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The buffalo pound was a
The buffalo pound was a hunting
Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...
device constructed by native peoples of the North American plains for the purpose of entrapping and slaughtering American bison
The American bison (''Bison bison'') is a species of bison native to North America. Sometimes colloquially referred to as American buffalo or simply Bubalina, buffalo (a different clade of bovine), it is one of two extant species of bison, alongs ...
, also known as buffalo. It consisted of a circular corral
A pen is an enclosure for holding livestock. It may also perhaps be used as a term for an enclosure for other animals such as pets that are unwanted inside the house. The term describes types of enclosures that may confine one or many animal ...
at the terminus of a flared chute through which buffalo were herded and thereby trapped. David Mandelbaum's ''The Plains Cree'' contains diagrams and a complete description of the construction and use of such a pound.
In 1758, explorer and fur trader Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805June 27, 1844) was an American religious leader and founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. When he was 24, Smith published the Book of Mormon. By the time of his death, 14 years later, ...
was the first European to record the use of a buffalo pound while travelling to the Assiniboine River
The Assiniboine River (''; french: Rivière Assiniboine'') is a river that runs through the prairies of Western Canada in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. It is a tributary of the Red River. The Assiniboine is a typical meandering river with a sing ...
.
The common Cree name "Poundmaker
Pîhtokahanapiwiyin ( – 4 July 1886), also known as Poundmaker, was a Plains Cree chief known as a peacemaker and defender of his people, the Poundmaker Cree Nation. His name denotes his special craft at leading buffalo into buffalo poun ...
", refers to someone who makes buffalo pounds.
References
See also
{{Commons category, Buffalo pounds *Buffalo Pound Provincial Park
Buffalo Pound Provincial Park is a provincial park located in southern Saskatchewan, Canada, about north-east of downtown Moose Jaw and north-west of the city of Regina.
The park centres on Buffalo Pound Lake, a prairie lake formed from gl ...
, a park in south-eastern Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...
, which takes its name from the above term.
First Nations history
Hunting methods
Bison hunting
Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains