Chase by Pawnee Indians

Historian Francis Parkman made a trip along the Oregon Trail in 1846 and wrote extensively of his observations. He witnessed Indians in their equestrian assaults on the bison herds and described the organization necessary to accomplish their goals among the scattered herds. They organized into groups led by “soldiers” or “marshals” who exercised authority over the group in the name of the community. They “direct the place to encamp — they direct the movements of a ‘surround’ and prevent the buffalo from being frightened by vagrant hunters,” Parkman wrote. (Isenberg, 2000, pp. 87 – 88)

Buffalo have poor eyesight, so the Indians could carefully surround them on horseback, allowing the hunters to identify individual animals and kill them one at a time, while preventing the herd from being frightened. In this sketch, Miller has depicted a horseman who has “singled out and disengaged from the main body of the Buffalo his preference, and is now running, and about to shoot him.” Miller explains that the “hills militate against the speed of the animal, as their great weight in front soon tires them down.” (Ross, 1968), text accompanying plate 121)

Ron Tyler