The Comanche and Otoe Indians actually made ropes of buffalo wool, but they always had the appearance of more hair than rope.
Lastly to wrap this up in the thing the buffalo last left behind as the chip or the buffalo turd. This turd was in effect low grade coal after a year's drying. The buffalo would congregate in sheltered areas of bottoms or water holes, for water and protection from the element and bugs, and there the chips would be concentrated where people would naturally travel.
The chip produced little smoke, fired easily and burned quickly. It was a wonderful commodity for gaining warmth and producing a constant cooking fire without effort.
That is the history of the buffalo culling in America, with most of the information not having seen the light of day for over 100 years in any publication and some for the first time here.
In that, James McNaney's outfit of Miles City, Montana comprised of this:
"Although at that time only seventeen years of age, he took an elder brother as a partner, and purchased an outfit in Miles City, of which the following were the principal items: Two wagons, 2 four-horse teams, 2 saddle-horses, 2 wall-tents, 1 cook-stove with pipe, 1 40-90 Sharp’s rifle (breech-loading), 1 45-70 Sharps rifle (breech-loading), 1 45-120 Sharps rifle (breech-loading), 50 pounds gunpowder, 550 pounds lead, 4,500 primers, 600 brass shells, 4 sheets patch-paper, 60 Wilson skinning knives, 3 butcher’s steels, 1 portable grindstone, flour, bacon, baking-powder, coffee, sugar, molasses, dried apples, canned vegetables, beans, etc., in quantity."
Entire cost of the outfit, $1400, the men served at $50 dollars per month.
"At his side, depending from his belt, hung his “hunter’s companion,” a flat leather scabbard, containing a ripping knife, a skinning knife, and a butcher’s steel upon which to sharpen them."
With the 16 pound Sharpes rifle, the rig weighed 36 pounds. You will notice that none of the old photos or Hollywood movies ever depict the two knives in the belt, as all of these were not Plainsmen who were buffalo runners.
The hunters employed gunnysack camoflauge in a sack was cut for arms and eye holes, and by this cover they could approach the buffalo more easily than crawling through prickly pear cactus.
The hunting method was to shoot the old cow who lead the herd, to keep her from running the entire herd off. Putting her down, and then the next cow or bull who attempted to leave would produce the bewildering effect of the keeping the herd milling about the site. They would sniff the blood, bawl, but not leave.
Shooting was not fast paced, to not spook the animals. An average of one shot per minute, was the norm, with sometimes two, if animals were wandering off.
It was paced methodical slow work.
Sometimes the rifle barrels would become too hot from constant firing and in winter with snow, would be shoved into a drift to cool them down.
Colonel Mayer's method of riding out to the herd was not the northern plains method, as in that case, camp was made next to the big herd, and the hunters walked two to three miles on foot, and then made a stand. So authorities who claim to be always experts, are only as expert as their niche allows as in all things.
The running of buffalo was much the skill of the plains horses, as these horses responded with delight in the hunts more than the humans at times. One particular horse which was fagged out was left at home, where the husband left instructions for it's being tied. Soon enough the horse showed up among the hunters, racing along and watching for buffaloes to fall.
At the end of the chase, the horse whinnied to it's owner, joyfully singling him and running to him.
In Canada in the 1840's, the Mettis peoples had become so involved in the buffalo hunting that two divisions had arisen in the White Plains Division and the Red River Division.
The White Plains hunted southwest of the Assinniboine to the rapids crossing place, while the Red River hunted south of Pembina into Dakota Territory.
This closes with this fact that the buffalo culling started in Canada and not the borderlands of the States:
"In 1849 a Mr. Flett took a census of the White Horse Plain division, in Dakota Territory, and found that it contained 603 carts, 700 half-breeds, 200 Indians, 600 horses, 200 oxen, 400 dogs, and 1 cat."
That must have left a heap big pile of dung on the prairie you could have smelt downwind.
"The Indians looked upon the dreadful and sickening sight with evident delight, and told how such and such a bull or cow had exhibited feats of wonderful strength in the death-struggle. The flesh of many of the cows had been taken from them, and was drying in the sun on stages near the tents. It is needless to say that the odor was overpowering, and millions of large blue flesh-flies, humming and buzzing over the putrefying bodies, was not the least disgusting part of the spectacle.”
....and the last of it:
"It has been claimed by some authors that the Indians killed with more judgment and more care for the future than did the white man, but I fail to find any evidence that such was ever the fact. They all killed wastefully, wantonly, and always about five times as many head as were really necessary for food. It was always the same old story, whenever a gang of Indians needed meat a whole herd was slaughtered, the choicest portions of the finest animals were taken, and about 75 per cent of the whole left to putrefy and fatten the wolves.
And now, as we read of the appalling slaughter, one can scarcely repress the feeling of grim satisfaction that arises when we also read that many of the ex-slaughterers are almost starving for the millions of pounds of fat and juicy buffalo meat they wasted a few years ago. Verily, the buffalo is in a great measure avenged already."
William Temple Hornaday. The Extermination of the American Bison
Yes Ted Nugent, your red brother, was a terrorist and game butcher. It was because of Indian terrorism that the buffalo was removed in mass to keep a few thousand Indians on reservations still costing hundreds of millions of dollars.
As African government game cropper, Peter Hathaway Capstick noted on his reducing the elephant herds for Negroids to inhabit the land, perhaps the elephants should have been saved and the people cropped.
"Indians. Sent to market. No. of dead buffaloes represented.
Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and other Indians whose robes go over the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad 19,000 robes, number of dead buffalo 114,000
Sioux at agencies, Union Pacific Railroad 10,000 robes, number of dead buffalo 16,000
Total slaughtered per annum 29,000 robes, number of dead buffalo 130,000"
William Temple Hornaday. The Extermination of the American Bison
"All the Indian tribes of that vast region—Sioux, Cheyennes, Crows, Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans, Assinniboines, Gros Ventres, and Shoshones—found their most profitable business and greatest pleasure (next to scalping white settlers) in hunting the buffalo."
William Temple Hornaday. The Extermination of the American Bison
Next to genocide of white people, the Indian's genocide of the buffalo was thee most lucrative occupation for the terrorist.
Just remember that in the history of the buffalo cull.
With that,
nuff said
agtG
