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*Legend has it that the Cheyenne chief Roman Nose rode into battle dressed in a white buffalo robe. This is probably not true, as it stems from a completely fanciful narrative written by a relatively unknown U.S. Army general by the last name of Fry. Of Roman Nose, Fry writes, “The shock of battles and scenes of carnage and cruelty were as of the breath of his nostrils … with a single eagle feather in his scalp-lock, and with the rarest of robes, a white buffalo, beautifully tanned, and soft as cashmere, thrown over his naked shoulders, he stood forth the war chief of the Cheyennes.” The rumor of Roman Nose’s white buffalo robe has been perpetuated by the circumstances of his death. He was gunned down while leading a daylight charge against a heavily armed contingent of U.S. soldiers who were dug in on Beecher Island, along the Arikaree River in eastern Colorado. The charge was brazen, almost suicidal in a kamikaze sense of the word. Apparently, Roman Nose made the fatal mistake of believing that he had magical protection from bullets. Some say that this belief stemmed from his own good looks; his enemies were so stunned by Roman Nose’s appearance that they couldn’t concentrate on shooting him. Others have suggested that Roman Nose’s protection came from the white buffalo robe as described by General Fry. The most provocative version of events is that Roman Nose was assured of his protection from bullets by a medicine man named White Bull, who gave Roman Nose an elaborate headpiece. As a condition of ownership for the headpiece and its protection, Roman Nose was forbidden to use the white man’s cooking implements. The day before his death, he made the mistake of eating a piece of meat that a woman had poked with an iron fork.
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Copyright © 2008 by Steven Rinella
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau,
an imprint of The Doubleday Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.spiegelandgrau.com
SPIEGEL & GRAU is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
For permission to reprint photographs, grateful acknowledgment is made to the following: Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3, Photo 4, Photo 5, and Photo 6, courtesy of Danny Rinella; Photo 7, courtesy of the Wildlife Conservation Society; Photo 8, photo by John Hoganson, North Dakota Geological Survey (specimen exhibited at the North Dakota Heritage Center); Photo 9, courtesy of Dr. Beth Shapiro; Photo 10, Photo 11, Photo 12, Photo 13, Photo 14, Photo 15, and Photo 16, courtesy of Matt Rafferty; Photo 17, courtesy of Dr. Eric Kern; Photo 18 and Photo 19, courtesy of Anna Baker; Photo 20, courtesy of Tony Baker; Photo 21, copyright, Colorado Historical Society (Stephen H. Hart Library); Photo 22, Julie Larsen Maher © WCS; Photo 23, Glenbow Archives NA-250-14; Photo 24, courtesy of the Detroit Public Library; Photo 25, courtesy of Katie Finch. All other photographs are courtesy of the author.
Map designed by Jeffrey L. Ward
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rinella, Steven.
American buffalo : in search of a lost icon / Steven Rinella. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
1. American bison—Anecdotes. 2. Rinella, Steven. I. Title.
QL737.U53R55 2008
599.64’3—dc22
2008013624
eISBN: 978-0-385-52685-2
v3.0
American Buffalo Page 27
