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" hunting bands of considerable size and impressive social organization were supporting themselves on the Great Plains some 8 " ,500 years ago. JOE BEN WHEAT L HE SUPREME pre-historic bison hunter, Folsom man, followed his prey about 9000 years ago. Archeological finds of his kills indicate that man had grown more adept at bison hunting after the passing of the larger mammals. Building on the cooperative hunting skills that preying upon the large mammals had brought him, he began to drive the buffalo, trapping them in box canyons , sometimes miring them there. The first authenticated find of man-made projectile points in situ with the bones of Bison antiquus (figginsi) occurred in a box canyon and former marsh near Folsom, New Mexico (thus the name given to the kind of projectile point discovered there, Folsom point, and to the hunter who made them). Possibly Folsom man had learned from the wounded buffalo himself just how to trap him: a buffalo's first desire when wounded is to separate himself from the herd and hide in a remote ravine . Here, trailing Paleo hunters would find that the wounded animal could neither run from a spear throw nor charge effectively. An experienced hunter would soon realize he could bring unwounded animals to such a place for an easy kill; he needed only to drive them there. And Folsom man must have driven bison into a box canyon as easily as a barefoot farm boy, centuries later, brought his bossies to the barn at milking time. 37 Herding buffalo to a chosen spot depends not upon speed but upon bison savvy. Men walking behind a herd, staying hidden, showing themselves only now and then at a distance move a herd nervously but slowly along. A glimpse of such men moving to their right brings the herd leaders slanting to the right, following the deep-lying propensity of all buffalo (and some other game animals) to cut across in front of anything moving forward on a flank. A wisp of smoke, just a tang of it from a bit of burning dried grass, drifting downwind, moves a herd slowly away from the smell. Little advantage lies in running the animals; they are herded easily by men moving slowly on foot. (Today, on a ranch in Wyoming, buffalo herders on foot round up the buffalo.) Surely a skilled Folsom hunter could herd the cattle-like herds to any killing ground he chose-walking them, not running them. He could also walk a bunch to near a jump-off and scare it into running over the edge, a mass kill providing meat and robes for everyone. One such kill in Colorado, "some 8500 years ago," unearthed in 1957, resulted in 193 dead-a harvest of about 75,000 pounds of meat. The evidence of the bone strata indicates that not only had people cooperated in a systematized hunt, they had developed a system of butchering to care for the tons of meat. The existence of a system would indicate they must have made many HeaJs. Hides & Horns Prc-hislOric hunters, on foot, knowing all of the buffalo's habits, could easily drive him into such a cui-dc-sac, close enough for a spear throw. Courtesy National Park Service. such harvests, for it implies lots of practice at butchering by a highly successful foot-hunting buffalo society. This group probably encompassed about 150 people, the number necessary to manage such a drive and ro care for the meat. These people had. as one might expect, removed (he best meat first, even as did the later, historic people. They first opened the buffalo down his spine in order to remove the hump meat, the forelegs and the innards: the forelegs were consistently found at the bottom of each pile of severed bones. Next they took the pelvic girdle and the hind legs, then, last, the least Jesirable neck and skull. I All in all the evidence left by this group of foot-hunters shows ease of food gathering- this one kill might have fed them on "fresh" meat for twenty-three days and on dried meat for another thirty days. A successful drive every two months would have sufficedif they had no dogs to feed. And, between drives, they could kill buffalo in many other ways: Throwing a spear while the animal drowsily chewed its cud. Moving into the herd under the cover of the whooshing prairie wind. Taking advantage of buffalo's typical carelessness when summer bugs...

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