Métis buffalo hunting began on the North American plains in the late 1700s and continued until 1878. The great buffalo hunts were subsistence, political, economic, and military operations for Métis families and communities living in the region. At the height of the buffalo hunt era, there were two major hunt seasons: summer and autumn. These hunts were highly organized, with an elected council to lead the expedition. This made sure the process was fair and all families were well-fed and provided for throughout the year.
Nomenclature Though there are no buffalo species that are indigenous to the Americas, the Southern Michif term for bison is lii bufloo. Bison are not a species of the Bubalina subtribe that includes all of the true buffalo species, but American bison have been known as buffalo since 1616 when Samuel de Champlain applied the term buffalo (buffles in French) to the species, based on skins and drawings shown to him by members of the Nipissing First Nation who had traded with other First Nations that hunted them. There is a very closely related bison species indigenous to Europe, called the European bison (also known as wisent or the European wood bison), however, it's very likely that the early European explorers had never seen nor heard of a European bison as they were essentially extirpated from Western Europe during the Middle Ages.
Early history Métis buffalo hunting began in the late 18th century. Trading companies working on the plains sought out food items that could last their traders on long trips; pemmican can be stored for long periods of time without spoiling, which made it an ideal product. The Métis commercialized their hunts to engage in trade and supply pemmican to these companies. In these early days buffalo herds still lived in close proximity to the communities, so Métis families in the Red River region could conduct their hunting and trading individually without needing to travel. As settler and Métis populations grew, the buffalo moved further away and hunts increasingly grew in size and scale to keep up with demand and provide for their expanding communities. These changes brought a new organization to the buffalo hunts, with Métis families forming parties to travel in safety.
Buffalo hunts The Metis buffalo hunts were held at two times during a year by the Métis of the Red River settlements during the North American fur trade. The buffalo hunt out of Red River region had three major parties: the Pembina Métis, the Métis of St. Boniface, also known as the Main River party, and the St. Francois Xavier Métis. The Métis of St. Boniface, situated on the banks of the Red River of the North in what is now the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, formed the largest contingent of these hunts; composed of a summer hunt and an autumn hunt. By the 1830s, every major hunt had a common form and governance structure. The largest-scale buffalo hunts began a decade later. For the summer hunts, the three parties would gather at Pembina to organize before continuing on to the buffalo hunting grounds.
All members of the family participated in the hunt in some way; the faster the buffalo meat could be processed and preserved meant less potential for spoilage as a result of changing weather conditions. Men were typically the hunters, while women were responsible for maintaining the camps, preparing and preserving the buffalo meat. A successful hunt could bring in thousands of buffalo.
Summer hunts The summer buffalo hunt, otherwise known as the dried meat hunt, traditionally occurred from June to late July or early August. When the season began, the Métis, after sowing their fields in the spring, set out with their wives and children leaving a few behind to take care of the crops. The warmer temperatures made this season ideal for producing dried meat, pemmican, and buffalo tongue, which the Métis would trade most often with the Hudson Bay company.
In 1840 the settlement had over 4,800 people of which 1,630 took part in the summer hunt and headed south on the prairie. Often harassed by the Sioux, the Métis from the various settlements of Red River travelled in large groups for protection. Another smaller portion of the population would join the York boat brigades including the Portage La Loche Brigade heading north.
In 1879 the hunters on the prairies of Canada reported that only a few buffalo were left of the great herds and two years later the last of the buffalo herds in the Montana Territory were also gone.
Paul Kane, an Irish-born Canadian painter, witnessed and participated in the Métis buffalo hunt of 1846. Several of his paintings depict scenes of this hunt in the Sioux lands of the Dakota Territory in the United States of America.
The summer hunts increased in size from 540 Red River carts in the 1820 summer hunt, 689 carts in 1825, 820 in 1830, 970 in 1835 and 1210 carts in 1840.
In 1823 William H. Keating described a group of buffalo hunters he encountered at Pembina by the Red River. The group had a total of 300 people and consisted of 115 Red River carts and at least 200 horses. These men, he wrote, are Gens libres or freemen and are not Engagés or servants who are employed by the Hudson's Bay Company. The Métis among them are called Bois brulés.
Their horses are from the southern prairies or from New Spain having been traded and re-traded until they come into their possession. The buffalo runner, a horse bred for speed and intelligence, was used principally for the hunt. Often its saddle and trappings were decorated with beads and porcupine quills and for the hunt its mane and tail were intertwined with multicolored ribbons.
Leaving Fort Garry on June 15, 1840 were 1210 Red river carts, 620 hunters, 650 women, 360 boys and girls, 403 buffalo runners (horses), 655 cart horses, 586 draught oxen and 542 dogs in the hunting expedition. In three days they reached their rendezvous at Pembina to the south and set up a tent city. The carts were set up to form a solid defensive circle with forks facing out. Within the circle the tents were set up in rows on one side and, facing the tents, the animals on the other side. The animals are kept outside when deemed safe.
At Pembina a count was taken of those taking part (1,630 in 1840), a general council was held and leaders were chosen. Ten captains were chosen in 1840 Jean Baptiste Wilkie being chosen as the war chief and the president of the camp. Each captain had ten soldiers under them. Ten guides were also chosen. A smaller council of the leaders was also held to lay down the rules or laws of the hunt.
Leaving Pembina on June 21 the group travelled southwest reaching the Sheyenne River nine days later. On July 3, sighting buffalo further, 400 mounted hunters killed about 1,000. In carts the women then arrived to cut up the meat and haul the pieces back to the camp. It took the women several days to prepare the dried meat. The camp then moved on to another site. That year the hunting group returned to Fort Garry with about of buffalo meat per cart or in all or the dried meat of between 10,000 and 10,500 buffalo.
In 1849 there were two summer hunts from the Red River. The St. Francois Xavier (White Horse Plain) group alone numbered 700 Métis, 200 First Nations, 603 carts, 600 horses, 200 oxen and 400 dogs.
Isaac Stevens of the US Pacific Railroad Surveys (1853-1854) who camped near the Red River hunters near Devil's Lake, North Dakota in 1853 (July 16) provided a description of the 1853 summer hunt. The hunt was led by Jean Baptiste Wilkie and had 1,300 people, 1,200 animals and 824 carts. The camp consisted of 104 tepees, most shared by two families, arranged within a circle of carts which covered in skins provided additional sleeping quarters. The animals are driven into the circle at night and 36 men stand guard on the sleeping camp.
Six days later Stevens group encountered another hunting group led by Urbain Delorme of St. Francois Xavier. Delorme led this group, that averaged 500 carts, for 25 consecutive years.
Autumn hunt The autumn hunt started in September and ended in late October or early November. When the hunters returned about half of the pemmican and dried meat was kept for their winter provision and the rest sold to the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Garry. The hunters also had some fresh meat (preserved by the cold). This hunt was smaller than the summer hunt as many of the hunters, the hivernants or winterers, who had taken part of the summer hunt leave the settlements to pass the winter on the Prairies with their families to trap and hunt. The early fall was also the harvest season, so more family members were needed to remain at home to farm (Ens).
Some of the products of these hunts, especially prime buffalo robes taken from November to February, also found their way by the Red River Trails to the American Fur Company at Fort Snelling and exchanged for dry goods such as sugar, tea and ammunition.
Sioux conflicts
During the 1840s and 1850s the Métis followed the buffalo herds further into the Dakota Territory bringing them into conflict with the Sioux. Cuthbert Grant, an early captain of the buffalo hunt, negotiated a treaty in 1844. Another treaty was concluded in 1851 and another in 1854 but Métis hunting groups were still being attacked by the Sioux. Jean Baptiste Wilkie, the leader of the 1840, 1848 and the 1853 summer hunt, helped negotiate a peace treaty in 1859 and another in 1861 between the Métis, Chippewa and the Sioux (Dakota) to set hunting boundary lines. These peace overtures did not last and conflict continued between the Métis and the various Sioux groups even after the Dakota War of 1862.
In the 1848 summer hunt the hunting group, made up of 800 Métis led by Jean Baptiste Wilkie and 200 Chippewa led by Chief Old Red Bear and over 1,000 carts, met the Sioux in the Battle of O'Brien's Coulée near Olga, North Dakota.
Between July 13 and 14, 1851 a large band of Sioux attacked the St. François Xavier hunting camp in North Dakota on the Grand Missouri Coteau resulting in the last major battle, the Battle of Grand Coteau (North Dakota), fought between the two groups. The Métis were victorious.
The St. Boniface group, accompanied by Father Albert Lacombe, made rendezvous with the Pembina group (June 16) then travelled west to meet the St. François Xavier group (June 19). There were 1,300 people, 1,100 carts and 318 hunters in the combined groups. The groups hunted separately but planned to unite against any threat from the Sioux. They divided into 3 groups about to from each other moving in the same direction.
The St. François Xavier (White Horse Plain) group led by Jean Baptiste Falcon, son of Pierre Falcon, and accompanied by its missionary, Father Louis-François Richer Laflèche, numbered 200 carts and 67 hunters plus women and children. In North Dakota on the Grand Coteau of the Missouri on July 12 the scouts of St. François Xavier spotted a large band of Sioux. The five scouts riding back to warn the camp met with a party of 20 Sioux who surrounded them. Two made a run for it under fire but 3 were kept as captives. Two would escape the next day and one killed. On Sunday July 13 the camp was attacked by the Sioux. Lafleche dressed only in a black cassock, white surplice, and stole, directed with the camp commander Jean Baptiste Falcon a miraculous defence against the 2,000 Sioux combatants holding up a crucifix during the battle. After a siege of two days (July 13 and 14) the Sioux withdrew convinced that the Great Spirit protected the Métis.
Present at the Battle of Grand Coteau, fighting by their father's side, were 17-year-old Isadore Dumont who died at the Battle of Duck Lake 34 years later and 13-year-old Gabriel Dumont who commanded the Métis forces in the North-West Rebellion of 1885.
Hunt governance