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The Buffalo
The Buffalo was skinned where it had fallen and the meat taken to camp where it was cut
into thin slices and strung to dry in the sun and fresh breezes. After converting the flesh
into jerky, they cut the fat into large chunks which were used for cooking. The hides
were tanned into robes and rugs through a process of scraping and using the buffalos brains as tanning.
No part of the animal was wasted. The Indian ate its flesh, the marrow of its bones, put
the contents of the gall bladder on raw liver. Only the heart was unconsumed as it was
used to magically keep the buffalo strong... When the Indian was thirsty, there was the
blood of the buffalo. Its paunch after the inner lining was removed was used as a water
bag or used in stone-boiling food.
The bones, horns, and hoofs of the buffalo were made into cups, spoons, and ornaments.
Sinews from the back made bowstrings and thread. The hide was made into a robe or a blanket,
or strips of raw hide were made into rope. A green hide was used to cook meals in.
They slice the meat thin and suspend it in the sun or lightly barbecue it if they are in a
hurry. During the curing operation, they beat or knead the slices with their feet, which they
say contributes to its preservation. This curing is done without salt, and the meat doesn't
spoil since there are no blowflies in this region... An arrow thirty inches long could be completely
buried in a buffalo, or on occasion completely pass through the buffalo... Cows and younger bulls
are preferred for better quality meat.
(Speaking of Querecho Apaches) ...they came to a settlement of 200 houses. The houses were made
of the skins of the cows tanned white like pavilions or army tents... With the skins they make
their houses and shoe themselves, of the skins they make rope and of the wool; from the sinews
they make thread with which they sew their clothes and also their houses; from the bones they make
awls; the dung serves them for wood, because there is nothing else in that country; the stomach serves
them for pitchers and vessels from which they drink; they live on the flesh; they sometimes eat it half
roasted and warmed over the dung, at other times raw; seizing it with their fingers, they pull it out with
one hand and with a flint knife in the other they cut off mouthfuls , and thus swallow it half chewed; They
drink the blood just as it leaves the cows and at other times after it has run out, cold and raw. These people
have dogs somewhat larger than those of this country (Spain) and they load these dogs like beasts of burden, and
make saddles for them like our pack saddles and they fasten them with their leather thongs and these make
their backs sore on the withers like pack animals.
They dry the flesh in the sun, cutting it thin like a leaf, and when dry they grind it like meal
to keep it and make a sort of sea soup of it to eat. A handful thrown into a pot swells up so as to
increase very much. They season it with fat which they always try to secure when they kill a cow.
They empty a large gut and fill it with blood and carry this around the neck to drink when they are thirsty.
When they open the belly of a cow, they squeeze out the chewed grass and drink what remains behind, because
they say this contains the essence of the stomach.
Prairie fires often caused buffalo stampedes which resulted in buffalo jumps and often roasted buffalo carcasses on the plains.
The Indians of the Mandan village made the bringing medicine to bring the buffalo their way. The young
warriors sacrificed their wives to the old men in a sexual sacrifice designed to bring the buffalo.
This may have been a leftover practice from previous fertility rites designed to help the crops.
Along the Yellowstone and Missouri, buffalo herds venturing out onto thin ice would fall through and
drown to be swept down the river during the spring flood and serve as an excellent source of cured buffalo meat.
Buffalo were sometimes buried to achieve this curing.
They first encountered the buffalo east of Tascosa. In butchering the buffalo, the hunter opened it along the back,
Indian style. The meat on each side of the long vertebral spine was called the fleece. The hump ribs were a favorite part.
The base, just to the side of the neck is a tasteful part. The side ribs and tongue are also taken. Sometimes the bones are broken for the marrow which is rich and buttery.
The meat was dried and packed in bales of hard dressed leather called Par Fleches.
The Indians use the awl and either leather cord or sinew which doesn't cut the leather like thread.
The sinew is obtained from the fleece of the buffalo along the back muscle. Sinew can be divided to form thread of any size.
The Caddo tribes used the brains of buffalo for softening leather, the skull for ladles and drinking vessels,
the shoulder blades for hoes, the smaller bones for awls, hooves for glue, hair tail for ropes and belts,
the droppings for fuel, the hide for bridles, saddles, and ropes and to make shields, tipis, bags, shoes, blankets,
and coffins. Hunting was usually in the winter when the cows were fat.
Glue was made from hide scrapings, hooves, and horns. This glue was boiled until the correct consistency was
obtained, at which point they would save it on a stick which they carried in the bowcase for use when needed.
The bowstring was formed from buffalo sinew.
Ciboleros left New Mexico in June and October for the buffalo plains. In June they hunted the bulls because
they were fattest in the summer. In October, after the harvest, they returned and hunted the cows which were
fatter at this time. The buffalo hide was more valuable in October also, since the animals had a fresh winter
coat which was thick and woolly. The Ciboleros would camp where the smoke from the campfire would not cause the buffalo
to stampede. Ten to twelve thousand buffalo were killed annually, but there was no noticeable decrease in the size of the
herds from year to year.
Of the skin, they make robes, lodges, lariats, ropes, trunks or par fleche sacks, saddles, saddle covers, hats,
gun covers, whips, quivers, knife scabbards, cradles, saddle bags, saddle blankets, decorations for saddles, beds, bridles,
boots, a kind of sled for hauling the meat over the snow, and from the thick part of the skin of the neck a glue is made by
boiling and skimming.
Ropes and lariats are made from the scalplock or long tuft on the forehead, and pillows from the hair.
From the horns, spoons, cups, dishes, powderhorns, arrowheads, bows, by splitting the longer horns.
From the fascia(sinew) found under the shoulder blades, the abdominal fascia, the two strips on each side over
the hump, and the strip on each side of the back, they make thread, bowstring, rope for softening robes by rubbing,
fasten feather guides to arrows, and stiffen and make bows more elastic by placing on back. From the thick ligament
of the upper portion of the nape of the neck is made a pipe. An instrument for straightening arrows is made from the
center bone of the hump by cutting a hole in it, and from some of the smaller bones arrowheads are made, and an instrument
for "flushing" or scraping the meat from the hides. From shoulder blades, axes, knives, arrow points, instruments for
dressing robes and smoothing down porcupine work.
The trachea is used as a sack for paints. The rough papilla of the tongue as hair brushes. The brain,
liver, and fat for tanning skins. Instruments for shaping bows and small dog sleds from ribs. From the paunch,
water pipes or sacks, in which meat and blood are sometimes cooked by boiling with heated stones, the latter being
dropped into the sacks.
From the thigh-bones traps similar to our deadfalls, from the tail, knife scabbards, handles to war clubs, and
medicine rattles. The udder dried becomes stiff and hard and is used for dishes, tobacco bags, medicine rattles,
etc. The pericardium for sacks. The gall is sometimes used as a drink, and produces intoxication. There is sometimes
found in the gall a hard yellow substance and this is highly valued as a paint for the face.
The amniotic fluid in which the foetus floats, is used by them to quench thirst when water cannot be obtained,
and is also generally used to cook or boil the foetus in, the latter being specially prized as a dainty and delicate
morsel of food. The marrow is eaten both raw and cooked, being roasted in the larger bones by laying them on the coals.
The teeth are used for necklaces and are also put in medicine rattles.
They consider the contents of the paunch as an excellent remedy for skin diseases, and in case of frost bite
if the member is thrust into the paunch of a freshly killed buffalo, relief comes without evil after-effects.
A very little buffalo fat is sometimes mixed with the tobacco and red willow bark for smoking. The liver is
often eaten raw, and while still warm with animal heat, the gall juice being sprinkled over it as a sauce.
The kidneys are eaten both raw and cooked. The meat, fat, and most of the intestines are staple articles of
food and are kept for months by being simply dried in the sun. The hump is considered particularly fine for
drying. The contents of the paunch furnish food for ponies, and the liquid in same, cleared by the gall is
prized for drinking, it is cool and tasteless.
The "buffalo chips" are used for fuel, and before the days of flint and steel and matches were particularly
good when dry for making a fire by the friction of wood. These "chips" when pounded fine and kept dry are
used to keep the small children warm, they being partially buried in the powdered material.
The tanned buffalo skin without the hair furnishes the best material for tepees.
Till the buffaloes were two and one half years old, there was little choice between the sexes. After that,
the flesh of the bulls became distasteful and was rarely taken unless in a time of great scarcity.
Amniotic fluid - a drink, or cooking fluid
Blood - A drink
Bones - Marrow eaten, made into cups, spoons, and ornaments, awls, Shoulder blades for hoes, hump bone as
arrow shaft straightener, hide scrapers, arrowheads, axes, knives, deadfall supports,
Brains - Tanning
Dung(chips) - fuel, powdered to keep children warm by burying them in a layer of dung.
Fat - seasoning, tanning
Flesh - Jerky, fresh meat, pemmican, cured in water or soil,
Gall Bladder - Emptied on Liver, drink to induce intoxication, yellow substance used for face paint,
Hair - Ropes, belts, pillows,
Hide - Robes, Rugs, Blankets, Used to cook meals in when green, shoes, houses(Tepees), string, leather, bridles,
saddles, ropes, shields, bags, coffins, Scrapings for glue, trunks, par fleches, saddle covers, hats, gun covers, saddle bags,
saddle blankets, decorations for saddles, beds, boots, sled,
Horns - glue, spoons, cups, dishes, powderhorns, arrowheads, bows, gaming pole tips,
Intestines - Food
Kidneys - food
Liver - Tanning hides
Paunch - Water bag, for stone boiling, pitchers, vessels, contents used for skin diseases, and fresh to relieve
frostbite, contents fed to horses
Pericardium - sacks
Rawhide - Rope
Ribs - Hump ribs a favorite food
Sinews - Bowstrings, Thread, rope, feather fasteners for arrows, pipes,
Stomach contents - drink
Tail - Hair for ropes and belts, knife scabbards, handles for war clubs, medicine rattles
Teeth - necklaces, in medicine rattles
Tongue - Hair Brush
Trachea - sack for paints
Udder - dishes, tobacco bags, medicine rattles
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