THUNDERING HOOVES

Evening Star, Issue 21823, 12 September 1934, Page 12

THUNDERING HOOVES

ECHOES OF THE LAST CENTURY HEARD !N NORTH-WEST CANADA From Canada’s great north-west comes a thunder that is an echo oht of the past. The vast empire that sprawls from the settled belt of the wheat lands of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta to the ice-rimmed lip of the Arctic Ocean is trembling under the hooves of a shaggy legion that sweeps like an avalanche out of the pages of history (writes B. B. Fowler, in the ‘ Christian Science Monitor ). The swirling dust cloud that rises above Wainwright, Alta, and whips its banner over Great Slave Lake is writing a new chapter in the saga of the new world. Farther north, where the mighty MacKenzie empties its waters into the bowl of the Arctic, a rhythm new to this land is being beaten but by the castanets of thousands of hooves as tho reindeer herd comes down over a corner of the world’s roof from _ Alaska. This herd is to populate a region that has Tong, swayed between seasons ol abundance and winters of famine and privation. The two herds, one a newcomer and the othep a returning native, are the advance guards ,in the conquest of the north-west. For in this land a programme of construction is being carried on, in contradistinction to the era of waste and destruction that marked tho winning of the Old West. We turn back to this chapter of American history with mixed sensations. On the one hand there is glamour and colour, on the other the story of a waste of natural resources that amounted to reckless pillage. Figures of the Old West stalk across the stage of history against the background of the mighty bison herds —Jim Bridger. Kit Carson, Davy Crockett, Buffalo Bill. Because of the bison herds these men carved their names on the portals of a new land. Because of the bison herds these men led the army of settlement that swept across the west. The wonders of the west which greeted tho pioneers were amazing. The forerunners of the settlers, the fur traders and trappers, stood aghast at the marvels that opened before them. The west they faced was a ‘ land of prodigious plenty, an illimitable land of wonders. Nature had set her stage in keeping with the immensity, of her back drop. The flocks of passenger pigeons darkened the sky with the multitude of. their wings, crushed forests with the weight of their masses when they came to earth, swept hillsides bare of verdure in a single feeding. Antelope, elk, and deer _ could only be numbered by their millions. The shaggy legion of the bison moved in herds that shook the earth. From Great Slave Lake in the north to 1 Mexico in the south their trails rutted a continent. '

It was the almost-legendary tales of teeming plenty that beckoned to the adventurous the world over. The richness of the vast new land acted as:a magnet whose pull was felt around the globe. , ■ No Single factor contributed more to this tale of abundance than tho bison herd. Stupendously vast, it typified the largess of the Golden West, lib represented food, shelter, the inexhaustible ■ bounty, of Nature. Because the great herds ranged the ■ sweep of the prairies, the hide hunters blazed the trails for the covered wagons. The buffalo guns drove the massed herds back from the rich grazing lands to ■make room for the plough. The buffalo guns provided the meat supply that, as much as anything else, made possible tho building of the first transcontinental railroad. . : The slaughter of the bison went forward on the same scale as their titanio herding. It was deplorable but inevitable. It was an age of extravagances and extremes. The building of tho Union Pacific, the settlement of the prairies went forward with a sweep that carried all before it. With no frontier behind which to take refuge, the buffalo were doomed. When Walking Coyote, a Pond d’Oreille Indian, captured four buffalo calves in 1873 in the Sweetgrass Hills of Southern Alberta, he was actuated by no wide-angled view of the future. The great'herds were even then shrinking. But he did not look upon the four calves as the nucleus of a future herd. To Walking Coyote they came providentially as a possible peace offering for his father-in-law in Montana. With the calves ho would buy his way back into the good graces and tho lodges of the tribe. With his four awkward charges he turned his back on the north, on that vast empire of rolling prairies and massed evergreen prairies. _ That great country, opulent and rich in the brief and vivid northern summer, bleak and forbidding under the bitter sweep ,of winter that roared down from the Arctic. held ho charm for him. The buffalo trails to Great Slave Lake were alreadv growing over. The hunters were driving back the shaggy animals that constituted the main support of the scanty population. The plenty of that land lay in the then unknown riches of natural resources. The abundance that attracts settlers was dwindling. So Walking Coyoto turned south, threading his way through the hills and plains toward the lodges of his tribe. In his ears was the shattering crash of the buffalo guns, and tho thunder of stampeding herds that was daily growing fainter. The slaughter of the bison went on as the century waned. The herd in the Sweetgrass Hills melted away before the guns of the hide hunters. The ploughs turned up the black soil of the yirgin prairies in a land that no longer trembled under thundering hoofs. The herd had vanished. But the peace offering of Walking Coyote lin’d prospered. In ten years the four calves now in the possession of the St. Ignatius, Mission, had grown .to thirteen. And Michael Pablo, a shrewd Mexican herder, with an eve on the future, was completing a dicker for ten of them. Pablo turned his new possessions out on the Flathead Indian reserve, where he had obtained grazing rights. In 190(1 the; Montana hills were throwing hack the hoarse bellowing of 1,000 buffaloes, the deen-throated challenge from the growing battalion. But the challenge was swiftly met. and aoain bison faced near extinction. The Flathead reserve was open for settlement. Pablo’s grazing rights wore gone. The relentless olonghs once more closed in upon the herd. But now Canada was taking stock of her possessions and laying plans for the future. The wheat belt was creeping north. And beyond the belt lay the sweep of almost unpopulated areas with no great food supplies for future generations. So the Canadian Government closed a deal with PaWo and 709 of the animals were placed in a reserve of 197.5 square miles of good grazing ground. The deal was "now closed. Perhaps those at headquarters were still tfaink-

ing of the buffalo herd in the terms of the increase of the four calves that Walking Coyote had driven before him out of the Sweetgrass Hills. _ Tho awakening came in 1924 when.it became known that hundreds had grown to thousands, that the reserve set aside tor them: had become inadequate, its grazing area overtaxed. That year the Government slaughtered and marketed 1,800 buffaloes. And the next year the same condition of overcrowding faced them.

This time the gaze of the authorities went to the north. South of the Great Slave Lake in the evergreen forests the woodland buffalo had been growing also. It was estimated that there were now 2,000 of tho animals there, with thousands of square miles of grazing lands to wander in. To this herd the Government decided to add tho surplus from Waiuwright. By rail and river barges one of tho greatest herd movements of its kind was carried out. In one year 1,634 buffaloes whro moved to their new pasture, a reserve of 10,500 square miles, protected from the greed of tho hide hunters. Each year since the surplus of the Wainwright reserve has been shipped there, until to-day Canada’s herd of bison has grown to an estimated 20,000. Now, as tho faces of settlers and builders of cities turn to the northwest they see a means of support for them while fhe riches of the country are being uncovered. For the buffalo herd means food and leather. But there will be no indiscriminate slaughter there. If, as many believe, the Peace River country becomes one of Canada’s greatest- provinces, the bison herd wiU continue to be one of its main resources.

Tho reindeer herd that is completing its epic trek from Alaska is moving in to replace the migrant caribou with » permanent dweller. them lies the story of how the reindeer has served- man along the whole arc of the Arctic circle.

As the forest of antlers approaches the MacKenzie delta the inhabitants of that land, see approaching the first domestic animal to supply their wants. For the reindeer is the- world’s champion provider. He brings to man a supply of meat and milk. His hide provides clothing, tents, and footwear. As a draught animal he has few equals. And he can subsist where most, other animals would starve. To the south the Old West has vanished. The plenty that was scattered by the hand of Nature has been replaced by the endless fields ,of wheat and corn. But the bounty that fed and clothed the early settlers had been transferred by a wise Government to the still new North-west to supply tho needs of. later pioneers. The four calve* have returned from Montana a mighty army. Walking Coyote’s peace offering has completed the circle of its service.