American Bison
Photographer: Dennis Stewart
Title: Cooling Off
Description:
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| American Bison by Dennis Stewart Photographer |
Good Read courtesy Nature on pbs :
Buffalo were the lords of the prairie. To European settlers traveling
across America’s Great Plains in the early 1800s, the prairie wind was a
constant companion: a gentle whisper echoing across the vast sea of
grass that carpeted the center of the North American continent.
Sometimes, however, the rumbling of thunder could be heard in the
distance, though no storm clouds could be seen. Then the ground would
begin to tremble, and suddenly the astonished newcomers would be
surrounded by a thundering herd of hulking animals that stretched
further than the eye could see. The majestic welcoming committee made it
clear that the settlers had, at last, arrived in the buffalo nation — a
land where tens of million of American Bison held sway.
The NATURE program American Buffalo: Spirit of a Nation
tells the sad story of how the buffalo nation was destroyed nearly a
century ago by greed and uncontrolled hunting — and how a few
visionaries are working today to rebuild the once-great bison herds. It
offers a remarkable portrait of America’s last significant wild bison
herd, made up of a few thousand animals living within Montana’s
Yellowstone National Park. And it highlights the efforts of Native
American leaders dedicated to bringing back the animal 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 who
appears in American Buffalo. “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 bison — came
to North America long ago from Asia, crossing a land bridge that once
connected Siberia to Alaska. The early bison were enormous lumbering
animals, weighing up to 5,000 pounds and sporting horns that spanned
more than six feet across.
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Bison can weigh up to a ton. Over time, however, the North American
stock evolved into trimmer beasts. Still, modern bison can weigh up to
2,000 pounds; they can be more than a dozen feet long and stand up to
six feet tall at their massive shoulder hump, which serves as a
storehouse for energy-rich fat.
By the time America’s earliest peoples had established villages about
20,000 years ago, the bison dominated the rolling grasslands and
forested hillsides that stretched west from the Mississippi River west
to the Rocky Mountains. Researchers estimate that prairie bison alone
numbered between 30 million and 200 million, while a woodland variant
existed in smaller numbers. Though killing such large, fast animals was a
formidable task — bison can run for long periods at up to 35 miles per
hour — ancient 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 critical supplies
of nutritious meat and warm hides that allowed them to survive the
region’s harsh winters. But flesh and skin weren’t the only prizes:
tribes learned to use virtually every part of the animal, from horns to
tail hairs.
“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.” Indeed, for thousands of years the huge bison
herds were able to accommodate the loss of the relatively few animals
taken by Native Americans. In the 1500s, however, things began to
change. First, Spanish explorers introduced horses to the region. By the
1800s, Native Americans had learned to use the speedy steeds to chase
bison, dramatically expanding their hunting range and effectiveness.
Next, guns made their way into the hands of buffalo hunters, making them
increasingly deadly hunters. But it was that arrival of vast waves of
white settlers in the 1800s — and their conflict with the Native
American residents of the prairies — that spelled the end for the
buffalo. Among the earliest waves of 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 eastward 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
bison. Train companies offered tourists the chance to shoot buffalo from
the windows of their coaches, pausing only when they ran out of
ammunition or the gun’s barrel became too hot. There were even buffalo
killing contests. In one, a Kansan set a record by killing 120 bison in
just 40 minutes. “Buffalo” Bill Cody, hired to slaughter the animals,
killed more than 4,000 buffalo in just two years.
Some U.S. government officials even promoted the destruction of the
bison herds as a way to defeat their Native American enemies, who were
resisting the takeover of their lands by white settlers. One
Congressman, James Throckmorton of Texas, believed 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 deny 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 animals remained. Soon, their numbers dwindled, with the
largest wild herd — just a few hundred animals — sheltered in the
isolated valleys of the newly created Yellowstone National Park. As American Buffalo shows, it is from this tattered remnant that people are today trying to rebuild the once mighty buffalo nation.
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