Buffalo Hunting

betgo · May 11, 2025

They are not the easiest animal to hunt. When they are kept on farms now, they will destroy pens, etc. A standard method of slaughtering them is to shot the buffalo at a distance from inside an SUV or pickup truck. The vehicle offers some protection from a wounded buffalo and can generally outrun it.

Before horses, the plains Indians would trick the buffalo to stampede off a cliff or get them on to ice in winter. It wasn't possible to hunt them conventionally on foot. The Spanish brought horses, and the Indians found the horses without contact with the Spanish. Then they hunted on horseback with bows and arrows. This was fairly dangerous, and sometimes hunter were killed or wounded and sometimes horses were lost.

johnincornwall · May 11, 2025

More human insanity.

The Indians certainly had contact with the Spanish. But you're right, that's not generally how they obtained horses

Windemere · May 12, 2025

The Southwest Indian tribes certainly did have close contact with the Spanish. But the Plains Indian tribes, maybe had little or no close contact with the Spanish. Horses had gone wild very soon after the Spanish Conquest of Mexico and the Southwest U.S., and wild horse herds, over the succeeding centuries, spread on their own up to the Great Plains, where the Plains Indian tribes domesticated them, and developed the 'Horse Culture' of the 1800s, which included hunting buffalo on horseback.

Matthew Amt · May 12, 2025

johnincornwall said:
More human insanity.

Do you mean riding horses? Or hunting to survive? Just curious...

johnincornwall · May 12, 2025

Correct. It was mainly the pueblo indians and the more warlike 'immigrants' from the north, Apache, Navajo and Commanche who lived under the Spanish. The latter being the most unruly! Even so they managed to coexist for a very long time. Lack of support and lack of settlers led ultimately to abandonment of farms, missions and of course, horses.

My go to book on this is in Spanish, covering the conquest and management of the SW united States

Banderas Lejanas: La Exploracion, Conquista Y Defensa Por Espana Del Territorio De Los Actuales Estados Unidos https://amzn.eu/d/9yLeAMo

johnincornwall · May 12, 2025

Matthew Amt said:
Do you mean riding horses? Or hunting to survive? Just curious...

Hardly.

Killing millions of buffalo to the edge of extinction, in order to starve indians basically. Just surprised the OP is almost glorifying it.

And is this day and age do people still gain some enjoyment from murdering huge, magnificent beasts from an SUV?

Very sad

betgo · May 12, 2025

johnincornwall said:
Hardly.

Killing millions of buffalo to the edge of extinction, in order to starve indians basically. Just surprised the OP is almost glorifying it.

And is this day and age do people still gain some enjoyment from murdering huge, magnificent beasts from an SUV?

Very sad

I didn't mention killing off the buffalo herds to starve the Indians, and certainly didn't glorify it.

People with buffalo herds shoot the buffalos from SUVs in order to get the meat, not for pleasure, but because that is the safest way to slaughter a buffalo. It is impossible to keep them in an enclosure, and it would be more dangerous to shoot them on foot.

The Plains Indians probably did have some contact with the Spanish. The Spanish established forts in many areas of the current US that they did not control, but more the southeast than the Plains. There were also white traders in areas completely under native control, but those were more French Canadian or British / US than Spanish.

johnincornwall · May 12, 2025

The book I quoted has a map of missions, presidios etc etc.

I often think we watch westerns full of 2-300 years old missions, and Apaches speaking Spanish, without giving any thought to how all this came about

I was going to say 'did watch' but came across a couple of old Audie Murphy films last week!

betgo · May 12, 2025

The Apaches were in Texas, which was Spanish and then Mexican territory. That Spanish did have small forts in what is now the US south and midwest, but in most cases the forts were wiped out. They also sent an expedition through the south looking for gold. Don't know if there was any Spanish presence in the Plains. The Plains are dry. They were referred to as a desert. That is partly why the Indians there didn't grow crops, and why it was one the latest areas of white settlement.

I don't know if there were 300 year old missions in the 19th century. The first Spanish mission in Texas was established in 1690 and in California 1769.

Leftyhunter · May 12, 2025

betgo said:
They are not the easiest animal to hunt. When they are kept on farms now, they will destroy pens, etc. A standard method of slaughtering them is to shot the buffalo at a distance from inside an SUV or pickup truck. The vehicle offers some protection from a wounded buffalo and can generally outrun it.

Before horses, the plains Indians would trick the buffalo to stampede off a cliff or get them on to ice in winter. It wasn't possible to hunt them conventionally on foot. The Spanish brought horses, and the Indians found the horses without contact with the Spanish. Then they hunted on horseback with bows and arrows. This was fairly dangerous, and sometimes hunter were killed or wounded and sometimes horses were lost.

Buffalo rifle - Wikipedia
Actually Buffalo aren't that hard to hunt on the plains. They are easy to spot. A buffalo hunter if he could find some cover could safely shoot them from a distance with a long range rifle as mentioned in the source. At one time hunting tourists could shoot them from trains. Hunting buffalo was so easy they were almost brought to the brink of extinction. Buffalo were brought to Catalina Island off the coast of Long Beach , California by Zane Grey who was filming a movie and didn't remove the buffalo from the island. which owned the Island for a time and Hollywood celeberaties and other nearby rich folk could hunt them.
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Hunting buffalo is no longer allowed on Catalina Island but the heard is expected to go extinct as the the female's are sterilized via dart guns.
Leftyhunter

historynut 73 · May 13, 2025

Buffalo certainly can and are raised in pens and pastures . There are plenty in No.Florida , So Georgia and my cousin raised some in Clark County , Ohio ! I believe Beau Turner had some in Jefferson county Florida some years ago !

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Buffalo Hunting

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