The Great Buffalo Lie

[MARCBO]

Although this is close to a year old it is an interesting article none the less. It refutes the popular notion that it was irresponsible hunting/shooting that destroyed the great buffalo herds in the American west. Although there certainly was some waste and irresponsible shooting those things did not and could not have had the impact suggested on the buffalo. I'm glad to see this scholarly article but unfortunately the lefty's are not likely to run across it and even if they did would still cling to the "Good Indian, Bad White man" version of events. I have had several tell me how bad the buffalo hunters were wasting meat and shooting just for the hides. When I informed that the hunters did not waste anything that they could sell and in fact often sold meat when they were close enough (couple of days ride) to a market. This was all documented in sales invoices that have been preserved in various archives. Also, the lefty's seem to be totally unaware of the indian practice of chasing buffalo over cliffs at so-called "Buffalo Jumps". Needless to say there was some real waste in this practice. Anyway, thought this article may interest some of you.

SS

http://www.petersenshunting.com/2012/09/04/was-the-buffalo-nearly-hunted-to-near-extinction/

 

[Safari Hunter]

Intereting read, thanks for sharing it
Adrian

 

[EMcC]

Very interesting indeed, thanks for sharing.
It is very interesting when things like this are researched rather than just passed from mouth to mouth and taken as truth as was the tale of mass shootings by buffalo hunters for pelts alone.

 

[pheasant sniper 1]

As SH says a very interesting read.

Some of the comments underneath it just as interesting

 

[devon deer stalker]

An interesting read, so in fact it was the white man introducing cattle infected with brucellosis that killed the bison?
But Ted Turner is breeding the replacements on his ranch isn't he?
Cheers
Richard

 

[Loki]

Hi

Interesting article and good to see based on hard evidence rather than hearsay - thank you for highlighting.

L

 

[Mungo]

As with all the catastrophic population declines, there will have been a combination of variables, each one of which in isolation was probably not enough to push the population over the edge into free fall. Habitat modification, restricted migration, introduced disease, introduced competition, elevated mortality from hunting and so on. Put them all together, and the population had no chance.

The underlying and inescapable fact is that WE ultimately caused the decline. Arguing about which particular aspect of our behaviour did it is pointless. It would be much more constructive to work out how to modify our existing behaviour and land use in a way that might give the population a chance to recover. Unfortunately, it seems that what is really needed is a very large amount of space and a massive regeneration of Great Plains grassland that is more or less impossible.

 

[MARCBO]

Yes, Ted Turned has three large ranches, Vermejo, Ladder and the Armendaris) in New Mexico where he is raising bison. Some hunting is allowed and the bull I shot last December was taken on the Armendaris ranch. That ranch is about 60 miles north to south and 25-30 miles east to west. The animals are free ranging and depending on what you are hunting may take some time to find. I was after a management bull, saw a number of trophy bulls before we located the fellow I shot. They are really not hard to knock down although guides typically tell you to shoo them in the heart. I chose to follow the old buffalo hunter technique and shot it through the lungs using a 450gr soft lead bullet driven at about 1250fps at teh muzzle. Broke a rib going in, collapsed both lungs, broke a rib going out but was held inside by the hide. Found the bullet sitting in the little window it made in the far side rib.

SS

 

[greenshoots]

Needless to say there was some real waste in this practice.

no waste whats so ever been to one of these buffalo jumps and everything was used

http://history.alberta.ca/headsmashedin/

greenshoots

 

[jungle_re]

There is a fantastic large model of the setup of Headsmashedin with all the corrals etc in the Royal Alberta Museum
Well worth a look (as is the huge Irish Elk skeleton there) if you find yourself that way.

Interesting article after a peruse, book marked for letter; thank you.

​Will

 

[alberta boy]

Brucellosis is still a problem in Wood Buffalo National Park. Unfortunately, some Plains Bison were transplanted up there some years ago that were infected with it. Long story short, there are a number of wood bison now infected. Alberta Fish and Wildlife officials have been trying to control its spread by culling and so far have prevented its spread to north-western Alberta wood buffalo population. Truly wild plains bison are unfortunately a thing of the past, those huge tracts of open country are sadly gone forever. There are some well managed private ranches that will at least allow them to survive in a way as close to being wild as is possible in this day and age.

On a different note, I've been to Headsmashedin quite a few times over the years. It is an amazing piece of Alberta history and well worth a visit if you find yourself in this part of the world.

AB

 

[greenshoots]

On a different note, I've been to Headsmashedin quite a few times over the years. It is an amazing piece of Alberta history and well worth a visit if you find yourself in this part of the world.

ill second that

greenshoots

 

[MARCBO]

Of course there was waste, no one for an instant thinks the indians lined up only the animals they could deal with before pushing them over the cliff...

M.

 

[Mr. Gain]

This may interest you. The topic of bison populations is also covered in Charles C. Mann's fascinating book 1491:

When disease swept Indians from the land, this entire ecoogical ancien régime collapsed. Hernando De Soto's expedition staggered through the Southeast for four years in the early sixteenth century and saw hordes of people but apparently didn't see a single bison. (No account describes them, and it seems unlikely that chroniclers would have failed to mention sighting such an extraordinary beast.) More than a century later the French explorer La Salle canoed down the Mississippi. Where De Soto had found prosperous cities La Salle encountered "a solitude unrelieved by the faintest trace of man," wrote the nineteenth-century historian Francis Parkman. Everywhere the French encountered bison, "grazing in herds on the great prairies which then bordered the river." When Indians died, the shaggy creatures vastly extended both their range and numbers, according to Valerius Geist, a bison researcher at the University of Calgary. "The post-Columbian abundance of bison," in his view, was largely due to "Eurasian diseases that decreased [Indian] hunting." The massive, thundering herds were pathological, something that the land had not seen before and was unlikely to see again. (p.370)

 

[Dave-G]

That was a very good read, thanks for posting it up.

 

[Mungo]

That's interesting.

There's a similar line of reasoning which suggests that the perception we have of 'wild Africa' is also an artefact: the Victorian explorers were arriving in the wake of the slave trade and rinderpest, which had (probably) had catastrophic effects on human populations. The plains teeming with game may again have been a temporary anomaly in response to a recent and sudden decline in human populations.