White Buffalo Days: Spirit of the West
On October 7, 1876 J. Wright Mooar prowled on horseback, scouting the territory around his new buffalo hunting camp on Deep Creek in Scurry County.
He had first set eyes on the creek the day before and named it for the deep channel it slashed through the countryside.
As he returned to camp near sundown, a sudden flash in one of the nearby buffalo herds arrested his gaze.
His heart jumped: a rare white buffalo.
He rushed back to the wagons and enlisted Dan Dowd to follow him.
On foot for six or seven hundred yards, they wound along Deep Creek. Hackberry, chinaberry and cottonwood trees grew thick along the edge of the high banks, offering cover.
They soon exited the bed and slithered snake-like through the thick prairie grass until they had a clear view of the beautiful animal.
It was a four-year-old cow.
Mooar whispered to Dowd, “Take a look. There is the gamiest animal on earth, a white buffalo."
Controlling his excitement, Mooar took careful aim and pulled the trigger.
Mooar always aimed for the lungs and rarely missed. The cow fell instantly.
At the crack of the big Sharps rifle, the herd rushed toward their fallen comrade, straight for the two men in their path and it seemed they were going to be trampled.
But Mooar calmly shoved the large cartridges one by one into his weapon and in rapid succession brought down three great bulls.
The bellowing herd dispersed and Mooar examined his kill.
This was the first buffalo that he killed in Scurry County.
The cow was skinned and butchered and the meat hung up in a tree until morning.
Mooar had just slain a white buffalo, only one of seven known to have been killed by white hunters and the only one ever killed in Texas.
It was an animal, sacred to the Indians, an animal possessing immense power.
According to Indian legend, the first buffalo came from a cave in the north.
His thick robe was pure white, and as he emerged, he spoke to a nearby Indian.
“I and my tribe will come to your people in great numbers. Use us well, for the day will come when we shall disappear back into the earth. And when we are no more, the Indian will soon follow.”
Thus, the first buffalo was white and thereby held sacred through the ages.
Its skin gave magical powers to the whole tribe as well as to its individual possessor.
A warrior wearing a white buffalo hide was protected in battle.
A medicine man dressed in a white buffalo robe gained special healing powers.
A white buffalo could change itself into a white hawk, a gray fox, or even a beautiful woman.
Some tribes held that a man who was lucky enough to kill a white buffalo gained "buffalo power."
In certain tribes when the white buffalo was skinned, great care was taken to make no gashes in the hide.
It was then taken to be consecrated by a warrior, a medicine man and a powerful woman.
If a white buffalo calf were found, it was roped and brought back to the village.
There was great rejoicing, a council was called and a special white buffalo tepee erected.
A White Buffalo Society was formed and a tribal elder fashioned a special pipe for the group. The pipe was flat and round and represented a buffalo footprint.
It was smoked only by the society and only on very special occasions.
The white buffalo calf was the center of attention in the village, especially for the children.
Each day they harvested the finest grasses for the calf to enjoy.
As the calf grew older, it often became unruly.
With great ceremony, it was killed.
The hide was tanned into a robe with the horns and hooves attached and on the hair side decorated from neck to tail with a row of shell discs.
A special buffalo lodge was erected to hold the hide.
By giving gifts of sufficient value to the lodge, warriors could join the White Buffalo Society.
This gave the men good medicine and increased their power and prestige in the community during the annual buffalo hunt.
The members of the White Buffalo Society also incurred special obligations.
They fought in the front ranks if the village were attacked and provided buffalo meat to the families of warriors crippled in battle.
Thus, the White Buffalo was a symbol not only of power but of harmony and giving.
Although they were deadly enemies, J. Wright Mooar and his Indian adversaries were, in many ways, two of a kind.
To Mooar killing buffalo was purely business, but it was a dangerous undertaking which required great courage and skill.
To the Indians he was destroying their very mode of existence.
Mooar was never apologetic for what he did. He paved the way for the cattlemen and for the inevitable advance of a civilization more powerful than that of the Indian.
The Comanches of the plains understood a man such as Mooar for they gave no quarter to their enemies and had themselves vanquished many other Indian tribes from the plains.
But Mooar also respected the Indians for their bravery and for their willingness to die for a life they believed in.
In later days, after the Indians had long since been defeated, Mooar talked to the great Comanche chief Quanah Parker at a reunion of early settlers and Indians about encounters they had years before, much as old football rivals discuss their high school playing days.
Quanah remembered an incident near Post in Garza County.
On a distant knoll he watched a hunter on the plain below patiently level his rifle at a herd of buffalo a great distance away. Suddenly smoke belched from the gun barrel and Quanah saw a buffalo sink to its haunches, rock sideways, roll over, thresh the ground, and grow still.
Quanah, astonished at the range of the gun, whipped his pony back to his war party to tell of the amazing feat.
That hunter was J. Wright Mooar.
In later days Mooar asked Quanah why the band hadn’t attacked him.
“Gun too big,” Quanah replied.
Wright was known by the Indians as the man who carried a rifle that “shoots today, kills tomorrow.”
He lived his life with dignity and confidence, qualities respected by his Indian adversaries.
One could even make the argument that Mooar is living proof of the power of the White Buffalo.
The winter hunt in Scurry County in 1876 was the best Mooar ever experienced, at a time when the buffalo were rapidly disappearing.
Mooar retained the hide throughout his life time, even though he was once offered $5000 for it by Teddy Roosevelt.
Mooar lived a long and fruitful life. He was successful in hunting, business and ranching. Oil was later found on his ranch on Deep Creek northwest of Snyder. He found happiness in his marriage.
Many accounts tell of his integrity and kindly personality.
He was a deeply religious man.
The Comanches considered him to possess “strong medicine.”
Perhaps they even considered him a kindred spirit, worthy to partake of the White Buffalo’s power.
And perhaps, just as the Indians believed the White Buffalo gave mystical power to a whole Indian village, Scurry County also, in its own way, shares in the wonderful spirit of the White Buffalo.
And perhaps, just as to Native Americans the White Buffalo represented renewal and regeneration, the White Buffalo Festival is being approached from a fresh perspective thereby giving it “new life.”
White Buffalo Days, the Spirit of the West, honors the bravery, persistence, toughness and intelligence of all those who ever roamed or still roam the plains of Scurry County.
Sources for the above information include:
Buffalo Days: Stories from J. Wright Mooar as told to James Winford Hunt.
The Indian and the Buffalo by Robert Hofsinde (Gray-Wolf)
In Search of the Buffalo: The Story of J. Wright Mooar by Charles Anderson
Images in the narrative were taken from the following website. Many of these sites about Indians and buffalo are really cool:
http://www.snydertex.com/history/mooar.htm
http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/
http://users.aristotle.net/~swarmack/hodgraph/bigmed1.GIF
http://www.firstpeople.us/
http://www.nald.ca/clr/blueink/page7.JPG
http://wovoca.com/
http://www.bigskybuffalo.com/
http://www.komondor.de/
http://www.nps.gov/knri/
http://www.snowwowl.com/
http://www.texasindians.com/
http://www.rootsweb.com/~txscurry/towns/snyder/buffalo.htm