Trade secrets: The long tradition of bison hunting
Story by Jackie Wallace
For over 9,000 years, an undulating black cloud moved across the plains of Alberta and Saskatchewan
as far as the eye could see: herds of migrating bison in droves estimated to have been between
30 to 60 million strong. The long tradition of bison hunting maintained techniques that had
been practised by skilled Native hunters for generations.
Traditional bison hunting was conducted in two ways: In small groups, skilled hunters would
stalk and kill bison using arrows and lances. But on a more massive scale, hunting involved
communal drives, where large groups of hunters herded bison to "kill sites," traditionally
called "buffalo jumps" and "buffalo pounds."
A "buffalo jump" was a steep cliff that the herds were driven over, guided by
the hunters using drive lines — rows of rock piles arranged in a funnel that gradually
narrowed toward the cliff edge. These drive lines could extend for miles before the jump
itself. Hunters crouched in wait behind the lines and then jumped up waving robes to frighten
approaching bison into staying inside the funnel. The bison would either die from the fall
from the cliff or be immobilized, allowing the hunters to move in for an easy kill. Effective
locations for these drives were rare on the plains landscape, so the sites were used again
and again.
The "buffalo pound" also depended on drive lines to guide the herds, in this
case into a corral, or pound — a clearing in a grove of trees around which a log fence
was built. The hunters drove the herd into the pound with smoldering buffalo chips and skillful
imitations of the cries of a distressed bison calf, an exercise that could take as long as
three or four days. The entrance to the pound was disguised with hides after the bison were
inside, and the hunters then slaughtered the trapped animals. The bounty garnered from these
communal hunts supplied enough meat and material to support entire camps through long winters.
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