Adobe Walls is just a few miles West of where I live. Do you know that there is almost no mention of large herds of Buffalo in Indian histories prior to about 1600? It's believed that there was a die off in the predators of the Buffalo that caused their numbers to explode. That doesn't excuse their extermination for the purpose of starving out the various plains tribes, but I find it interesting.
If you check out the first several lectures in my Tribes of the Great Plains series/playlist -specifically, I think, lecture 4 -I talk about the waxing and waning of bison in the prehistoric area
There is a rather big variation in estimates of numbers and factual details about the American Bison and its near extermination. First of all - there are two species - the Wood Bison and Plains Bison, and at one time there possibly were as many as 60 million roaming the plains, mountain valleys and woodlands, but the numbers started to decline already in the 1840's. Some estimates claim up to 80 million, and it's possible that during the about four decades this many animals were killed, but that's an all over total. One has to consider that cows deliver a calf every spring/early summer, possibly 15 - 17 seasons if they survive a full lifespan of 20 years. However, it's normal that calves die and many animals perish due to harsh winter conditions. A more moderate and plausible estimate is 50 million animals at one time, where perhaps a total of 70 million were killed between 1840 and the early 1880's. A considerable part was lost to the great slaughter, basically lasting from the mid 1860's to the late 1870's, when the railroads were established and there was an increase in both commercial hunt for hides and meat, or simply pure amusement. Sports hunters were even invited from Europe to 'kill Buffalo'. Ultimately military leaders saw this killing of Bison as an opportunity to destroy the livelihoods of the Plains Tribes, so they and the US government encouraged the slaughter as a deliberate act of total war. By 1884 there is said to have been less than 400, and perhaps only 325, animals left in the wild. Still, several ranchers and the Bronx Zoo took conservation measures, so the total number of surviving Bisons about 1885 -90 was closer to 1.000. Most Bison today belong to commercial herds and are to an extent crossbred with cattle. Only some 20 percent are genetically pure. The great Bison slaughter is possibly the most immense crime against nature in human history, only compared by the poaching of millions of elephants for ivory or rhinos for the horn. Sadly many tens of millions of sharks are currently being slaughtered every year only for the fins to make shark fin soup.
Did you see the Ken Burns documentary about it? I was honored to be on a panel of people screening and discussing it when it came out last year... on a buffalo ranch!
It's gut-wrenching to see those photos.
ikr?
@proftroysmith6282
I was referring to the mountain of bison skulls very sad image
Great content! Keep em coming
thanks!
Adobe Walls is just a few miles West of where I live.
Do you know that there is almost no mention of large herds of Buffalo in Indian histories prior to about 1600?
It's believed that there was a die off in the predators of the Buffalo that caused their numbers to explode.
That doesn't excuse their extermination for the purpose of starving out the various plains tribes, but I find it interesting.
If you check out the first several lectures in my Tribes of the Great Plains series/playlist -specifically, I think, lecture 4 -I talk about the waxing and waning of bison in the prehistoric area
There is a rather big variation in estimates of numbers and factual details about the American Bison and its near extermination. First of all - there are two species - the Wood Bison and Plains Bison, and at one time there possibly were as many as 60 million roaming the plains, mountain valleys and woodlands, but the numbers started to decline already in the 1840's. Some estimates claim up to 80 million, and it's possible that during the about four decades this many animals were killed, but that's an all over total. One has to consider that cows deliver a calf every spring/early summer, possibly 15 - 17 seasons if they survive a full lifespan of 20 years. However, it's normal that calves die and many animals perish due to harsh winter conditions.
A more moderate and plausible estimate is 50 million animals at one time, where perhaps a total of 70 million were killed between 1840 and the early 1880's. A considerable part was lost to the great slaughter, basically lasting from the mid 1860's to the late 1870's, when the railroads were established and there was an increase in both commercial hunt for hides and meat, or simply pure amusement. Sports hunters were even invited from Europe to 'kill Buffalo'.
Ultimately military leaders saw this killing of Bison as an opportunity to destroy the livelihoods of the Plains Tribes, so they and the US government encouraged the slaughter as a deliberate act of total war. By 1884 there is said to have been less than 400, and perhaps only 325, animals left in the wild. Still, several ranchers and the Bronx Zoo took conservation measures, so the total number of surviving Bisons about 1885 -90 was closer to 1.000. Most Bison today belong to commercial herds and are to an extent crossbred with cattle. Only some 20 percent are genetically pure.
The great Bison slaughter is possibly the most immense crime against nature in human history, only compared by the poaching of millions of elephants for ivory or rhinos for the horn. Sadly many tens of millions of sharks are currently being slaughtered every year only for the fins to make shark fin soup.
that hill of bones is disgusting!
I agree!
The unrelenting slaughter of the great bison herds in the 1870's is one of our nation's GREAT tragedies!
And SHAME...
Agreed!
Did you see the Ken Burns documentary about it? I was honored to be on a panel of people screening and discussing it when it came out last year... on a buffalo ranch!