Where Have All The Buffalo Gone?

I was at an art lecture one Friday morning, and one painting in particular created much conversation after the lecture.  It was a painting depicting the slaughter of the Plains Indians.  The painting showed a warrior on horseback killing a buffalo with a spear, with huge herds of buffalo in the background, and buffalo bones in the foreground.  The question that arose is this.  "Who killed all the buffalo, the Indians or the white man?"  Here's what I found.

There are no accurate figures for the number of buffalo when the Native Americans first settled in the plains, but it is believed to be between 30-60 million.  Because of their size, buffalo had no natural predators to keep down their numbers.  By the 1890's there were only about 500 buffalo left in the wild.  Native Americans killed buffalo for food and clothing.  They used every part of the animal.  The meat could be dried or preserved for future use.  The horns were used as decoration on ceremonial clothes, the hides could be used as blankets or as part of a teepee.  The killing was done by warriors, but they only killed what they could use.  One explorer prophetically said, "When the buffalo are extinct, the Native People too must dwindle away.  Native People knew that their survival depended on the buffalo and if they took advantage of this creature, they would pay for that greed themselves.

White settlers did not share this view.  They saw the plains as perfect for cattle, and wanted to move Native People off of the Plains and destroy the buffalo hers. They had many political friends in Washington and a dual policy developed:  move the Native People into reservations away from valuable land and destroy the herds of buffalo. Hunters were encouraged to hunt on the Plains to destroy the buffalo.  Animals were skinned and the carcasses were left to rot.  Only the tongue, a delicacy, was saved.  A slaughter similar to that of the buffalo has no parallel in history.

So, yes, Native Americans did kill buffalo, but depended on them for survival, and with crude weapons for killing them, could not possibly have killed millions.  The white man, with high powered rifles, could easily kill these powerful animals.  Had conservationists not stepped in and started breeding programs, the buffalo might well be extinct.  Today, they are making a comeback.  Consumers have discovered bison meat and many bison are being raised for this purpose.

The white man moved Native Americans to reservations, killed millions of buffalo and used the Plains land for cattle.  Thanks to conservation organizations we still have buffalo.  Their numbers are growing and they are thriving.