Buffalo

Although the buffalo stocks are safe now, the species was once considered all but extinct. The extermination of the buffalo occurred throughout the course of the 19th century, culminating in 10 to 15 years of intense slaughter when the animal was nearly hunted to extinction.

Buffalo, or, properly, the American bison (buffalo is the accurate name of African and Asian varieties of the species), were plentiful in North America due to several centuries of climatic change that increased the buffalo’s numbers and expanded the area that it inhabited. Historians estimate that there were once 25 million of the animals in North America. For the Plains Indians, especially the Sioux, who utilized all parts of the animal, the buffalo was sacred. Native Americans eventually traded the animal’s robe, which consisted of a buffalo’s hair attached to its hide, with early European settlers.

By the 1840s drought, overgrazing, and complications from the introduction of horses and cattle (including imported diseases) to the region began threatening native buffalo herds. A particularly devastating drought in 1867 killed many buffalo. Horses not only made hunting the animal easier but also competed with buffalo for grazing lands. The removal to the West during the 1840s of Indians who hunted the animal in the western fringes of its habitat also contributed slightly to diminished numbers there.

By 1870 there were still several million buffalo in North America. The animal became particularly threatened after new railroad service in the plains facilitated moving the meat to far-off markets and built demand for the animal. Further encroachment by white settlers continued to transform western lands into cattle farms, which diminished grazing areas for the buffalo. White settlers also hunted the animal for its meat, tongue, and robe, but since the robe was the main prize, hunters were forced to wait until winter when the robes were especially thick, which helped to replenish stocks. In 1870, however, tanners discovered that buffalo hides were useful, and hunters began shooting the animal for its hide all year, which also contributed to the animal’s quick disappearance. By 1872 more than 500,000 had been killed for only their hides.

By 1880 all the wild buffalo in the southern plains had been killed. The Sioux wars (1876-77) delayed extinction in the northern plains, but by 1879 the species was extinct in Wyoming and eastern Nebraska. The last buffalo were killed in Montana and the Dakotas in 1883.

The extermination of the buffalo destroyed the culture and economy of the Plains Indians, forcing them to settle and to turn to agriculture. Recognizing this fact, the U. S. Army encouraged the slaughter of buffalo, whose near extinction was a significant factor in subduing the Plains Indians.

Further reading: William T. Hornaday, The Extermination of the American Bison (Washington, D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1889); Mari Sandoz, The Buffalo Hunters (New York: Hastings House, 1954).

—Scott Sendrow