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Brought By TOM MOATES to Life aised among herds of bison, it was only natural for the brown tobiano stallion to be dubbed “Buffalo Boy.” The name was unusually fateful. Buffalo Boy proved instrumental in preserving Native American traditions, the fi rst horse in living memory to carry a Lakota hunter on a traditional mounted archery buffalo hunt. “It has been a hundred years since anyone did it that way,” hunter Jay Red Hawk said. “Without that horse, it couldn’t have been done.” Living History Clad in buckskin, with a traditional northern Plains Indian sinew-backed ash bow and stone pointed arrows at the ready, Red Hawk and Buffalo Boy brought cultural history to life on October 23, 2006. The songs and ceremonies for the buffalo hunt that survive with the Lakota elders were showcased, helping COURTESY TOM MOATES R A tobiano stallion and a Lakota hunter preserved Native American traditions with mounted archery. preserve the tribe’s rich traditions. Traversing a 20,000-acre buffalo ranch in South Dakota, the duo successfully hunted a heifer; however, the victory didn’t come easily. Simply making an accurate shot at a stationary target with a bow from the back of a galloping horse is tricky business. Add to that the thrill and danger of riding among a thundering herd of 2,000-pound beasts with sharp horns and an unparalleled ability to turn their formidable masses on a dime at more than 30 miles an hour, and you’ve got a situation requiring a very special equine companion. Mounted archery as a sport is making a global comeback. Mounted Archery in the Americas (available in the Equestrian Wisdom and History 36 SUMMER 2011 • PAINT HORSE CONNECTION Series from the Long Riders’ Guild Academic Foundation, lrgaf.org), an anthology of global mounted archery information, commemorates Red Hawk historic hunt aboard Buffalo Boy in detail. Many groups now enjoy mounted archery as a target sport, but Buffalo Boy might alone be in the category of a true traditional hunting horse for the mounted archer. Choice Horses Chief Bald Eagle, head of the Minikonjou band of the Lakota Sioux, owned the now-deceased Buffalo Boy. At age 3, the then-untrained stallion was presented to the chief as a gift during a pow-wow ceremony. “My good friend said to me, ‘The Chief has to have a mount,’ ” Chief Bald
Eagle explained. “He gave Buffalo Boy to me in a Ceremony of Donation.” Taking time to foster a bond with the young stallion, Chief Bald Eagle’s gentle training methods proved fruitful. “I worked with Buffalo Boy so much that he knew me real well,” he said. “I really gentled him up before I mounted him. My grandfather is the one who always told me to gentle-break horses.” His grandfather was a legendary warrior and nephew of Sitting Bull— Chief White Bull—who fought in the battle of Little Bighorn, and whom several sources believe killed Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer in the epic battle. Chief White Bull died in South Dakota in 1947, and Chief Bald Eagle, born in 1918, spent a great deal of time with his grandfather as a child. In an ironic twist to history, Chief Bald Eagle served with the U.S. 4 th Cavalry, working with remount horses in South Dakota in 1939. Soon after, he fought with the U.S. 82 nd Airborne in Europe during World War II as a paratrooper and code talker. Now 93, he lives on his ranch in Howes, South Dakota. “Ever since I was a young boy, I was interested in Paints,” Chief Bald Eagle said. “My first horse was a Paint gelding Above: Chief David Bald Eagle, Buffalo Boy’s owner, remains dedicated to Paint Horses and preserving Native American history. Below: This painting recreates Jay Red Hawk and Buffalo Boy’s historical hunt, rich with Native American culture. named Ogalala—he was given to me by an uncle. Ever since then I’ve liked Paints. The color is kind of a show horse for the Indian people. Sometimes they even do their bead work to match the color of their horses.” Buffalo Boy was often Chief Bald Eagle’s mount of choice for parades, pow-wows and other public events. The KATHy MoRRow STuDio horse’s unique ability to run with the buffalo, however, traditionally made him the most highly valued of all Sioux horses. Called “buffalo runners,” Red Hawk says, these specially trained horses used for hunting buffalo were so prized for their contribution to feeding tribe members that they were not used in battle for fear of their injury or loss. These horses were often kept in camp, unlike the others that were allowed to roam more freely—sometimes they were even tied to a man’s wrist by a line at night if a raid seemed probable. The brown stallion’s upbringing among bison, it seems, proved serendipitous. “Buffalo Boy was not scared of the buffalo like other horses,” Chief Bald Eagle said. “Since he’d been with them, he sensed and moved with them. He even pinned his ears back and nipped at them. He ran amongst them, side by side, at full speed. He walked along with the buffalo with ease, as other horses can’t.” Tom Moates is a special contributor for the Paint Horse Connection. To comment on this article, e-mail feedback@apha.com. PAINT HORSE CONNECTION • Summer 2011 37
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