In the 19th century, the Métis hunted bison for food and economic purposes. The Métis emerged as a distinct group, with their own culture, language, and political leaders between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, through the intermarriage of French and Scottish fur traders and settlers with women from Cree, Ojibwe, Assiniboine, and Saulteaux communities. While they were not the only group involved in major bison hunts across the Plains and the Canadian Prairies, their well-organized and large-scale hunts played an important role in the near extinction of bison herds in the Canadian Plains. After the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company, the Métis became active participants in the fur trade. They provided a variety of bison-derived goods, including bison hides, pemmican, and eventually, after the severe depletion of bison herds, bison bones, and skulls.
From the Dog to the Horse Days
Historians typically divide the history of the North American Plains and the people who lived there into two distinct phases known as the “Dog Days” and the “Horse Days.” The ancestors of the people who would become the people of the Plains, including the Siksika (or Blackfoot), Nakoda Oyadebi (Assiniboine), Stoney, Cree, and Ojibwa, experienced significant environmental changes. This period saw the retreat of glaciers and the extinction of woolly mammoths and giant bison. Grasslands emerged and expanded, often at the expense of parklands. Humans adapted by adjusting their seasonal rounds, as evidenced by various projectile points excavated across all three Prairie provinces and north into the boreal forest. During the Dog Days, Plains people were already burying their dead in pits dug covered with rock cairns. Their graves were painted in red ochre and decorated with dentalium shell beads from the Pacific coast, grizzly bear claw necklaces, and shells from as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, probably traded up the Mississippi River.
Bison herds had been roaming the North American Plains for centuries before the arrival of Europeans. First Nations depended on them for food and used their skins to make blankets, coats, hats, and gloves. They also used bison dung as fuel. Before horses were reintroduced in the mid-18th century, hunters chased bison herds on foot during the so-called Dog Days, with the help of their loyal dogs.
By the end of the Dog Days, approximately 2,000 years ago, the use of bow and arrow became widespread across the Plains and the Canadian Prairie provinces, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Hunters would drive bison over cliffs, a practice now known as “bison jump,” or into traps, also called “pounds,” after imitating the bleating of a lost bison calf.
In the mid-1600s, the first horses started to appear among the First Nations of the Plains, brought north along trading routes. One century later, they had completely revolutionized their lives and warfare. By 1754, horses were common among the Siksika/Blackfoot, and by 1776, the Nakoda/Assiniboine owned horses too.
It was in the Canadian Prairie Provinces, particularly in what is now Manitoba, that Métis culture emerged in the early decades of the colonization of Canada. This unique culture originated in the late 1700s from the unions of European fur traders and Cree women in the Red River area, near present-day Winnipeg.
Bison Hunters
Bison hunting was a crucial part of Métis culture. Prior to the 1840s, and especially before the 1870s when bison herds began to decrease, the Métis communities of the Red River Settlement made their living by hunting bison on the Plains. They would embark on two major hunts, following the animals’ migrations in late spring or early summer, and in the fall. Men would load and aim while riding their carefully trained, swift horses (also known as “buffalo runners”) at full speed alongside bison herds. They usually dropped a glove to mark their kill. Women and children followed suit in their Red River carts.
While men did most of the hunting, women were in charge of taking care of the carcasses and turning them into pemmican (from the Cree word pimikan, meaning “manufactured grease”), a calorie-rich and highly nutritious mixture of dried meat, melted fat, coarse powder, and different types of berries.
The hunting parties of the Métis were often large and well-organized, sometimes consisting of up to 2,000 people. These groups were led by appointed chiefs, and during bison hunts, the camps operated with a strict military-like routine. Guides were in charge of overseeing camp operations as they moved from one location to another, with each guide serving for just one day. At night, Red River carts were carefully placed in a circle to offer protection from other Plains Nations. Soldiers and captains took control of the camp.
Before every hunt, elders called for informal assemblies attended by hunters, generals, chiefs, and several captains. In winter, trains of Red River carts would return to the Red River Settlement, carrying thousands of bison robes and dried meat.
Some of the bison robes were sold, while others were used for blankets and bedding or manufactured into leather for boots, mocassins, and pemmican bags. Pemmican bags were durable, easily transported, and quite resistant, as they could hold about 100 pounds. Older and hardened hides were cut up and made into shaganappi, then wrapped around the Red River carts’ wheels or saved for emergency repairs.
Bison meat was usually made into pemmican, but the tongues and humps were usually eaten immediately, as they were considered delicacies to be enjoyed right after the hunt. Bison horns were either used for coat hangers and kitchen utensils or turned into powder.
Clashing With the Sioux
The Métis were not the only group relying on bison hunting for their livelihood. Bison hunting was vital to the survival of other First Nations, including the Siksika (Blackfoot), one of the three groups that made up the Blackfoot Confederacy, and the Dakota (Sioux). The increased European demand for bison robes led to heightened tensions between these groups. This resulted in a series of skirmishes between the Métis and the Sioux, which eventually turned former rivals into bitter enemies. These tensions reached a peak in the 1851 Battle of Grand Coteau. At the time, the Sioux (or Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, which translates as “Seven Council Fires”), one of the many First Nations referred to as Plains Indians, inhabited a large region in the United States covering present-day Colorado, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska.
They were relatively new to the area. Before the 17th century, they used to live in the Mississippi Valley and around Lake Superior in Wisconsin and northern Minnesota but were forced to migrate west after repeated warfare with the Iroquois and the Ojibwe.
The Battle of Grand Coteau began on July 13th, near Dog Den Butte (also known as “Maison du Chien”), southwest of Butte in North Dakota, a territory of narrow ravines and sharp hills. A few miles to the west of Dog Den Butte lies Strawberry Lake. Traders and bison hunters used to stop here to water their horses and fish on their way westward. The battle took place between a Métis buffalo hunting party from St. François Xavier and the Pabaska (Cut Head) Upper Yanktonai Sioux band led by Chief Medicine Bear. It lasted for one day and ended with the withdrawal of the Sioux.
The Métis were now the uncontested leaders of the eastern Plains, holding a monopoly on bison hunting. Red River carts played a crucial role in battles with other First Nations. They could be easily converted from makeshift homes into perfect defensive tools, into shields behind which Métis women and children could hide while armed men rode out to face the attackers. The carts were placed in circles to form a sort of defensive wall. Today, Red River carts are featured on both the Métis flag and the Manitoba Métis Federation flag, symbolizing the uniqueness of Métis culture.
The Laws of the Hunt
Throughout the 19th century, the Métis collaborated with European settlers and traders to provide them with bison-derived goods, from hides for robes to dried meat to be turned into pemmican. The establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company led to a significant increase in European demand for bison hides and meat.
In response, the Métis intensified their bison hunts, sometimes killing up to a thousand animals at a time. They were aware, however, that uncontrolled bison hunting could disrupt the ecosystem’s fragile balance. They understood that bison herds needed to be protected for the common good and the survival of all. To achieve this, they strictly adhered to the so-called Laws of the Hunt, a specific code of conduct consisting of eight points that formed the basis of each buffalo hunt among the Métis.
The first law prohibited hunting bison “on the Sabbath-day” during each hunt. The second law stated that no hunting party could “fork off, lag behind, or go before, without permission.” Permission to hunt bison had to be granted by the Elders and the hunting party’s chief. The third law specified that no person or party could “run buffalo before the general order,” thus recognizing the significance of bison for the survival of the entire community. The fourth law stated that every captain and his men must “patrol the camp, and keep guard.”
The remaining four points outlined the punishments for anyone caught disobeying or disregarding the Laws of the Hunt. Offenders were not jailed or executed, but publicly shamed. They were flogged if caught breaking the third rule, and their coat was cut up if they broke the second. Anyone caught stealing was forcibly taken to the middle of the camp. There, standing in front of the community, they were forced to hear their name called out along with the word “Thief” at least three times. There was no way to avoid being publicly shamed.
Bison herds belonged to the community as a whole, and anyone who put their own interests before that of the community was required to pay a price. The largest organized bison hunt took place in 1840, at a time when immense bison herds still roamed the Prairies and the Plains. The last Métis hunt occurred more than 40 years later, in May 1882, when hundreds of Red River carts traveled from the Red River settlement to Moose Mountain, in Kananaskis Country, Alberta.
Disappearing
According to Chicago-born historian Andrew Isenberg, in the early 19th century, approximately 30 million bison could be seen roaming the Great Plains across what are now Canada and the United States. By the 1830s, the demand for bison hides from Euro-American settlers surpassed that of beaver pelts, which were a major part of the early Canadian fur trade economy. In the 1850s, the bison population was already in decline. By the 1880s, the Métis and other Plains First Nations were competing for control of the nearly extinct bison herds. According to the Smithsonian Institution, “by 1900, the entire North American bison population is estimated to have been less than 1000 individuals (a 99.99% decline in the population).”
The dramatic collapse of the bison population across North America was incredibly quick and steady. It was triggered by a variety of factors, above all the extensive European demand for bison products which led the Métis to intensify their hunting efforts. This, in turn, heightened the already existing tensions between the Métis and other First Nations of the Plains. The introduction of rifles in bison hunts, the expansion of railways in the West, and the unstoppable growth of farming settlements and towns further disrupted bison habitats, contributing to their near extinction. Ultimately, the Métis were as responsible for the depletion of bison herds as other First Nations, European traders, trading companies, and settlers.
