Buffalo Country

Buffalo were central to life for Plains Indians, and mountain Indians also came down from the hills to hunt them. Some tribes lured buffalo into concealed corrals, others stampeded herds over cliffs, and hunters also pursued them with bows and arrows on trained buffalo horses. Fat cow was the preferred meat. Meat was preserved as pemmican by drying and pulverizing it, pouring marrow bone grease and oil over it, and packing it into skin bags, where it kept indefinitely and provided the food value of one pound to ten in fresh meat. Tanned robes and rawhide supplied bedding, tepees, clothes, war shields, stretchers, travois, canoes, and bags, while horns and bones became tools and utensils. Buffalo also figured prominently in many religious rites, and jealousy over hereditary hunting grounds caused most intertribal wars.

Montana · United States