Jack Among the Indians; Or, A Boy's Summer on the Buffalo Plains

by George Bird Grinnell

  CHAPTER XXII.

  RUNNING BUFFALO.

  Just before sundown one evening, as Jack and Hugh sat in front of thelodge, the now familiar voice of the old crier was heard shouting thenews to the camp. At first the words uttered at a great distance had nomeaning, but as the old man drew nearer, Hugh nodded his head as helistened, and Jack asked, "What is he saying, Hugh?"

  "He is calling out the orders of the chiefs," said Hugh, "and this iswhat he says: 'Listen, listen, everybody pay attention. To-morrow wewill chase buffalo. All must get in their horses. Men whet yourarrow-points, women sharpen your knives. To-morrow morning early,everybody will start out. So the chiefs have ordered.' That's just aboutwhat he says and he rides about the camp repeating this over and overagain. You see, it is necessary that everybody should know just what isgoing to be done, so that all may get ready, and every person in thecamp may have an equal chance to get food to-morrow."

  "Oh!" said Jack, "there go the boys and men now to gather in thehorses." For he had seen young men and boys on foot, starting for thehills, which in all directions from the camp, were dotted with thefeeding Indian ponies.

  "Yes," said Hugh, "and as you are the youngest person in this lodge,you might as well get on your horse and go out and bring in ours. Whathorse are you going to ride to-morrow, Pawnee or your new runner?"

  "Why, I think I'll ride Pawnee," said Jack, "as this is going to be myfirst chase. I know him and he knows me, and until I get a little bitused to running buffalo, I thought I'd use him."

  "Well," said Hugh, "I expect that's what you'd better do. But if I wasyou, I'd bring in the new horse too and tie him up close to the lodge.You don't want to leave a fast horse like that out on the prairie,nights, for most any time, you know, a little war party might comealong, and take a lot of the horses that are in the hills, and it wouldbe a pity to lose a running horse."

  "I'll remember that, Hugh," said Jack, "but I thought anyhow, I'd bringthe new horse in to-night, and lend him to Joe to-morrow. You see, hehasn't got any good horse, and he was telling me that he had never yetkilled many buffalo in a chase, because he had to ride slow old horsesthat couldn't catch buffalo."

  "Good idea," said Hugh, "it'll give him a lot of pleasure, and maybe gethim some credit, and it won't do you no harm."

  It was dark before the horses had been brought in, and picketed close tothe lodge, and yet the hum of unusual bustle pervaded the camp. As theysat about the fire in the lodge, just before going to bed, Hugh said toJack, "You see, son, how the very noises in the camp show thatsomething unusual is happening. You notice to-night there is no singingand no drumming, but the people are talking more than usual and morehorses are moving around through the camp, and people too. Everybody isgetting ready. Now, if you could go around and look into the lodges,you'd see that in a good many of them men are praying. Some of them havegot out their sacred things and they're burning sweet grass and sweetpine and purifying themselves, and praying to the Sun to give them goodluck to-morrow; to let their horses run fast, so that they can catch thefattest of the cows; not to let them stumble or step into holes, so thatthere will be no falling; and to make their arrows go straight, so thatthey shall kill plenty of food. You see, it is kind o' hard for us whitefolks to understand what a buffalo chase means to the Indians. Thesebuffalo are just about all they've got to live on, and if the buffaloshould be taken away, all the people would starve to death. The mostimportant thing for every man, woman and child in the camp, is to haveplenty of food. So when these people start in to chase buffalo, theypray hard for good luck.

  "I mind when I was a kid, back in the States," he went on, "that we usedto have prayers, sort o' like this; only there, we called itThanksgiving. The preacher used to thank the Lord for all the good thathad come during the past year, and to pray for all the good the Lordwould let us have next year. What they talked about there was, bigcrops, lots of corn and pumpkins and a good mast year, so that the hogswould be fat, and plenty of rain to make the grass grow, so that thecritters would have lots of feed. Lots of times my old mother has tookme to such preachings, and I used to sit there on the bench next to her,with my little legs not half reaching to the ground, and listen to whatthe preacher said."

  "Oh yes, Hugh, of course I have been to church on Thanksgiving Day lotsof times, but I think in New York the minister preaches about what hasgone before more than about what is to come next year."

  It was still dark next morning when the crackling of the fire rousedJack from his slumbers, and in a few moments after he had thrown off therobe which was his covering, he was outside the lodge looking up intothe clear black sky, which sparkled with thousands of brilliant stars.The camp was awake, and through the covering of each lodge, Jack couldsee the glimmer of fires, and from every smoke-hole, sparks flew upward.While the men were eating breakfast, the smiling face of Joe showeditself in the doorway, and he entered and sat down by Jack.

  "Hello, Joe," said his friend, "did you bring your saddle? I've got thenew horse tied out here and he's all ready for you to ride to-day in thechase."

  "Oh!" said Joe, "I don't need no saddle, I'm going to ride bareback sameas all the other Indians do. It is only white men that use saddles, andnow you are a Piegan, you'll have to learn to hunt buffalo as thePiegans do."

  "All right," said Jack, "that'll suit me too well, but I guess untilI've been through one or two chases, I'll stick to the old-fashionedsaddle. It seems to me a man has got to have a whole lot of practicebefore he can ride a day bareback. I used to try it sometimes down onthe ranch, and I'll tell you it didn't take me long to get tired."

  "Yes," said Joe, "you've sure got to practice." And Hugh added, "And thesooner you start in to do it the better. You ought to learn to ridebareback, and you ought to learn to use the bow and arrows. You can usethat Assinaboine's bow and arrows that you captured. That's a right goodbow, but you'll need some more arrows. We'll try to get some after weget back."

  "Oh, Hugh!" said Jack, "are you going with us?"

  "I reckon I'll have to," said Hugh. "You see, we've got to kill somemeat for the old woman here. We're stopping in the lodge and eating herfood right along, and we've got to hunt and kill our share. I expectlikely you'll kill a plenty to-day, but anyhow, I thought I'd go alongtoo."

  "That's fine," said Jack, "I wish we could ride together, but I guessPawnee will run away from old Baldy."

  "I guess likely he will," said Hugh with a twinkle of fun in his eye,"but maybe when you see the horse I'm going to ride to-day, you'll thinkPawnee has his work cut out for him."

  "Why," said Jack, "what horse are you going to ride?"

  "Never you mind," said Hugh; "you'll see after a while."

  When they went out of the lodge, the dim light in the eastern sky showedthat the day was about to break. At one end of the camp there was acontinuous trampling of hoofs, which Hugh said was caused by thehunters beginning to leave the camp. Jack hurried to Pawnee and put thesaddle on him, and Joe brought up the new horse, naked except for athong knotted about his lower jaw, and stood by its right side ready tomount. When Pawnee was saddled, Jack looked around for Hugh, but he wasnowhere to be seen.

  "Come on," said Joe, "let's go over to where the hunters are gathering;Hugh told me that we should go on and that he would join us there."

  The boys mounted and galloped to the end of the camp, joined a throng ofmen and boys, who, passing across the valley, climbed the bluffs, and onthe upper prairie stopped with the crowd that was waiting there. Most ofthe men were sitting on the ground holding the ropes of their horseswhich fed close to them. Out toward the prairie sat a line of twentymen, and Jack noticed that no one passed these men. All the huntersstayed between them and the stream.

  "Why don't they start, Joe?" he said.

  "They can't," said Joe, "until the soldiers tell 'em to go. You seethose men sitting there on the outside of the crowd, they are thesoldiers, and everybody has to do just what they say. If a man gets infront of them they drive him back right off, and if
he don't go when heis told, three or four of them will take their quirts and give him amighty good licking."

  "What's the sense of that," said Jack. "If I want to go ahead, why can'tI?"

  "Well," said Joe, "you see if everybody could start off when he wantedto, and began to chase buffalo, the first few men would scare them, andthey'd begin to run, and the men that came after might not get anychance to kill. You see some people are riding fast horses, and somepeople slow ones, and the soldiers try to keep everybody back until thetime comes for the charge, so that every man will have nearly the samechance."

  "Well," said Jack, "that does seem fair."

  "Yes," said Joe, "I expect it is the way to get the most meat, and ofcourse, that's what we are trying to do; to kill all the food possible.A good deal of it will be eaten fresh, and all the rest will be driedand eaten when the buffalo are scarce."

  As they were talking thus, a man came swiftly trotting up to them,riding a beautiful white horse with black spots, and as he drew nearthem, Jack saw that it was Hugh.

  "What do you think of this horse, son?" said Hugh.

  "Why, he's a beauty," said Jack. "What an awful queer colour, but what asplendid horse he looks like."

  "Yes," said Hugh, "old Last Bull, when he heard that I was going to runbuffalo to-day, offered me this horse to ride. They say he's fast, andone of the best buffalo horses in the tribe."

  "Well," said Jack, "if horses count for anything, seems to me that wethree ought to kill a lot of buffalo to-day."

  "Yes," said Hugh, "I expect we ought to, but come, let's get on uptoward the front, I see the soldiers are beginning to get on theirhorses."

  Almost as he spoke, the young men began to mount and as they did so, allthe other hunters sprang on their horses and crowded up close behindthe line of the soldiers. By this time it was plain daylight, though thesun had not yet risen. Jack looked up and down the line of the hunters,with the greatest interest. To his surprise, he saw that almost all ofthem were naked, and wore nothing but their moccasins and their bowcases and quivers slung on their backs. Here and there were men who rodeon curious saddles, which looked like soft pillows of buckskin, astrideof which the man sat, a little ridge rising in front of and behind him.Many of the men were not mounted, but ran along beside their horses withan arm stretched across the withers or back of the animal. Here andthere would be seen two men mounted on a single horse, and leading twonaked horses, which would thus be fresh when the time came to make thecharge on the buffalo. To Jack's great surprise, very few of the mencarried guns, and bow and arrow seemed to be almost the universalweapon.

  The soldiers had started on a brisk trot with an even front, and thecrowd of hunters pressed close behind them. Running his eye up and downover the company, Jack tried to estimate how many men were there, but hecould form no idea. He called out the question to Hugh, who was ridingclose beside him, but Hugh shook his head as if he didn't know. Littleby little the pace increased, and soon the horses were going at a briskgallop. Before long, as they approached the top of a hill, one of thesoldiers who rode in the middle of the line, raised his hand, and atonce the whole company halted. Two of the soldiers then dismounted andcrept up to the top of the ridge, and after looking over, returned,mounted again, and calling out some words, all set forward at a smartgallop. As they paused over the crest, Jack saw before them, a widelevel plain on which were feeding a great herd of buffalo. Again hetried to estimate how many there were, but he couldn't tell whetherthere were a thousand or five thousand.

  The mounted men swept down the hill at a good run, yet each man wasobliged to hold in his horse in order to keep it back of the line of thesoldiers. At first the buffalo did not appear to notice the hunters, butas they drew nearer and nearer, some of the great beasts began to raisetheir heads and look, and then to turn about and run toward the herd;and in a moment all the animals had taken the alarm, and, throwing downtheir heads and raising their tails, were racing off over the prairie.Just before they started, the chief soldier gave a shrill yell, and atthis signal, each man pressed forward as rapidly as he could. There wasno longer order or discipline, but every rider did his utmost to getamong the buffalo.

  At the signal Jack had loosened Pawnee's reins, and pressed his heelsagainst the horse's side, and a splendid race began. There were onlyhalf a dozen men in front of Jack, and before they had gone very far, hecould see that he was over-hauling most of these, but he could also seethat Hugh on his right and Joe on his left were holding their own withhim. These three horses seemed to be nearly the swiftest of all. Littleby little they drew up on the heels of the herd and in a few momentswere riding in a cloud of dust and flying gravel thrown up by the feetof the buffalo. Through this dust Jack could now see the huge forms notmore than twenty or thirty yards ahead of him. He threw a cartridge intohis gun to be ready to shoot, and presently, when he was within five orsix yards of the nearest bull, fired, and to his great delight the beastfell. As he loaded his gun again, he heard a shout from Hugh, butcouldn't understand what he said. He shot again, and another buffalofell and then from out of the dust by which he was surrounded, Hugh rodeup close to him and called out, "Don't bother with these bulls, push onahead and kill cows."

  This advice rather dampened Jack's spirit, for he remembered now, howmuch talk he had heard about killing cows, and here he had been wastingcartridges on the bulls, which as he had been told, always brought upthe rear of the herd. He threw his gun into the hollow of his arm andspurred Pawnee, and before long the bulls had been left behind, and hewas riding across a part of the plain where there were scarcely anybuffalo, but before him he could see a dark mass rising and falling,which he was sure must be the cows. Hugh had drawn away from him and alittle ahead, and was now close on the heels of the herd. Pawnee, too,was rapidly drawing up to them, but before he had got among them, Jackheard Hugh shoot twice. A moment later, Jack was galloping alongsurrounded by buffalo, which drew away from him on either side andahead, but still were so close to him, that it made him feel a littlebit nervous. Over the billowing brown backs of the buffalo, he couldsee, dimly, other riders who went in silence, but often leaned downfrom the backs of their steeds and pulled the bow to the arrow's head.Jack shot again and again, but no buffalo fell. After two moreineffective shots, he began to wonder what was the matter; then suddenlyit flashed across him that he was excited and was shooting without usingcare and taking aim. He remembered what Hugh had said about theimportance of shooting low, and he realised that the excitement of thechase and the crowd of cows all about had made him forget the care thathe should have exercised. His next shot was a careful one at a great cowrunning along just before him, and swinging her huge head from side toside; at the shot she went down, and so did the next one he shot at andthe next. Then Jack noticed that most of the buffalo had disappeared.There were still half a dozen running near him, but these were turningoff in one direction and another. He noticed, too, that Pawnee wasrunning more slowly than he had been, and he made up his mind that hewould stop. He had done well enough and he did not want to overtax hishorse.

  "PULLED THE BOW TO THE ARROW'S HEAD."--_Page 234_]

  As he drew rein and Pawnee slackened his pace, at first to a gallop andthen to a trot and a walk, he had an opportunity to look about him. Inmany directions, in front and on both sides, he could see scatteringbunches of buffalo climbing the hills; some of them were still pursuedby Indians, and looking back over the plain he could see many brown dotswhich he supposed were carcasses lying there, and many Indians ridinghither and thither in confusion. A few buffalo were to be seen standingabout, and near each were one or two riders.

  At a little distance to his right he recognised Hugh, who was trottingtoward him. When he came up, Hugh said to him, "Well, son, you donepretty well after all. You kind of lost your nerve one while though,didn't you?"

  "Why yes, Hugh," said Jack, "I did. I couldn't hit anything. But wherewere you? I didn't see you."

  "Oh well," said Hugh, "I wasn't so far off but I could s
ee what wasgoing on. I saw, though, that you caught yourself after a while andkilled two or three cows. I expect likely, them you wounded has all beenkilled before now, but let's ride back and see if we can pick out thebuffalo we killed."

  They started back and Jack pointed out what he thought were the threecows that he killed, and Hugh examined the wounds and said that Jack wasright. Crossing a little gully through which flowed a tiny stream, whichin the excitement of the run, Jack had wholly failed to notice, Hughpointed to a low clump of bushes to their right, and said, "Ride overand kill that cow, son." Jack then saw, standing among the bushes, abuffalo cow evidently wounded, and riding over near to her, was about todismount, when Hugh said, "Hold on, shoot from the saddle, don't neverget on the ground near a wounded cow; if she were to make a charge, shemight scare your horse and if he ran off you wouldn't have a good timedodging the cow." Jack shot from the saddle and the cow fell, and whenthey went up to her, they found that her previous wound was made by arifle ball, so that she was undoubtedly one of those that Jack had shotat.

  As they passed on over the plain where the buffalo lay, they saw manymen at work butchering, and before they had come to the last of the deadbuffalo, a long line of women with their travois, their children andtheir dogs had reached the killing ground, and begun the work ofcarrying the meat and hides to camp.