Page 35 - 2021 March Sealed Bid Catalogue

Lot 14—CHARLES M. RUSSELL—The Run (cont.)
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 hollows, 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.
All being ready the best hunters are out long before the dawn of day. If several herds of buffalo are discovered, that one is selected for slaughter whose position is such that the preliminary maneuvers of surround and the shouts and shots of the conflict are least likely to disturb the others. A narrow valley, with many lateral ravines, is very favorable. If the herd is on a hill, or otherwise unfavorably situated, 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 of 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 on the windward side. Seeing that every man is in his 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 closed 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. A few may have broken through the cordon and escaped. These are not pursued if other herds are in the vicinity.*
The slaughter completed, the “soldiers” return to camp to swell and strut, and vaunt each of his own individual exploits, while the women skin, cut up, and carry to camp almost every portion of the dead animals.
Colonel Dodge added the following footnote:
*I have never personally witnessed a surround. The above description is given on the authority of white men and Indians who have assisted in many. The dog soldiers are exceedingly tenacious of their rights, and object strenuously to the presence of any one who may not be punished for violation of their rules. The chief dare
not, without their counsel, give permission for any outsider to accompany the band in a surround. Those who belong to the band by marriage, and few others specially favored, are the only white men who have ever been eyewitnesses to this most exciting of Indian scenes. A white hunter, considered very reliable, told me that he had once seen nearly three hundred buffalo killed in one surround, the whole affair occupied less than ten minutes after the signal was given, and that not a single buffalo escaped.