Then they always had plenty of buffalo—­if not fresh meat, that which they had dried.  For in winter they would kill large numbers of buffalo, and would prepare great stores of dried meat.  As spring opened, the buffalo would move down to the more flat prairie country away from the pis’kuns.  Then the Blackfeet would also move away.  As winter drew near, the buffalo would again move up close to the mountains, and the Indians, as food began to become scarce, would follow them toward the pis’kuns.  In the last of the summer and early autumn, they always had runners out, looking for the buffalo, to find where they were, and which way they were moving.  In the early autumn, all the pis’kuns were repaired and strengthened, so as to be in good order for winter.

In the days before they had horses, and even in later times when the ground was of such a character as to prevent running the buffalo, an ingenious method of still-hunting them was practised.  A story told by Hugh Monroe illustrates it.  He said:  “I was often detailed by the Hudson’s Bay Company to go out in charge of a number of men, to kill meat for the fort.  When the ground was full of holes and wash-outs, so that running was dangerous, I used to put on a big timber wolf’s skin, which I carried for the purpose, tying it at my neck and waist, and then to sneak up to the buffalo.  I used a bow and arrows, and generally shot a number without alarming them.  If one looked suspiciously at me, I would howl like a wolf.  Sometimes the smell of the blood from the wounded and dying would set the bulls crazy.  They would run up and lick the blood, and sometimes toss the dead ones clear from the ground.  Then they would bellow and fight each other, sometimes goring one another so badly that they died.  The great bulls, their tongues covered with blood, their eyes flashing, and tails sticking out straight, roaring and fighting, were terrible to see; and it was a little dangerous for me, because the commotion would attract buffalo from all directions to see what was going on.  At such times, I would signal to my men, and they would ride up and scare the buffalo away.”

In more modern times, the height of pleasure to a Blackfoot was to ride a good horse and run buffalo.  When bows and arrows, and, later, muzzle-loading “fukes” were the only weapons, no more buffalo were killed than could actually be utilized.  But after the Winchester repeater came in use, it seemed as if the different tribes vied with each other in wanton slaughter.  Provided with one of these weapons and a couple of belts of cartridges, the hunters would run as long as their horses could keep up with the band, and literally cover the prairie with carcasses, many of which were never even skinned.

ANTELOPE