lawyer and a judge,
and in 1902 answered the last roll-call.

[1] See "Red Cloud Stands in the Way," in "Boys' Book of Indian
Warriors."

CHAPTER XX

THE DEFENSE OF THE BUFFALO-HUNTERS (1874)

WHEN THE COMANCHE MEDICINE FAILED

The Plains Indians were losing out. They saw their buffalo grounds
growing smaller and smaller. The Sioux and Northern Cheyennes had not
stopped the Union Pacific Railroad. It had cut the northern herd in
two. The Cheyennes and Arapahos and Dog Soldiers from other tribes had
not stopped the Kansas Pacific Railroad. In their last great raid they
had been defeated at the battle of Beecher's Island, as the fight by
Major Forsythe, at the Arikaree in September, 1868, was known. The
Kansas Pacific had cut the southern herd in two. It was bringing
swarms of white hunters into the Kansas buffalo range; they were
slaughtering the game and wasting the meat.

Then, in 1872, still another iron road, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa
Fe, pushed out, south of the Kansas Pacific, and took possession of the
old Santa Fe Trail, the wagon-road up the Arkansas River. The
wagon-road itself had been bad enough; for the emigrants were gathering
all the fuel and killing and frightening the buffalo. The snorting
engines and swift trains were worse. The buffalo were again split.
From southern Kansas north into central Nebraska there was no place for
the buffalo, and the Indian.

This year, 1872, the white hunters commenced to kill for the hides.
They skinned the carcasses, and let the meat lie and rot, except the
small portion that they ate. Many of the buffalo were only wounded;
they staggered away, and died untouched. Many of the hides were
spoiled. For each hide sent to market, and sold for maybe only $1.50,
four other buffalo were wasted.

In 1873 the slaughter was increased. Regularly organized parties took
the field. By trains and wagons the buffalo were easily and quickly
found; the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad shipped out over two
hundred and fifty thousand hides; the Kansas and Pacific and the Union
Pacific twice as many. At the plains stations the bales of hides were
piled as high as houses. In order to save time, the hides were yanked
off by a rope and tackle and a team of horses. Almost five million
pounds of meat were saved, and over three million pounds of bones for
fertilizer; but the meat averaged only about seven pounds to each hide
taken--and that was trifling