Page 90 - 2019 Russell Catalogue

121
CHARLES M. RUSSELL (1864–1926) Preparation for the Buffalo Hunt, c. 1898 watercolor, ink wash, en grisaille on paper 15 1⁄4 x 22 1⁄2 inches
Inscription: Ll: CM Russell/(skull)
$90,000–130,000
Recorded in Charles M. Russell: A Catalog Raisonné: CR.UNL.431
Charlie Russell’s watercolor en grisaille is an important scene depicting events that occurred multiple times at an actual site near present-day Chugwater, in southeastern Wyoming. Chugwater is located in the North Platte River basin about a third of the way between Cheyenne and Casper. This landscape, favorable for hunting, was well known, and various Plains Indian tribes hunted buffalo there. It presented exceptional opportunities to achieve large harvests of buffalo in the fall months in preparation for their winter encampment needs.
While there is no evidence of Russell ever actually visiting this location, the artist Sanford Gifford was there as part
of the Hayden expedition to Yellowstone. In 1870, he painted the distinct landscape feature. Thus, a photograph of him on that occasion, along with the considerable Indian hunting folklore about Chugwater, may have inspired Russell to do this painting. The term “chugwater” itself refers to native American hunting activities on the high cliffs above the river. Before the advent of horses for hunting, Indians wearing wolf skins would crawl toward grazing bison and then suddenly rise up to incite a stampede and drive the animals over the precipice, where their post-traumatic “chugging of water” facilitated their dispatch.
With the arrival of horses, the Plains Indian tribes evolved to using a technique called “the surround” that could take full advantage of the topography of the river’s western bank. As the 1848 West Pointer Colonel Richard Erving Dodge details in his 1883 classic account, Our Wild Indians1:
Early in October, when the buffalo is at his fattest, preparations begin or the “great fall hunt,” which was made for the purpose of killing sufficient animals, not only to furnish dried meat for the next winter’s supply, but heavy skins for teepes, parfleches, saddles, etc., and lighter ones for clothing, bedding, and for trade.
Other conditions being favorable, the camp is, whenever possible, pitched in a broken country, for the favorite and most successful mode of killing large numbers is by “the surround,” and this is only practicable when hills and hallows, breaks and ravines render the approach to the herd easy, and prevent other herds from seeing or hearing the commotion and noise attendant upon its destruction.
Colonel Dodge continues,
A narrow valley, with many lateral ravines, is very favorable. If the herd is on a hill, or otherwise unfavorable situation, the hunters may wait for it to go to water, or by discreet appearances at intervals, drive it to the best spot. During all this time the whole masculine portion of the band capable of doing execution in the coming slaughter is congregated on horseback, in some adjacent ravine, out of sight of the buffalo, silent and trembling with suppressed excitement. The herd being in proper position, the leading hunters tell off the men, and send them under temporary captains to designated positions. Keeping carefully concealed, these parties pour down the valley to leeward, and spread gradually on each flank of the wind, until the herd is surrounded, except of the windward side. Seeing that every man is in the proper place, and all ready, the head hunter rapidly swings in a party to close the gap, gives the signal, and, with a yell that would almost wake the dead, the whole line dashes and closes on the game. The buffalo make desperate rushes, which are met in every direction by shouts and shots and circling horsemen, until utterly bewildered, they almost stand still to await their fate. In a few moments the slaughter is complete.
In sum, Preparation for the Buffalo Hunt provides solid evidence of C. M. Russell’s intimate appreciation of details of bison hunting techniques practiced in the nomadic American Plains cultures. His subtle yet highly effective rendition and celebration of it here is quite extraordinary. Thus, it helps us better understand why Russell, sometimes known as the “White Indian” artist, still receives deep respect from so many members of the American Indian tribes.
1 Colonel Richard Erving Dodge, Our Wild Indians (Hartford, CT: A. D. Worthington and Company, 1883), 287–289.