Chapter 16: Wagons Away and Hunting

We watched from the ridge as CPT Olsen’s patrol escorted the wagon train with all the wounded and the medical wagon bringing up the rear fade into the distance.

We were now about a day behind the buffalo we had been following which made our decision to just hunt elk easier. Following the ridge we soon found a huge meadow formed by the slope of the ridge and the vast thickness of aspen trees on the far side. We could just make out a small creek flowing through the trees just inside the trees from the meadow.

The ridge which seemed to be more of a plateau had the perfect spot for our camp. I did not realize that instead of the typical tepee when traveling light the Indians used simple shelters made by folding a huge buffalo hide in half over a midline tied between two short poles. Other hides were placed inside on the ground, it was fast to set up and simple to carry. My wives had packed two for our group and overlapped them to make ours longer allowing all of us to fit underneath together.

Depending on the size of the buffalo hide two or three could fit under one, we would have to sleep two by two head to head.

Just before sunset we slowly and carefully edged our way to the end of the ridge looking down into the meadow. I was shocked to see about 100 deer scattered across the meadow. Sadly, we did not see any elk. The hunt ended quickly when the huge grizzly came walking along the ridge from the far end away from us. I calmly got the 45-100 Sharps. The grizzly was about 300 yards away slowly walking toward us. It was obvious it had smelled our cooking, horses, and us.

It looked to be about 5’ at the shoulder walking on all fours, I was estimating it to be maybe 9’ or more in height standing on its rear legs. This was a massive grizzly. I really didn’t want to kill it but, in these times, meat was meat and bear meat was a rare treat as killing a bear with arrows or spears was not too easy to accomplish.

I lined up my shot and waited until it was just over 100 yards away. The horses were already getting skittish, could you blame them. I was aiming for the heart, I kind of made an imaginary X from the top outer shoulder to the far pit of the front leg. Just below the jaw, I was worried that if I hit the grizzly in the jaw in might not kill it just anger it into charging.

Then the grizzly stopped and raised its head to sniff the air. I lined up my shot and fired. The head snapped downward when the bullet impacted and the grizzly just flattened out. It was obviously dead, but I was shocked at how fast it died. Usually, a heart or lung shot will cause the animal to jump or run a short distance.

When we got to the bear and began to gut and skin him. Yes, it was a male. We found that the bullet hit the top of the thick sternum breaking pieces of bone into fragments that hit the heart and lungs. The bullet ricocheted upward hitting the spine, which caused the bear to drop like a puppet with its strings cut which is exactly what happened.

My wives were over the moon with the fact that there was only a small thumb size .45 caliber hole in the hide and it was right where the hide was normally split anyway. The grizzly was just under 10’ from nose to tail. This took us long into the night but not too late. Dinner was bear steak of course and the rest was going to be smoked in the morning as again a portable smoke house made from a wooden frame of thin trees and several hides had been brought, obviously I was told.

Way too early the next morning we eased up to the edge of the meadow hoping there might be elk out this morning. The deer were back but to everyone’s surprise there were also about 80 elk. It seemed they were all cows, I could not see a single bull not even a young spike.

White Eagle, Brave Buffalo, Black Bear, and Elk were talking quietly after moving back away from the edge. I crawled back to where they were talking and caught the last of the conversation. They all agreed the bulls were somewhere close and if we sent out scouts to quietly search for the bulls, others could keep an eye on the herd of cows.

Running Deer and Strong Wind began to track down the bull elk herd. Bitter Water went with Red Feather to keep an eye on the cow herd. The rest of us men helped the squaws to smoke the grizzly meat as far back from the edge of the ridge as we could. The squaws had started the smoker and us men had to provide the right kind of firewood. Hickory or any fruit tree was the order from the squaws.

Just before sunset as the squaws were starting dinner all four braves came back. The cow elk had all gone up a draw at the lower end of the meadow and were bedding down for the night, it appeared they were bedding down here often. The better news was a small herd of just under 20 bull elk were up the meadow in the deep notch formed from the ridge we were on. There was plenty of sign that other large bulls were also in the area but had gone solo.

Running Deer suggested a few of us circle around and walk the high tree line to possibly push the big bull elk down into the meadow and of course push the herd of bull elk as well when they came to the notch. Several of the squaws suggested they go with a few braves to push the elk out of the trees. This would leave more hunters to shoot the elk when they did come out of the tree line.

Red Feather suggested two groups, one for the bulls and one for the cows, few would be needed for the cows. Red Feather would take Blue Sky, Loud Duck, and Green Meadow with him to push the cow elk.

Running Deer, Strong Wind, Bitter Water, Small Deer, Little Owl, Bird Woman would push the bull elk down. I suggested Running Deer signal with a mirror when they were in place and I would signal Red Feather with my mirror so both groups would push the elk at the same time driving them into the meadow at the same time or as close together as we could manage.

Lining the ridge, we had White Eagle, Big River, Standing Badger, Black Bear, Red Shirt, Strong Elk, Running Wolf, Bear Claw, Brave Buffalo, Medicine Puma, Fast Wolf, Stone Bear, Elk, Wolf, Wolverine, Otter, Fox, Cat, and me who would be shooting at elk. Only the seven chiefs would shoot at bulls everyone else would shoot at cows. My three wives, Golden Hawk, Butterfly, Little Deer, and White Elk Woman would shoot at deer if there were any in the meadow when the shooting started.