May 16, 2025 • 29 mins
Set in a frontier military post, this series explores the lives and duties of cavalry soldiers. It portrays the challenges and camaraderie of life on the frontier.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
At the Galla Fort Laramie.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Fort Laramie, starring Raymond Burr as Captain lee Quins, especially
transcribed tales of the dark and tragic ground of the
wild Frontier, the saga of whiting men who rode the
rim of Empire, and the dramatic story of lee Quin's
Captain of Cavalry.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Sergeant. This one's fresh killed and fresh skin, Sir, how
many buffalo we found this way?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
We come on ten with this one. The men are
fanning out looking for more. They wouldn't be far away
if there are more. They're right dumb, aren't they, Captain.
Buffalo must be the dumbest critters there is. Couldn't call
them crafty, but they're half blind. Can't see trouble when
they're heading right into it.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
The tennant Sebert's back from the agency, Yes, Sir, he
brought the wagon. They're loading carcasses in it back by
the wall. They better get a move on that meddle
cook in.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
This heat, Captain, you got the feeling there's something wrong wrong.
Why seen engines killed buffalo before, lots of them, but
I never seen them leave this much meat on them.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Maybe agency life is making them lazy.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Gorse.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Maybe their bellies are too full. Now you don't think that, Captain,
I sure don't. I'm gonna talk to mister sebitts Oh
are all of them cut this way?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I think so? I didn't rightly study him though.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Then study him all of them. Let me know what
you find, Yes, sir, I have any trouble get from
the wagon, mister Cyberts. Oh, oh no, sir. The agency
glad to know we were bringing meat in. That seem
odd to you.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
Oh no, sir, I never saw an Indian agency.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
They couldn't use food, now that did? I excuse me? Sir?
All right, man, you can mold the wagon. I'll pick
up the rest of the carcasses just a minute, Yes, sir,
I'm gonna take a look at these, all of them
anu it mm hmm. All right, man. Carry on.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
A lot of waste there.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Sir, Yeah, yeah, a lot of waste. I'm out of
the agency about five miles. That's right, you went there.
You got the wagon from the agent. He said they'd
be glad to get the meat. That all these said,
mister Sabags.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
I think so, sir.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Oh. One thing he said when we first rode up, Yes,
he asked us if we'd been engaged to battle, said
that early this morning it hurt a lot of gunfire. Yeah,
I bet they did, yes, Egeant.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
I studied the carcasses, all of them, Like you said.
They're all cut the same way.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Skinned with the hump ribs cut away, and that's all
the men locate anymore, No sirt, just the tin. According
to mister Cyberts, the Indian agent claims he heard a
lot of gunfire this morning.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
It was a clear more than the sounded carry all right.
You saw the wagon tracks.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Captain, Yeah, I saw him tell the man to get
a move on with their loading. Sergeant, form a detail
to haul of carcasses to the agency. Yes, well, rendezvous
at the fork of the raw Hide and proceed back
to Fort Laramie, Yes, sir, Captain quince, what about the
wagon tracks? You see these tracks here, the fresh ones,
when the wagon that was just here, that's right over
(04:36):
here there. You see those, yes, sir, they're not as fresh,
but you can sure see them.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Our wagon wasn't over here, captain.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
And it wasn't down there, whether loading now or over
yonder where the last carcasses were found. Well, that's right, sir,
But Indians don't hunt buffalo with wagons, mister Cyberts. And
when they killed buffalo with guns arrows, they don't just
skin them. Got the hump ribs free and leave the
rest to rotten the prairie from its horns to its chips.
(05:07):
Indians use all the buffalo. You think white men did this, Captain,
I'm thinking white men. And if buffalo hunters are moving
up to the high plains, we got trouble, mister Seberts.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
That's reservation land, Captain.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
That didn't make much matter to them. Major.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
You seem very sure this is the work of buffalo hunters,
not Indians.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
If it's Indians, they'd changed their whole tradition of hunting
buffalo and killing them. I tell you these were fresh
killed and the only meat gone was the hump ribs.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Well that's the best meat to.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
You and me.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah, But the Indians eat everything in the buffalo, including
what they don't eat on the spot. They take with them,
even the horns.
Speaker 6 (06:03):
Always use the horns for tools implements, don't they always.
They still hope you're wrongly, It's a small hope, but
it's there.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I'd like to be dead wrong, but I saw too much,
and the Indian agent heard too much the battle. Remember, Texas,
you get a clear morning, you could hear those buffalo
guns roaring for miles. Enough of them sound like a
pitch battle.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
Wonder if they're still packing those old sharps fifties. They're
awful heavy, you gotta be.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
They shootout slugs one hundred and twenty five grains of powder,
six hundred grains of the lead, sometimes more.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
The army struggles along with four hundred and fifty grain slugs.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
We're not killing buffalo, No, we're not.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
You know the position the army's in as well as
I do. White men aren't allowed on reservations to hunt,
to mine, to anything. We can warn them if we
see them before they move into Indian territory. If we
catch them there, we can run them off, bring him
back to the guardhouse. But we got to see him first.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
We may not see him major until it's too late.
We may not ever see him, and then the army
will be in another position, what other position? Fighting the war?
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Don't you go roaming off? Now? Go vire. I want
the wagon here as so as we can load it.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Awful hot, just sitting here where you set here.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
I hear, hey, soldier, it's here the settless storm. That's it,
mister much blithe h.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
H. Well, now you got yourself some knife there, ain't you?
Shap is your eye? Soldier? Straight bladeer thiss is got
them curved too, They're nice.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
You like curve knives better, do you?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
I like what I need. Sometimes I need a straight blade,
sometimes I need him curved. What kind of man's gonna
need for knives? Straight blade or curve? You golden me, soldier,
I'd be a fool to go to man sharpening a
fine knife. Yeah you would. You'd be a plain fool.
(08:53):
Fine edg's coming, fine edge. It's your business cutting things.
Let me show you that curve blade. Soldiers, look at that.
That pretty the way at half circles. You think it's pretty?
(09:13):
Fits your next soldier right close, neat like Now, that's
what I call pretty. The fit of it pretty enough
looks dull to me. It gets dull cutting me before
I got a man's throat with it, I'd see it
was razor sharp. I will. I'll tend to that right now,
(09:39):
but I'll keep that straight blade handy in case I
run into a soldier wants to go to body, I
knew a man like you once looked the same, acted
the same, talk to saying he was from Texas. This
man and a lot of good men from Texas. This man,
he was a skinner. A lot of good men's the skinners.
(10:00):
This man, though he got a self killed. How was
a man gonna get a self killed skinning buffalo? And
he made the mistake. This Texas man going into engine territory,
went up into the engine nation, got a self killed.
You don't own nothing about skinning. I heard about this man.
(10:23):
You're doomed, soldier dumbs can be. I ain't dumb enough
to skin buffalo in engine country. I make fifty dollars
a month of my keep with it, I get fifty
cents a hit on every buffalo I skin. You do
it fast, mister fast? Why I do it? The more money?
I mean? I sure admire to see you at your work. Yeah,
(10:48):
you would, I would. I never seen a real good
skinner at work. You mean you wanted to please a body,
You could tell him how you set about your work.
You're thinking about turning the skinner. Oh, I don't think
I got the gift for it. Of course, I'm a
willing hand and all that. Oh are you on thinking?
(11:13):
I'm not too good to tell the truth. You might
make a skinners there the thinking part, what's done with it?
That's the hundred job Old Jake Cuppy that he's got
to find the herd, dude, the shooting Jake Cuppy and
the Sutler's he's buying leading on powder. He's got a
line on a big herd. Where what do I care?
(11:34):
A big hurt soldier. He'll get me there, do the
killing well, I gotta do his traps after him and
skin him. You was gonna tell me how you manage that?
You see you work with a good hunter. That comes first,
Old Jake Cuppy. He's good. He shoots him right in
the lights, the lights, the lights, the lungs now here.
(11:56):
I thought a good hunter take aim on his heart. Ayes, No,
you hit one in the heart, even square in the heart.
He's gonna run all over and before he dies, charging around,
pouring the earth, carrying on. Don't need a skinner wasting itself,
moving all over. And I can see that you hit
(12:17):
one in the lights, soldier. He may take a step
or two on here, but no more than that. He
drops right on the spot. You know how I mean, skinner,
don't go to first one spot then another. Well, he
don't waste itself. I understand the gifts you talk about it.
I got it for fair. I come on him. At first,
(12:38):
I've written down the belly from the throat to the
tail with a straight blade more than right here. Then
I cut down each his legs, go around his head,
clean up to his ears. Listen here I figured the
curved blade there. And now myself, I don't bother with
the rest of the head. I ride away said to
(13:00):
roll the skin back this first starting then I draw
a rope tight on the little flap of his neck
that free see, and I make the other men fast
to the team. And then I kick them up and
pulling that away shook that hid right off that animal.
That's a size. I tell you, that's a sight. I
(13:23):
just bet it is fifty cents every time I do it.
I skinned his highest fifty buffalo day. Now that amounts it. Well,
Old J. Cuppy usually does that coming up for me.
I guess you think a lot of mister Cuppy. What
I gotta think of him? I like skinning Sodier that's
(13:44):
what I like you putting up here at Fort Laramie's
spell anyway and a long? What do you care? As
long as you're here. I just want to learn all
I can from you, that's all. What's a good name,
A lot of good man of skinners.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Your name Jake Cuppy, mister, all your name, it's Jake Cuppy.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
If you don't want to steal up on a man
at the zeke Captain might make him.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Edgy, I make you edgy, mister.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
I'm getting over it. Sit down long, yeah, oh yeah,
I moving my rife from the side. You got your
eye on it too.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I ain't seen big fifties before.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
I declared, opens a man's eyes stopping off at the
army post. First you tell me I'm welcome to put
up with the enlisted men here, and then the only
ones that come poking around officers. That's how come you
know about big fifties, Lieutenant claimed, you've never seen one before.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Mistis Habits never saw a buffalo hunter before.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
He's seen one.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Now where do you find them like him?
Speaker 4 (15:23):
So full of book learning, we find all kinds, mister,
Well you found one there now he's up on all
the law in these parts. I'm not talking about your
army law now, I'm talking territory law. I think that's
how you said it, something about this a timey year.
You can't shoot what lieutenant calls wildlife.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
There's a law about hunting. First Territorial Assembly pasted it.
It's called wildlife conservation.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Well here I thought the army was a shooting outfit
is mister. Now, I'm gonna tell you what I told
the lieutenant. You're gonna make laws out here. You make
him about the Engines, but you leave a white man
to his work.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Year must be you've shot up all the herds in
the South Plains.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Oh, I wouldn't take all the credit for that. Others
got the dow coming. I'm gawn at you, Captain, same way.
You're noan at me. You spoke your piece.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
You're wrong, mister.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
That's another thing I'm almost never wrong.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
There's treaty law that says you can't go into Indian territory.
That means all the land north of Fort Laramie.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I'm getting the might worried about the army. Ain't they
doing any killing?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
No more? We're obliged to warn you if you do
go in. We can't protect you. I just don't recollect
asking for any protection. You are to come along. Captain
is hunting for real sporting man. I saw some of
your slaughter the other day. That's real sporting. Now you
(17:13):
hear me what I say. I get paid on how
many buffalo hides I ship. That's fine.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Now, then folks in the eastate development a taste for
buffalo meat. All I gotta do is get it to
the railroad, and that's fine. I get paid for that too.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
I'd hate to have to fight a war on your account, mister.
Maybe i'd be on your side. I'm good at shooting.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
I'll tell you what you figure price on engine hides,
engine meat. Maybe I will be on your cap.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
This is Kit Carson country in the Captain along the
Powder River. He was up here, sure, all along the
bottoms of the Powder it was black with buffalo.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
Then, well, the big herds are still up this way,
aren't they?
Speaker 1 (18:34):
The Indians think so that's good enough for me and
for Jake Cuppy. Apparently you take men like Kit Carson.
He was a trapper, a hunter, but you hear good
things about him.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
The Indians liked you.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
You're not comparing Carson to Cuppy, are you, mister tiber No, Sir,
I'm trying to figure out the difference will seem to
be at the same things seemed to be. Maybe the
early trappers, the hunters, the mountain men, they learned a
lot from the Indians, made friends with him, like you say,
but more they came to hunt like Indians hunting.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
You mean, they hunted as they had.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Need more that they knew what conservation meant, even then
that if you kill more than the herd can very young,
you'll run out of quarry man like Cuppy. Now he
he likes the slaughter.
Speaker 5 (19:24):
I hope we find him, Captain, I hope.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
We find him in time, mister Saberts.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
The wagon tracks were following, Captain.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Know what about them?
Speaker 5 (19:33):
It looks like they stopped just ahead, sir, right at that.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Line of trees. Patrol all they could be in their
Captain coupley and golfing they could, mister Sabots, Come on, Gorse, yes, sir,
Roger and Gorse and I are gonna move flat into
the trees, mister Sabots. How the patrols stand to covers, Yes, sir.
(19:56):
One shot out of those trees, and you move in
like Captain. All right, sergeant, run crops down with the brush,
then we move flapping their bellies. Yes, let's go.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Oh the boys are them high bed wagons like Golfie had.
They moved through here better than we do kept him.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I can't see Couppy making the camp here.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
I can't see him coming in here over the army's warning.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Just about to the trees, Gorse, don't straighten to we're
in them, yes, sir, all right now, they're not as
thick as they look, Keptain, I had their gorse a wagon.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Much Gophy's waging all right, some hides here.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
In the bed and his team's gone. Must be thinking
to drag the hids back here from how far away?
Speaker 3 (21:10):
I wonder?
Speaker 4 (21:10):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
I'm trying to figure them, Captain. I can see they
might hide the wagon so we couldn't follow its tracks.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
But we can track horses hoofs.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Just as well.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Not this way, gos.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
M grain sacks, sure, yeah, it f it's green sacks
to their hoofs.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
It muffles the sound. There's almost no hoof prints.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
They're smarter than they act, Captain, are they gosh?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Buffalo guns it's one sound they can't muffle. Come on, sergeant,
(22:15):
we've bred in five miles at least, Captain, and no
sound that got us for the last three. Don't need
sound with signd like that. Ahead, mister Seyberts. That brown
haze like dust, and it is dust, means a big
herd probably been stampeded. There's bottom line just after that
rise where a clear creek feeds into the powder. We'll
(22:35):
make for that, yes, sir, at the gallop oh Oro
(23:03):
might not with me, mister saber Desert Captain luck, I'm looking,
(23:29):
mister Sabots. He said it was a big herd.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
But it's like a massacre. Must be a thousand buffalo.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
It is a massacre. That much killing of anything without cause,
it is a massacre.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Well, Jake Cuppy, he couldn't have shot him all he.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Gets chewed enough with Gophy helping. Likely the rest were
stampeded to death.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
Slaughter, that's all you can call of that. I don't
see how it could happen so much of it.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Buffalo don't have much eyesight. You can't unsmelling signs of danger.
Cuppy's trick is to shoot from far enough away so
they can't smell him. We better, we better go down there.
Mister sabots.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
Couppy would would he cause all this and then hide out?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Captain?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
He might, knowing we'd be coming after him, knowing he
and Golf, He couldn't hope to haul him all out
before we got here. Is seen any that's been skinned
nose or not a one over here? Well that explains
(25:07):
a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I come on their horses first, down further. They're shot
full airs too.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Both of them are still warm, Captain. They haven't been
dead long.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Thousand dead buffalo, two dead men.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
That's a lot of death, a lot of waste. The
engines must still be around, Captain.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah, they'd still be around up in the hills, likely
those arrows.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
So they're in Cuppy and Gophy and the horses, but
not the buffalo.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
The Indians weren't after buffalo, mister sabags. Come on, let's
move out, Captain.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
We'll have to fight the Indians.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
For this, not today, not this patrol. But this isn't
the last of the buffalo hunters. More will come all
the time, and we'll fight wars over it.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
You've got to just leave things this way.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
The sooner we go, mister Siberts, The sooner the Indians
will move down and get the meat the hides. Sometimes
all a man can do is turn walk away.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Fort Laramie is produced and directed by Norman mc donald
and stars Raymond Burr as lee Quin's Captain of Cavalry,
with Vic Perron as Sergeant Gorse. The script was specially
written for Fort Laramie by Kathleen Hight, with son patterns
by Bill James and ray Kemper musical supervision by Amarigo Marino.
(27:17):
Featured in the cast were James Nusser and Barney Phillips.
Jack Moyles is Major Diggett, and Harry Bartel is Lieutenant Seyberts.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Company Tensent.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Dismiss Next week another transcribed story of the Northwest Frontier
and the troopers who fought under lee Quin's Captain of Cavalry.
(28:20):
Have you a youngster of school age right now? For
the new fall term, parents and citizens will discover that
the enrollment in their community schools has increased tremendously. That
means an acute shortage of teachers, schoolrooms, and supplies. Help
your youngsters and others in your community by joining up
with your local civic and educational groups act now to
correct the great shortage of teachers and equipment. CBS Radio
(28:43):
urges you to help make your community schools fit for
your community youngsters.
At the Galla Fort Laramie.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Fort Laramie, starring Raymond Burr as Captain lee Quins, especially
transcribed tales of the dark and tragic ground of the
wild Frontier, the saga of whiting men who rode the
rim of Empire, and the dramatic story of lee Quin's
Captain of Cavalry.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Sergeant. This one's fresh killed and fresh skin, Sir, how
many buffalo we found this way?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
We come on ten with this one. The men are
fanning out looking for more. They wouldn't be far away
if there are more. They're right dumb, aren't they, Captain.
Buffalo must be the dumbest critters there is. Couldn't call
them crafty, but they're half blind. Can't see trouble when
they're heading right into it.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
The tennant Sebert's back from the agency, Yes, Sir, he
brought the wagon. They're loading carcasses in it back by
the wall. They better get a move on that meddle
cook in.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
This heat, Captain, you got the feeling there's something wrong wrong.
Why seen engines killed buffalo before, lots of them, but
I never seen them leave this much meat on them.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Maybe agency life is making them lazy.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Gorse.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Maybe their bellies are too full. Now you don't think that, Captain,
I sure don't. I'm gonna talk to mister sebitts Oh
are all of them cut this way?
Speaker 3 (02:23):
I think so? I didn't rightly study him though.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Then study him all of them. Let me know what
you find, Yes, sir, I have any trouble get from
the wagon, mister Cyberts. Oh, oh no, sir. The agency
glad to know we were bringing meat in. That seem
odd to you.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
Oh no, sir, I never saw an Indian agency.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
They couldn't use food, now that did? I excuse me? Sir?
All right, man, you can mold the wagon. I'll pick
up the rest of the carcasses just a minute, Yes, sir,
I'm gonna take a look at these, all of them
anu it mm hmm. All right, man. Carry on.
Speaker 5 (03:21):
A lot of waste there.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Sir, Yeah, yeah, a lot of waste. I'm out of
the agency about five miles. That's right, you went there.
You got the wagon from the agent. He said they'd
be glad to get the meat. That all these said,
mister Sabags.
Speaker 5 (03:38):
I think so, sir.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Oh. One thing he said when we first rode up, Yes,
he asked us if we'd been engaged to battle, said
that early this morning it hurt a lot of gunfire. Yeah,
I bet they did, yes, Egeant.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
I studied the carcasses, all of them, Like you said.
They're all cut the same way.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Skinned with the hump ribs cut away, and that's all
the men locate anymore, No sirt, just the tin. According
to mister Cyberts, the Indian agent claims he heard a
lot of gunfire this morning.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
It was a clear more than the sounded carry all right.
You saw the wagon tracks.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Captain, Yeah, I saw him tell the man to get
a move on with their loading. Sergeant, form a detail
to haul of carcasses to the agency. Yes, well, rendezvous
at the fork of the raw Hide and proceed back
to Fort Laramie, Yes, sir, Captain quince, what about the
wagon tracks? You see these tracks here, the fresh ones,
when the wagon that was just here, that's right over
(04:36):
here there. You see those, yes, sir, they're not as fresh,
but you can sure see them.
Speaker 5 (04:45):
Our wagon wasn't over here, captain.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
And it wasn't down there, whether loading now or over
yonder where the last carcasses were found. Well, that's right, sir,
But Indians don't hunt buffalo with wagons, mister Cyberts. And
when they killed buffalo with guns arrows, they don't just
skin them. Got the hump ribs free and leave the
rest to rotten the prairie from its horns to its chips.
(05:07):
Indians use all the buffalo. You think white men did this, Captain,
I'm thinking white men. And if buffalo hunters are moving
up to the high plains, we got trouble, mister Seberts.
Speaker 6 (05:34):
That's reservation land, Captain.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
That didn't make much matter to them. Major.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
You seem very sure this is the work of buffalo hunters,
not Indians.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
If it's Indians, they'd changed their whole tradition of hunting
buffalo and killing them. I tell you these were fresh
killed and the only meat gone was the hump ribs.
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Well that's the best meat to.
Speaker 4 (05:54):
You and me.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Yeah, But the Indians eat everything in the buffalo, including
what they don't eat on the spot. They take with them,
even the horns.
Speaker 6 (06:03):
Always use the horns for tools implements, don't they always.
They still hope you're wrongly, It's a small hope, but
it's there.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
I'd like to be dead wrong, but I saw too much,
and the Indian agent heard too much the battle. Remember, Texas,
you get a clear morning, you could hear those buffalo
guns roaring for miles. Enough of them sound like a
pitch battle.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
Wonder if they're still packing those old sharps fifties. They're
awful heavy, you gotta be.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
They shootout slugs one hundred and twenty five grains of powder,
six hundred grains of the lead, sometimes more.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
The army struggles along with four hundred and fifty grain slugs.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
We're not killing buffalo, No, we're not.
Speaker 6 (06:47):
You know the position the army's in as well as
I do. White men aren't allowed on reservations to hunt,
to mine, to anything. We can warn them if we
see them before they move into Indian territory. If we
catch them there, we can run them off, bring him
back to the guardhouse. But we got to see him first.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
We may not see him major until it's too late.
We may not ever see him, and then the army
will be in another position, what other position? Fighting the war?
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Don't you go roaming off? Now? Go vire. I want
the wagon here as so as we can load it.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
Awful hot, just sitting here where you set here.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
I hear, hey, soldier, it's here the settless storm. That's it,
mister much blithe h.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
H. Well, now you got yourself some knife there, ain't you?
Shap is your eye? Soldier? Straight bladeer thiss is got
them curved too, They're nice.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
You like curve knives better, do you?
Speaker 3 (08:27):
I like what I need. Sometimes I need a straight blade,
sometimes I need him curved. What kind of man's gonna
need for knives? Straight blade or curve? You golden me, soldier,
I'd be a fool to go to man sharpening a
fine knife. Yeah you would. You'd be a plain fool.
(08:53):
Fine edg's coming, fine edge. It's your business cutting things.
Let me show you that curve blade. Soldiers, look at that.
That pretty the way at half circles. You think it's pretty?
(09:13):
Fits your next soldier right close, neat like Now, that's
what I call pretty. The fit of it pretty enough
looks dull to me. It gets dull cutting me before
I got a man's throat with it, I'd see it
was razor sharp. I will. I'll tend to that right now,
(09:39):
but I'll keep that straight blade handy in case I
run into a soldier wants to go to body, I
knew a man like you once looked the same, acted
the same, talk to saying he was from Texas. This
man and a lot of good men from Texas. This man,
he was a skinner. A lot of good men's the skinners.
(10:00):
This man, though he got a self killed. How was
a man gonna get a self killed skinning buffalo? And
he made the mistake. This Texas man going into engine territory,
went up into the engine nation, got a self killed.
You don't own nothing about skinning. I heard about this man.
(10:23):
You're doomed, soldier dumbs can be. I ain't dumb enough
to skin buffalo in engine country. I make fifty dollars
a month of my keep with it, I get fifty
cents a hit on every buffalo I skin. You do
it fast, mister fast? Why I do it? The more money?
I mean? I sure admire to see you at your work. Yeah,
(10:48):
you would, I would. I never seen a real good
skinner at work. You mean you wanted to please a body,
You could tell him how you set about your work.
You're thinking about turning the skinner. Oh, I don't think
I got the gift for it. Of course, I'm a
willing hand and all that. Oh are you on thinking?
(11:13):
I'm not too good to tell the truth. You might
make a skinners there the thinking part, what's done with it?
That's the hundred job Old Jake Cuppy that he's got
to find the herd, dude, the shooting Jake Cuppy and
the Sutler's he's buying leading on powder. He's got a
line on a big herd. Where what do I care?
(11:34):
A big hurt soldier. He'll get me there, do the
killing well, I gotta do his traps after him and
skin him. You was gonna tell me how you manage that?
You see you work with a good hunter. That comes first,
Old Jake Cuppy. He's good. He shoots him right in
the lights, the lights, the lights, the lungs now here.
(11:56):
I thought a good hunter take aim on his heart. Ayes, No,
you hit one in the heart, even square in the heart.
He's gonna run all over and before he dies, charging around,
pouring the earth, carrying on. Don't need a skinner wasting itself,
moving all over. And I can see that you hit
(12:17):
one in the lights, soldier. He may take a step
or two on here, but no more than that. He
drops right on the spot. You know how I mean, skinner,
don't go to first one spot then another. Well, he
don't waste itself. I understand the gifts you talk about it.
I got it for fair. I come on him. At first,
(12:38):
I've written down the belly from the throat to the
tail with a straight blade more than right here. Then
I cut down each his legs, go around his head,
clean up to his ears. Listen here I figured the
curved blade there. And now myself, I don't bother with
the rest of the head. I ride away said to
(13:00):
roll the skin back this first starting then I draw
a rope tight on the little flap of his neck
that free see, and I make the other men fast
to the team. And then I kick them up and
pulling that away shook that hid right off that animal.
That's a size. I tell you, that's a sight. I
(13:23):
just bet it is fifty cents every time I do it.
I skinned his highest fifty buffalo day. Now that amounts it. Well,
Old J. Cuppy usually does that coming up for me.
I guess you think a lot of mister Cuppy. What
I gotta think of him? I like skinning Sodier that's
(13:44):
what I like you putting up here at Fort Laramie's
spell anyway and a long? What do you care? As
long as you're here. I just want to learn all
I can from you, that's all. What's a good name,
A lot of good man of skinners.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Your name Jake Cuppy, mister, all your name, it's Jake Cuppy.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
If you don't want to steal up on a man
at the zeke Captain might make him.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
Edgy, I make you edgy, mister.
Speaker 4 (14:40):
I'm getting over it. Sit down long, yeah, oh yeah,
I moving my rife from the side. You got your
eye on it too.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
I ain't seen big fifties before.
Speaker 4 (14:55):
I declared, opens a man's eyes stopping off at the
army post. First you tell me I'm welcome to put
up with the enlisted men here, and then the only
ones that come poking around officers. That's how come you
know about big fifties, Lieutenant claimed, you've never seen one before.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Mistis Habits never saw a buffalo hunter before.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
He's seen one.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Now where do you find them like him?
Speaker 4 (15:23):
So full of book learning, we find all kinds, mister,
Well you found one there now he's up on all
the law in these parts. I'm not talking about your
army law now, I'm talking territory law. I think that's
how you said it, something about this a timey year.
You can't shoot what lieutenant calls wildlife.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
There's a law about hunting. First Territorial Assembly pasted it.
It's called wildlife conservation.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Well here I thought the army was a shooting outfit
is mister. Now, I'm gonna tell you what I told
the lieutenant. You're gonna make laws out here. You make
him about the Engines, but you leave a white man
to his work.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Year must be you've shot up all the herds in
the South Plains.
Speaker 4 (16:17):
Oh, I wouldn't take all the credit for that. Others
got the dow coming. I'm gawn at you, Captain, same way.
You're noan at me. You spoke your piece.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
You're wrong, mister.
Speaker 4 (16:33):
That's another thing I'm almost never wrong.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
There's treaty law that says you can't go into Indian territory.
That means all the land north of Fort Laramie.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I'm getting the might worried about the army. Ain't they
doing any killing?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
No more? We're obliged to warn you if you do
go in. We can't protect you. I just don't recollect
asking for any protection. You are to come along. Captain
is hunting for real sporting man. I saw some of
your slaughter the other day. That's real sporting. Now you
(17:13):
hear me what I say. I get paid on how
many buffalo hides I ship. That's fine.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Now, then folks in the eastate development a taste for
buffalo meat. All I gotta do is get it to
the railroad, and that's fine. I get paid for that too.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
I'd hate to have to fight a war on your account, mister.
Maybe i'd be on your side. I'm good at shooting.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
I'll tell you what you figure price on engine hides,
engine meat. Maybe I will be on your cap.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
This is Kit Carson country in the Captain along the
Powder River. He was up here, sure, all along the
bottoms of the Powder it was black with buffalo.
Speaker 5 (18:30):
Then, well, the big herds are still up this way,
aren't they?
Speaker 1 (18:34):
The Indians think so that's good enough for me and
for Jake Cuppy. Apparently you take men like Kit Carson.
He was a trapper, a hunter, but you hear good
things about him.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
The Indians liked you.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
You're not comparing Carson to Cuppy, are you, mister tiber No, Sir,
I'm trying to figure out the difference will seem to
be at the same things seemed to be. Maybe the
early trappers, the hunters, the mountain men, they learned a
lot from the Indians, made friends with him, like you say,
but more they came to hunt like Indians hunting.
Speaker 5 (19:09):
You mean, they hunted as they had.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Need more that they knew what conservation meant, even then
that if you kill more than the herd can very young,
you'll run out of quarry man like Cuppy. Now he
he likes the slaughter.
Speaker 5 (19:24):
I hope we find him, Captain, I hope.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
We find him in time, mister Saberts.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
The wagon tracks were following, Captain.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Know what about them?
Speaker 5 (19:33):
It looks like they stopped just ahead, sir, right at that.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
Line of trees. Patrol all they could be in their
Captain coupley and golfing they could, mister Sabots, Come on, Gorse, yes, sir,
Roger and Gorse and I are gonna move flat into
the trees, mister Sabots. How the patrols stand to covers, Yes, sir.
(19:56):
One shot out of those trees, and you move in
like Captain. All right, sergeant, run crops down with the brush,
then we move flapping their bellies. Yes, let's go.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Oh the boys are them high bed wagons like Golfie had.
They moved through here better than we do kept him.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
I can't see Couppy making the camp here.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
I can't see him coming in here over the army's warning.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Just about to the trees, Gorse, don't straighten to we're
in them, yes, sir, all right now, they're not as
thick as they look, Keptain, I had their gorse a wagon.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Much Gophy's waging all right, some hides here.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
In the bed and his team's gone. Must be thinking
to drag the hids back here from how far away?
Speaker 3 (21:10):
I wonder?
Speaker 4 (21:10):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
I'm trying to figure them, Captain. I can see they
might hide the wagon so we couldn't follow its tracks.
Speaker 5 (21:18):
But we can track horses hoofs.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Just as well.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Not this way, gos.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
M grain sacks, sure, yeah, it f it's green sacks
to their hoofs.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
It muffles the sound. There's almost no hoof prints.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
They're smarter than they act, Captain, are they gosh?
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Buffalo guns it's one sound they can't muffle. Come on, sergeant,
(22:15):
we've bred in five miles at least, Captain, and no
sound that got us for the last three. Don't need
sound with signd like that. Ahead, mister Seyberts. That brown
haze like dust, and it is dust, means a big
herd probably been stampeded. There's bottom line just after that
rise where a clear creek feeds into the powder. We'll
(22:35):
make for that, yes, sir, at the gallop oh Oro
(23:03):
might not with me, mister saber Desert Captain luck, I'm looking,
(23:29):
mister Sabots. He said it was a big herd.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
But it's like a massacre. Must be a thousand buffalo.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
It is a massacre. That much killing of anything without cause,
it is a massacre.
Speaker 5 (23:46):
Well, Jake Cuppy, he couldn't have shot him all he.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
Gets chewed enough with Gophy helping. Likely the rest were
stampeded to death.
Speaker 5 (23:56):
Slaughter, that's all you can call of that. I don't
see how it could happen so much of it.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Buffalo don't have much eyesight. You can't unsmelling signs of danger.
Cuppy's trick is to shoot from far enough away so
they can't smell him. We better, we better go down there.
Mister sabots.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
Couppy would would he cause all this and then hide out?
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Captain?
Speaker 1 (24:38):
He might, knowing we'd be coming after him, knowing he
and Golf, He couldn't hope to haul him all out
before we got here. Is seen any that's been skinned
nose or not a one over here? Well that explains
(25:07):
a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
I come on their horses first, down further. They're shot
full airs too.
Speaker 5 (25:16):
Both of them are still warm, Captain. They haven't been
dead long.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Thousand dead buffalo, two dead men.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
That's a lot of death, a lot of waste. The
engines must still be around, Captain.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Yeah, they'd still be around up in the hills, likely
those arrows.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
So they're in Cuppy and Gophy and the horses, but
not the buffalo.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
The Indians weren't after buffalo, mister sabags. Come on, let's
move out, Captain.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
We'll have to fight the Indians.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
For this, not today, not this patrol. But this isn't
the last of the buffalo hunters. More will come all
the time, and we'll fight wars over it.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
You've got to just leave things this way.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
The sooner we go, mister Siberts, The sooner the Indians
will move down and get the meat the hides. Sometimes
all a man can do is turn walk away.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Fort Laramie is produced and directed by Norman mc donald
and stars Raymond Burr as lee Quin's Captain of Cavalry,
with Vic Perron as Sergeant Gorse. The script was specially
written for Fort Laramie by Kathleen Hight, with son patterns
by Bill James and ray Kemper musical supervision by Amarigo Marino.
(27:17):
Featured in the cast were James Nusser and Barney Phillips.
Jack Moyles is Major Diggett, and Harry Bartel is Lieutenant Seyberts.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Company Tensent.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
Dismiss Next week another transcribed story of the Northwest Frontier
and the troopers who fought under lee Quin's Captain of Cavalry.
(28:20):
Have you a youngster of school age right now? For
the new fall term, parents and citizens will discover that
the enrollment in their community schools has increased tremendously. That
means an acute shortage of teachers, schoolrooms, and supplies. Help
your youngsters and others in your community by joining up
with your local civic and educational groups act now to
correct the great shortage of teachers and equipment. CBS Radio
(28:43):
urges you to help make your community schools fit for
your community youngsters.
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