Welcome to the Buffalo Trails in the Dakota Buttes

Courtesy of the Dakota Buttes Visitors Council

            Over 30 million buffalo grazed the rich grasslands of the great plains and prairies of North America. Then, nearly 140 years ago—between 1880 and 1883—they made their last stand in the region between Hettinger ND and Lemmon, Bison and Buffalo SD. The Buffalo Trails Tour takes visitors to the sites of some of the last great buffalo hunts in a rugged section of badlands, buttes and fertile grasslands.

Prairie Thunder takes a stroll in Dakota Buttes Museum, Hettinger. Photo by Bonnie Smith.

Site 1: Meet Prairie Thunder at Dakota Buttes Museum in Hettinger. A magnificent full body mount, he stands 5.5 ft at the shoulder, 8.5 ft from nose to tail, weighed close to 2,000 pounds and his horns span 30 inches The majestic animal William Hornaday called “Grandest of them all!”

Site 2: Hiddenwood Hunt—June 1882. Let’s imagine this valley as it was on that delightful June morning, filled with an immense herd of buffalo on both sides of Hiddenwood Creek and off into the distance. Running Antelope, leader of the hunt, rode up on a high point, behind the rocks, waiting for his hunters to catch up. On June 10 they had left Fort Yates, 100 miles to the east, dressed in their finest, 2,000 men, women and children, 600 on horseback, others in wagons, travois or on foot.

Running Antelope signaled the start and they were off! Rifles cracked and buffalo fell. They killed 2,000 on that first day. The second day they partially butchered and cared for the meat. All knew their tasks. That night they feasted. There was dancing, singing and storytelling. Great orators and chiefs like Gall, John Grass, Crow King, Rain-in-the-Face and Spotted Horn Bull told stories of courage, fortitude and tragedy in hunting and battle. On the third day they ran buffalo again and killed 3,000 more. Then they stopped, stretched hides and dried the meat in the sun.

Site 3: Sitting Bull at the Buffalo’s Last Stand—1883. This is where the American buffalo made their last stand or within 30 or 40 miles—in this remote and beautiful valley of the North Grand River. Sitting Bull and his band of 1,000 braves came from west of the Missouri River near Mobridge and in 2 days, Oct 12 and 13—slaughtered 1.200--all the remaining buffalo.

Many buffalo bones and skulls have been found here. Heavy leg bones revealed the ancient butchering method of chopping them in half to remove the marrow. William Hornaday quoted the well-known hide hunter Vic Smith: “There was not a hoof left. That wound up the buffalo in the Far West, only a stray bull being seen here and there afterwards!”

Site 4: Slim Buttes Winter Hunt. It was the winter of deep snow and bitter cold, but when the Duprees learned of the arrival of buffalo in the Slim Buttes around Christmas time, they gathered their relatives and friends and set off for the Slim Buttes. Their father Fred Dupris (also spelled Dupree), a French-Canadian fur trader had built a log trading post on the Cheyenne River at the mouth of Cherry Creek and ran a herd of 200 beef cattle. He and his wife Mary Ann Good Elk, a Mineconjou Lakota, had 11 children and an active community of their own in a growing row of cabins built on a beautiful wooded flat.

Mary Ann invited the missionary Thomas Riggs to join them in their tepee. The father Fred, by this time an older man, opted to stay by the fire at home while his family hunted buffalo. They lasted three months, ran out of food, except for buffalo meat, killed 2,000 buffalo, took home 500 prime hides and more meat than the horses could pack, likely even loading dog travois.

Site 5: Saving and Nourishing Five Calves. Pete Dupree and his family came back to the South Grand River with a buckboard wagon in early 1881 or 1882 and rescued 5 young calves. We can imagine them coming over the far ridge from the southeast (at left) with team and wagon and perhaps leading extra horses for packing home fresh meat. Pete must have done things right to avoid the typically high death loss of orphan buffalo calves.

Perhaps Mary Ann helped with this. Once bonded, the five buffalo calves followed their new mothers happily. By the time Pete died in 1898, his herd had grown to 83. They were sold to Scotty Philip of Fort Pierre, a wealthy cattleman.

Five North American groups and families are honored as pivotal in saving the buffalo from extinction. One was Pete Dupree and Scotty Phillip. Others were in Canada, Western Montana, Kansas and Texas. If it hadn’t been for these Westerners the buffalo may have gone extinct, as William Hornaday had often predicted.

Site 6: Shadehill Buffalo Jump. Thousands of years before they had horses and guns, Native Americans on the Northern Plains learned the secrets of the buffalo Jump. No one knew their prey better than these seasoned hunters of the plains. People without horses knew how to entice curious buffalo closer to the edge, when to drive hard, when to fall back, and how to flip their blankets as the animals plunged over the cliff. Religious rites, traditional dancing and prayers played an important part. Drive lines were important and could be miles long.

Site 7: Blacktail Trail Lore. The Blacktail trailhead in Pasture 9 offers a small lake stocked with bass, a fishing dock, picnic area, 7-mile walking loop up and over a steep hill. Built in 2004 by the US Forest Service the trail is for non-motorized use, walking, biking and horseback riding. Interpretive signs explain a wide scope of topics. Traditionally the Buffalo figured into all aspects of Native life and they lived together in harmony. The close relationship to the buffalo is expressed by John Fire Lame Deer, “His flesh and blood being absorbed by us until it became our own flesh and blood . . . . It was hard to say where the animals ended and the human began.”

Site 8: Buffalo Behavior. There’s nothing like seeing live buffalo up close! With sensible regard for safe distances of course. You are welcome to stop along public roads to view buffalo—quietly and with respect, please, recognizing buffalo as the wild animals they are at heart. Buffalo are large, strong, unpredictable, swift and potentially dangerous. Above all do not enter pastures with buffalo or drive through gates without permission. Buffalo are social animals with a clear understanding of where they stand in the herd’s pecking order. In most seasons buffalo cows and bulls sort themselves out into separate male and female groups. Young bulls hang around with mother until age two or three. In the rut bulls are active and mingle with the female groups. When threatened, bulls often display a strong sense of responsibility for protecting the herd. By moving to the outside of a circle, facing out.

Site 9: Tribal Herds. Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, which spans the North and South Dakota border and headquarters in Fort Yates ND has a long history of raising buffalo. The first permanent Standing Rock tribally-owned herd arrived in 1955—one bull and four cows—a gift from Theodore Roosevelt National Park, according to Tribal Council member Mike Faith, buffalo manager for 20 years. Standing Rock now owns about 250 buffalo in two herds.

Buffalo have staged a homecoming throughout Indian country. In Feb, 1991 western tribes came together to discuss how they might help other tribes with the difficulties—obtaining buffalo, land, fences, corrals, water, supplemental food. They formed the Intertribal Council. Equally important they believed was respecting their ancient relationship with the buffalo. Today about 60 Indian tribes belong to the Intertribal Council for a total of about 18,000 buffalo living in tribal herds across the US.

Site 10: The Buffalo Museum—Jamestown ND. A frontier town sprang up around the World’s Largest Buffalo 26 feet high, 46 feet long. The National Buffalo Museum found a home there featuring the National Buffalo Hall of Fame and exhibits from over North America. Another highlight—is the buffalo herd that recalls the great migrations seasonally travelling up and down the James River. The ancient hunters who laid in wait for them and White Cloud who had her own dynasty of white buffalo and is now mounted inside the museum.

___________________________________________________________________________

NOTE: The guide book “Buffalo Trails in the Dakota Buttes: Self-Guided Tour” is available in White Drug and KB Jewelers in Hettinger, along with its companion book “Buffalo Heartbeats Across the Plains,” both in full color.For more information or to purchase eBook copies visit “HettingerND.com/Buffalo Trails.” The eBook can be downloaded and used in areas where you are not able to get reception.

The Duprees likely looked for calves young enough to handle, but sturdy enough to survive the trauma of interrupted nutrition and mothering. Photo by William S. Keller, National Park Service.