Friday, August 6, 2010

How did mounted hunting strategies differ from pedestrian strategies?

Particularly in plains bison hunting strategies, I find this topic fascinating so if you have any references I'd gladly read them as well.How did mounted hunting strategies differ from pedestrian strategies?
I grew up in western South Dakota so I have been interested in Lakota culture. The main differences was that they could follow the bison. They also had the ability to run them down on horseback. One of their arrows was powerful enough to penetrate through the shoulders. If you have never been right next to a large bison, you probably don't realize how big they can get.





Before the horse, they would have a very hard time killing more than a few of them so they would often try to drive them off cliffs. At Wind Cave in the Black Hills I once observed a herd of elk jump off a thirty foot cliff to get away from me. I think that was a strategy they learned to get away from horses. By the time they reached the slope under the cliff, they must have been going nearly 40 miles an hour. When I reached the edge of the cliff 10 seconds later, they were all on the other side of the valley. That was one of the most unbelievable things that I ever saw.





When they killed the bison, they would eat the liver raw. They would pound berries, mostly chokecherries into the meat and dry it out. That was pemican. Choke cherries are very good when cooked and I think they lose that bad taste when dried. They would use the brain or tannic acid to cure the meat and used the skins for their tepees and robes.
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