Indian Tribes of the Upper Missouri / Edited with Notes and Biographical Sketch

by Edwin Thompson Denig

Wild Animals

The most numerous and useful animal in this country is unquestionably the buffalo, both as regards the sustenance of all the Indians and gain of the traders. Any important decrease of this animal would have the effect of leaving the Indians without traders, no returns of smaller skins being sufficient to pay the enormous expense of bringing supplies so far and employing such a number of people. Buffalo are very numerous, and we do not, after 20 years’ experience, find that they decrease in this quarter, although upward of 150,000 are killed annually throughout the extent of our trade, without taking into consideration those swamped, drowned, calves frozen to death, destroyed by wolves, or in embryo, etc. It yet would appear that their increase is still greater than their destruction, as during last winter (1852-53) there were more found in this quarter, and indeed in the whole extent of our trade, than had been seen for many years before.

The buffalo is the Indian’s whole dependence. It serves him for all his purposes—meat, clothing and lodging, powder horns, bowstrings, thread and hair to make saddles. In the winter season the hides are dressed, made into robes and traded to whites, by which means they are able to buy all their necessaries and even some luxuries. Robes are worth about $3 each, and although the number sent to market is great, yet the high price paid for them to Indians and the danger of transportation is such that fortunes are more easily and often lost than made at the business. Beaver were formerly numerous and valuable, therefore much hunted by whites and Indians, but of late years the price of that fur being greatly reduced, and the danger of hunting considerable, does not induce either whites or Indians to hunt them. This animal has been trapped and killed to such an extent as to threaten their entire extinction, though for the last 10 or 12 years, since beaver trapping by large bodies of men has been abandoned, they have greatly increased, and are now to be found tolerably plentiful in all the small streams and in the Missouri and Yellowstone. These Indians do not and never did trap them much; though the Crow and the Cree still make good beaver hunts, they do not rely much on this either as a source of profit or food.

Elk, deer, bighorn, and antelope are numerous and afford a means of living and profit to the Indians although they are not hunted to any extent except in a great scarcity of buffalo. From this circumstance they do not diminish and are found now in much the same numbers as 20 years back.

Wolves are very plentiful and of three kinds, the large white wolf, the large grayback wolf, and the small prairie wolf, all a good deal hunted and many killed, though they continue to increase. They follow the buffalo in large bands, waiting an opportunity to pounce upon one that has been wounded or mired. They also destroy a great many small calves in the month of May when they are brought forth. The skins of the larger kind are worth 70 cents to $1 each; the smaller about 50 cents each.

Red and gray foxes, hares, badgers, skunks, wild cats, otters, ermines, and muskrats are found and killed when opportunity offers. Of all these the red fox appears to be the only one that has diminished in numbers. We are not aware that any animals have disappeared altogether, nor of any perceptible decrease of any except the beaver and red fox. The Indians kill only as many buffalo as are wanted for meat and hides. Taking only as many hides as their women can dress, they do not destroy them wantonly to any extent; consequently the destruction is limited, and that not being equivalent to the increase, but little diminution, if any, is perceptible, and the trade as long as this is the case can not have the effect of exterminating them. It is different as regards the beaver and fox. Their skins require no labor except drying, and being slower to increase must of course be the first to disappear if hunted. Grizzly bears are tolerably numerous on the Missouri and Yellowstone and are not hunted often, although killed occasionally. The animal being ferocious is not much sought after by the Indians.

Ancient Bones and Traditions of the Monster Era.—The Indians know from bones found that such animals existed and were of immense size, but their traditions never make mention of the living animal. To these bones, etc., they assign the general name of Wan-wan-kah, which is a creature of their own imagination, half spirit, half animal. Any whirlwind or great tempest would be attributed to the movements of the Wan-wan-kah, also any other natural phenomenon. Many stories are told of its actions, but all are fabulous, although they profess to believe in the existence of its powers, some even stating they have seen it crossing the Missouri in the form of a large fish covering half the breadth of that river.[5]

Animals Used as Armorial Marks.—These armorial marks or symbols, such as the eagle, owl, bear, serpent, etc., do not represent any tribal organization but kinship occasionally. Neither do they refer to any traditions of any early date, but are insignia adopted by themselves as their medicine or charm. Most Indians have a charm of this kind, either in consequence of some dream or of an idea that the figure has some effect in carrying out his views regarding war, the chase, or the health of his family. These are assumed for his own purposes, whether real or imaginary, to operate on his own actions or to influence those of other Indians. To these tangible objects, after Wakoñda, who is a spirit, they address their prayers and invocations. Neither do these symbols affect them regarding the killing of the same animals on all occasions, though after he has killed it he will smoke and propitiate [the spirit of] the dead carcass, and even offer the head small sacrifices of tobacco and provisions.