Salvete Omnes,
back to the Great Plains before the settlement by the European-American settlers, when with the millions of bison and antelopes two kinds of wolves roamed the plains - the coyote and the buffalo [often white or black] wolf (Canis lupus nubilus). Plains Indians, both in the pre-horse and post-horse period, used the entire hides of these large wolves (more than 4 feet without a tail) to approach as close as possible the grazing bison herd and to hunt that grazing bison with a bow and arrow. The native scouts on warpath used these pelts to camouflage themselves and to show their special status within a raiding band, including wearing eagle feathers attached at the head of the pelt.
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| wolves hunting a bull |
American traveler and artist, George Catlin, recorded the wolves in their natural environment, and even used wolf pelt as a disguise to approach and to observe and sketch bison herds.
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| Wolf pelt camouflaged native hunters, with bows and arrows, creep up to a grazing herd in order to hunt the beasts up and dangerously close, risking being trampled or gored to death by the bulls |
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| Catlin and his native companion approaching the buffalo herd |
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| Upper Missouri Bluffs, with a pair of white wolves |
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| wolves attacking a bull |
the description of the wolf of the Great Plains (1819-20) -
a rather gruesome photo (by John Grabill) of a band of Wyoming cowboys with a captured-with-lasso wolf
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| these wolves were hunted to almost extinction in the Great Plains, most often with poison, but they survived in the north-est, in Minnesota, in the Canadian Prairies and so on. |
Valete
