The sad story of the bufalo
The sad story nearly a century ago of the buffalo nation was destroyed by greed and uncontrolled hunting and the efforts of Native American leaders dedicated to that once gave life to their tribes. "Buffalo have to be there for our culture to exist," says Fred DuBray, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe. "As we bring our herds back to health, we will also bring our people back to health."
Like people, the buffalo, known to scientists as Bison, came to North America long ago from Asia, crossing a land bridge that once connected Siberia to Alaska.
By the time America's earliest peoples had established villages about 20,000 years ago, the buffalo were all around the grasslands and forested hillsides that were to the west of the Mississippi River west to the Rocky Mountains. Researchers estimate that prairie bison numbered between 30 million and 200 million, while a woodland variant existed in smaller numbers. "The Indian was frugal in the midst of plenty," says Luther Standing Bear a member of the Lakota tribe. "When the buffalo roamed the plains in multitudes, he slaughtered only what he could eat and these he used to the hair and bones." For thousands of years the huge bison herds were able to replace the loss of the few animals taken by Native Americans. The earlies settlers were trappers and traders, people who made their living selling meat and hides. By the 1870s, they were shipping hundreds of thousands of buffalo hides towards the east each year: more than 1.5 million were packed aboard trains and wagons in the winter of 1872-73 alone.
The commercial killers, however, weren't the only ones shooting the buffalo. Train companies offered tourists the chance to shoot buffalo from the windows of their coaches, stopping only when they ran out of ammo or the gun's barrel became too hot. There were even buffalo killing contests. In one, a Kansan set a record by killing 120 Buffalos in just 40 minutes. "Buffalo" Bill Cody, hired to kill the animals, killed more than 4,000 buffalos in just two years.
Some U.S. government officials even promoted the killing of the bison herds as a way to defeat their Native American enemies, who were resisting the takeover of their lands by white people. One Congressman, James Throckmorton of Texas, said that "it would be a great step forward in the civilization of the Indians and the preservation of peace on the border if there was not a buffalo in existence." Soon, military commanders were ordering their troops to kill buffalo, not for food, but to stop the Native Americans their own source of food. One general believed that buffalo hunters "did more to defeat the Indian nations in a few years than soldiers did in 50." By 1880, the slaughter was almost over. Where millions of buffalo once roamed, only a few thousand buffalos remained. Soon, their numbers dissapeared, with the largest wild herd, just a few hundred animals, sheltered in the small valleys of the newly created Yellowstone National Park. People are today trying to rebuild the once mighty buffalo nation.
How the Plains Indians hunted the Buffalo?
Though killing such large, fast animals was a hard task, bison can run for long periods at up to 35 miles per hour, Native Americans tribes soon perfected several effective techniques. Some would surround small herds with a human chain, giving archers a better shot at the tightly packed animals. Others learned to stampede bison over cliffs. Such "buffalo jumps" provided tribes with small supplies of meat and warm hides that allowed them to survive the region's strong winters.
In the 1500s, however, things began to change. First, Spanish explorers introduced horses to the area. By the 1800s, Native Americans had learned to use the speedy horses to chase the buffalo, dramatically expanding their hunting range and effectiveness. Next, guns were used by buffalo hunters, making them more deadly hunters. But it was that arrival white people in the 1800s, and their conflict with the Native American residents of the prairies, that spelled the end for the buffalo.
But flesh and skin weren't the only good things: tribes learned to use virtually every part of the animal, from horns to tail hairs.
The Buffalo.(the facts)
The early Buffalo were enormous animals, weighing up to 5,000 pounds and horns that were more than six feet across. Over time, however, the North American stock evolved into trimmer beasts. The buffalo is 14 ribs instead of the 13 found in cattle. It has shaggy fur is dark brown in colour. It grows especially long on the head, neck, and shoulders and usually forms a beard on the chin. On rare occasions a white bison is born; these unusual type were especially honoured, and even worshipped, by Native American. Both buffalo sexes bear short, upcurved horns, those of the cow being smaller. Bison are large, powerful animals. A adult buffalo stands about 2 m (6 1/2 feet) at the shoulder and weighs more than 900 kg (1,980 pounds). The female is about 1.5 m (5 feet) tall and weighs about 320 kg (700 pounds).
