buffalo

[gunman1960]

in junior high school,my history teacher taught us about the american buffalo. estimations were from 25 million to 50 million wild buffalo, roaming the plains.
the teacher told us that the white man, almost made the buffalo extinct. the reason was the railroads were being built all over the country. buffalo hunters would kill the buffalo for the workers to eat. i just couldnt believe that a few thousand workers could make the buffalo extinct. every spring buffalo calves were born in the hundreds of thousands or more.
i just read "AMERICAN BUFFALO", by stephen rinella. this book was a very good read. the author studied buffalo for years,and won a raffle ticket to hunt one in alaska.
the near extinction of buffalo was caused by many things,and not the mean old white hunters, and r.r. workers. i dont remember if this story was in our text book or not, i wonder if this is still taught?

 

[feralmerril]

I belive what I have read: The indians of the west almost totaly depended on the buffalo for everything. The indian wars of western united states after the civil war were brutal. The west was expanding but was being slowed down by the indian danger. General sherman was commander along with nelson miles. General shermans stratagy was to exterminate the buffalo to exterminate or/and control the indians. I dont belive he thought indians human and made no secret of it. He encoraged buffalo hunting openly to those ends.

 

[ladder13]

Yellowstone

 

[Snowbandit]

They didn't so much "hunt" buffalo as just "slaughter" them. Tons of hides were sent east and even to Europe. Meat was often left to rot to deprive the Indians of their food source.

 

[jkc]

I'm not clear on your question, but, even today, estimations of wildlife numbers, using the best and most advanced techniques and scientific and statistical models, are, in most cases, "educated guesses" not precise counts. The guesses of 19th century bison populations were not based on any scientific or statistical protocols, just conjecture by untrained, unscientific observers, and very likely inaccurate by several orders of magnitude. These animals were not hunted primarily for food, but rather for their hides, an economic incentive that led to efficient, exploitative depredation (with way cool Sharps rifles...), and the near eradication of the species. The railroad's role in this exploitation was that of easily conveying commercial "market" hunters to the animal resource, and reciprocally, conveying their harvest to market. That we have any remaining bison is remarkable. There are huntable populations in two areas in AZ, although bison are not indigenous here. I think you would learn lots by investigating this further...

 

[jeffsmith]

This may give you an idea of the magnitude of the "Harvest"

 

[feralmerril]

On my post about general sherman wanting the buffalo killed off, here is just one of many articles. Just goggle General sherman and slautering buffalo, and you will get a ton of similar articles.
Sherman's Final Solution

http://www1.american.edu/TED/ice/buffalo.htm

 

[USAF385]

You beat me to it Jeff.

Just think.. that's only one picture. How many similar "collections" were never photographed.

 

[mes227]

The guesses of 19th century bison populations were not based on any scientific or statistical protocols, just conjecture by untrained, unscientific observers, and very likely inaccurate by several orders of magnitude.

You're suggesting that rather than the 25+ million buffalos that most estimates claim, there were as few as 25,000 (3 orders less)? That's just a bit nuts! While imprecise those estimates are a lot more than "conjecture" and have been analyzed by highly trained, highly scientific professions for over a century.

 

[snowman]

About how many bison do they think we have in the country now?

Just curious.
Andy

 

[jkc]

You're suggesting that rather than the 25+ million buffalos that most estimates claim, there were as few as 25,000 (3 orders less)? That's just a bit nuts! While imprecise those estimates are a lot more than "conjecture" and have been analyzed by highly trained, highly scientific professions for over a century.

I was using a rhetorical device, in my turn of phrase, "orders of magnitude", not a scientific certainty. Point being, nobody knows, with any degree of certainty, how many bison occupied their traditional habitat prior to the arrival of Anglos with effective weapons, and ulterior motives.

 

[Frank237]

After the Mo River runs high theres a few spots along the banks where you can find buffalo bones, mostly teeth...sticking out of the bank.

South west of us theres an old buffalo jump used by the Blackfeet. With a little digging it's easy to unearth teeth and bones.

I've read the Lewis and Clark Journals and they mention the buffalo several times but I don't recall any mention of specific numbers, or estimates.

FN in MT

 

[feralmerril]

Somewhere I have a old book, "The buffalo hunters". They have various old records etc. They claim conservably there was at least 15 million buffalo and they got shot down to several hundred at the low.

http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/redriver/images/Buffalo-Hides-lg.jpg

 

[cussedemgun]

A number of factors contributed to the eradication of the buffalo.

The buffalo were/are carriers of brucellosis. A highly infectious disease that kills domestic stock & is also transmittable to humans. To be able to populate the west, people & their stock needed to eliminate the buffalo. Centuries of exposure gave the indians & native animals a natural resistance that the new comers did not have - It was a matter of survival.

Buffalo are big & wild, they do not respect fences. The simple way to keep them out of farmer's fields & off railroad tracks was to eradicate them.

Control of the indians & the hide market stories tend to emphesize man's cruelty & greed. They make the western pioneer seem more wild & wooly. It makes for a more exciting history, when the normal population of the wilderness as mentioned above was the main reason for removal of the buffalo.

Last but not least is hunting is a fun, economical way to feed the family.

 

[Bullseye 2620]

There's > 30,000 public and privately owned wild animals in small herds scattered across the United States, and another 400,000 animals are in food production herds (where do you think all that jerky comes from?). I think the 30,000 wild figure is a mite low, based on what I know the size of Sioux-owned tribal herds in South Dakota to be.

The National Park Service estimates that the historic size of the population was 30 to 60 million. Some people put it as high as 80 million. Whatever it was, it was devastated by the construction of the railroads which fragmented the herd, the deliberate policy of the United States government to break the resistance of the Plains tribes by destroying their food source, and commercial hunting for hides.

A Yankton Sioux friend of mine celebrated his son's coming of age not too long ago by teaching the boy how to take a buffalo with a bow and arrow while mounted on a running pony, bareback. Not too many of those men left. Takes one heckuva lot more gumption to do it that way than with a .45-70 Sharps from a stationary railroad car.


Bullseye

 

[wbraswell]

When I was a little boy, I saw some bison in South Dakota, back in the '50s. They were pretty rare back then. I think that most bison now are mostly what is called woods bison, rather than plains bison. I believe the plains bison may be larger and have bigger heads. Really, a shame how they were slaughtered, but I can't imagine how the west and plains would have developed, if it hadn't happened. Railroads and fences just don't mix with millions of bison.

 

[dickttx]

Thank goodness!!!
Can you imagine rush hour in Fort Worth or Dallas with a million buffalo coming out I-30?

 

[bk43]

A number of factors contributed to the eradication of the buffalo.

Man always seems to have these great excuses to eradicate native species and has done so countless times over the years. In every case I am aware of man is wrong in the end and the world is poorer for it. Such is the case of the buffalo in my opinion.

Bob

 

[7shooter]

I drive by a small herd of commercial bison on my way to shooting matches here in MN . Buffalo meat is available in grocery stores and some restaurants. Slightly off topic, but in the 50's I went to a rodeo on the 4th of July in Mandan ,ND. They announced that after the bull riding there would be a buffalo ride. They put up additional higher and stronger fences for the buffalo. There were three young Sioux men sitting behind my brothers and I in the stands and one of them told the others that he was the one who would be riding the buffalo. They didn't believe him and made fun of him. Alcohol appeared to have been taken. It turned out he was the buffalo rider and stayed on for the full 8 seconds. Took a lot of courage.

 

[Silver77]

I'm not clear on your question, but, even today, estimations of wildlife numbers, using the best and most advanced techniques and scientific and statistical models, are, in most cases, "educated guesses" not precise counts. The guesses of 19th century bison populations were not based on any scientific or statistical protocols, just conjecture by untrained, unscientific observers, and very likely inaccurate by several orders of magnitude. These animals were not hunted primarily for food, but rather for their hides, an economic incentive that led to efficient, exploitative depredation (with way cool Sharps rifles...), and the near eradication of the species. The railroad's role in this exploitation was that of easily conveying commercial "market" hunters to the animal resource, and reciprocally, conveying their harvest to market. That we have any remaining bison is remarkable. There are huntable populations in two areas in AZ, although bison are not indigenous here. I think you would learn lots by investigating this further...

Agreed!

We have been to Yellowstone three times, the last trip was this past Sept. Each trip it seemed the Bison had increased tremendously. They go where they want when they want, lay in the road way and butt stupid humans that get to close in their ignorant knowledge of wild animals.

PBS has a well done program on the American Bison (They are not buffalo). It will probably be shown again. It covered the slaughter for commercial hides.

 

[ASA335]

Other possible factors?

A number of factors contributed to the eradication of the buffalo.

The buffalo were/are carriers of brucellosis. A highly infectious disease that kills domestic stock & is also transmittable to humans. To be able to populate the west, people & their stock needed to eliminate the buffalo. Centuries of exposure gave the indians & native animals a natural resistance that the new comers did not have - It was a matter of survival.

I'm not about to doubt that uncontrolled excessive hunting/killing had a very negative impact on bison herds, but...

To add to the above quote, I've also read that bison were susceptible to the introduction of European bovine diseases for which the bison had no immunity to – works both ways.

Compare this to the passing of the passenger pigeon. Many multimillions of them reported to have existed when the Europeans arrived here; no equivalent “need” to “eradicate” them to control the natives that bison offered, or to feed railroad workers; yet a some thousands of “hunters” using black powder single and double barreled shotguns supposedly caused the extinction of a bird that is estimated to have counted in the many tens of millions; I’ve read that recent studies suggest that an introduced European avian disease may have played a major role in the extinction of this bird. I believe that, again, uncontrolled excessive hunting/killing was a factor (likely a big one) in their extinction, but other factors (such as disease or changes in land usage) were likely at fault also.

At your service,

 

[bishopm14]

i just read "AMERICAN BUFFALO", by stephen rinella. this book was a very good read. the author studied buffalo for years,and won a raffle ticket to hunt one in alaska.

I've nothing of use to add otherwise, but I'm also in the middle of this book and it does look promising so far.

 

[41 fan]

From what I have read, the bison were hunted commercially from the 1860's until about 1885 when it no longer was profitable. After the hunt was no longer feasible, the bones were gathered from the plains to be ground up forfertilizer. While hunters were hired to provide meat to the railroad, the hides were where the money was and if a town was nearby, meat was taken to be sold. The hunting party would take the tongue and the hump for their own use. The govt endorsed the commercial hunting because it took away the food source of the plains indians.
I am not sure which weapon was the most used, but few hunters would purchase a Sharps in 45-70. Other calibers such as 40-90 and of course the "big fifty" 50-90 were often used. The Remington rolling block in various calibers was popular, many were chambered in 50-70 or 44-77.
An excellent book titled Getting A Stand by Miles Gilbert is an excellent source of information about commercial hunting. Dean

 

[kraigwy]

There are a lot of buffalo in this part of the country. Custer State Park (South Dakota) has an acution every year to thin them out. I know of one less buffalo:

That's my old Remington Rolling Block in 44-90 Sharps Bottleneck.

Now since this is a Smith & Wesson forum, I feel obligated to tell the true story about that buffalo.

I bought it at the Custer State Park Auction with the intent of turnning it loose on my little hobby ranch and hunting it. When the wife and granddaughter decided it needed food they through hay in the trailer. The sucker dern near tore my trailer apart.

I changed my mind, figured if I turned him loose, I'd be fixing fences for a while. So I parked the trailer in my roping arena and got with the taxidermist to see the best place to shoot it without ruining the head. The told me not to use the rifle, saying a pistol will do. OK dumb old me sticks my Model 28 inside the trailer and bounces a bullet off his head. Now he's really pissed. I reach for the rifle and my taxidermist tells me to draw an imagary X from the base of each horn to his eye and shoot the center of the X. That worked. Made for some good eating but next time I'm just going to take the critter live to the butcher shop.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

About how many bison do they think we have in the country now?

Just curious.
Andy

Well, somebody has three down here-I pass his pasture every day on my way to work.

 

[cussedemgun]

Commercial hide hunting was done mainly following the civil war. This was the height of the industrial revolution in the U.S. as well as Europe. Strong leather was needed for the power belts that drove industrial machines. The mill of the day had one power source (water wheel, steam engine, etc.) & usually a line shaft down the center of the factory. All machines were driven with leather flat belts off this main shaft. In part, thank the buffalo's contribution for our modern standard of living.

Smith & Wesson, Winchester, & many other manufacturing plants started by powering their machines with buffalo hide. Industry's need was very real, the poor native american was the greatest looser other than the buffalo itself.

 

[armadillo]

I once read that the introduction of wild horses in the 1500's started the decline of the buffalo. Horses out competed buffalo in part of their range and when the native-Americans learned to ride - they became more successful hunters.