Demise of the Buffalo



The demise of the buffalo started when the white settlers cant to America it would never be the same. As the buffalo herds were destroyed along with the Indians life style . The buffalo weren't all the same size and color. plains buffalo are the most common of them, but they aren't the largest. Wood buffalo found in parts of the united states and Canada was slightly bigger. Mountain buffalo in the Rockies and Pacific coast, was the smaller of the buffalo but it had more fleet than the Plains buffalo.

The slaughter was the most brutal kind in the history of civilization. In 1871 it might of been call the beginning the last decade of the buffalo. In June1874the senate and the house passed a bill for the protection of the buffalo. the enactment failed to get the presidents signature unfortunately. For the next four years the president still didn't sign the enactment. After all this the Southern heard was nothing but bones. the Northern herd was about 4 years from being extinct. the state of the people at this time is reflected in a report by the secretary of the Interior which says:

"The rapid disappearance of the game (buffalo) from there former hunting grounds must appear largely in favor of our efforts to confine the Indians to smaller areas, and compel them to abandon their nomadic customs, and establish them selves in permanent homes. So long as the game existed in abundance there was little disposition manifested to abandon the case, even though Government bounty was dispensed in great abundance, affording them ample means of support. When the game shall have disappeared, we shall be well forward if the word in hand....."

"I can not regard the rapid disappearance of the game prejudicial to our management of the Indians on the contrary as they become convinced that they can no longer rely upon the supply of the game for their support, they will turn to the more reliable source of subsistence furnished. At the agencies and endeavor to so live that supply will be regularly dispensed. A few years of cession from the chase will tend to unfit them for their former make of life, and they will be pursuits and peaceful habits."

With the expansion of Canada and the United States, the influx of the settlers and need of their organization law enforcement the Metis Nation Laws of the hunt were abolished. the low of the hunt spoke specifically about proper use and regulation of the kill, giving the buffalo some protection. the new laws were silently regarding conservation of the buffalo and therefore, a mass slaughter of the magnificent animal occurred. The building of the Continental Railways through the most populous buffalo. As did the settlers moving toward the West. The disappearance of the buffalo on the East side of the Mississippi was one result of the advance of civilization. to early settlers life in a new country. The couple of domestic animals he brought were to valuable to kill. When the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 it made it easier for the settlers to move west. The railroad made it easy access for any on to get a buffalo that wanted one and they did, they just shoot them out of the trains. Some times railroads tracks were often blocked by buffalo herds on the move. while they trains waited the settlers got out and shoot them just for the sport of it . With the newly invented Sharps rifle a hunter could kill about 40 to 60 buffalo a day. the rifle could kill a buffalo at a thousand yards away making it less dangerous for the hunters and there partners. Backed up by unlimited supply of new accurate Breach loading rifles and plenty of ammo. A wild rush of hunters came to the buffalo country.

In 1867 "Buffalo Bill" Cody entered a contract with the Kansas Pacific Railway. Then in course of construction through the Western Kansas, at a monthly salary at $500 . to deliver all the buffalo meat that would be required by laborers of the railroad. In 18 months he killed, 4,280buffalos. "Buffalo Bill" Cody was just one of a thousand buffalo hunters.

The majority of the white hunters killed the buffalo for the Tongues and hides only leaving behind the skinned carcasses to rot on the plains. Individuals killed 5 times as many animals as could be utilized, and after only cutting from them their tongues and sometimes their humps and hindquarters. The hunters stripped the carcasses and shipped the hides to market. At a time when well paying jobs were really rare and buffalo hunting was a exciting way to make a living even though it almost killed all of the buffalo. fully 4/5 of the edible parts were left behind for the wolves. it was not uncommon thing for a man to bring 2 barrels of salted tongues to trade. The bones were shipped back east to manufactory. The bulk of the bone product was made into phosphate for fertilizing purposes but mose of it was turned into carbon for use in refining of sugar. Eventually the bones of the buffalo were all that was left of them lettering the plains of many years. A brief industry was established in the last part on the 19th and early 20th century were the bones collected and sold. The gathering of the bones became a common industry as early as 1872, during which year 1,135,300 pounds were shipped over the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. In the next year the same railroad shipped 2,743,130 pounds and in 1874 it shipped 6,914,950 pounds. In 1885 a single firm shipped over 200tons of bones from Miles City. this trade continued from that time on until the bones were cleaned way back from the railways that it was no longer provided. The people who collected the bones received a form of employment for money Metis for about 20 years.

the slaughter which began in 1871 continued with accelerated vigor and enterprise in 1872. and reached its peak in 1873. some time in the 1880's the hide hunters started to notice the game getting harder to find. It had to be hard to believe that in a few short years the buffalo would be all gone. Until people were told that the animals were almost gone the few that were left were not protected.

In 1903 William Temple Hornaday was worried about the future of the buffalo. After counting all the buffalo that he could fine he estimated that fewer than 1000 had survived the mass slaughter. Mr. Hornaday was a naturalist who believe that the buffalo were on their way to extinction unless people acted quickly. He helped establish the American Bison Society and worked to educate other Americans so that they no longer killed the buffalo. In the Dakota territory, two people had saved a small heard setting aside a pasture on their ranch where the animals would be safe. We are reminded of the time when plains Indians in peace with the buffalo.

We can be thankful that people like William Hornaday and the Philips saw the future and acted on the buffalos behalf. Because of them there are buffalo numbering inn the thousands alive today. The demise of the huge buffalo herds that had once supported a way of life for the Indians and the Metis people that followed were major factories in the armed resistance of 1885in Canada. today the old buffalo trails are followed by herds of cattle in one single line just like the buffalo did. the old trails still exist when wild herds had worn down to about two feet or more.

Travis Richie 8th American History Rossville Jr. High Plains History Project 2004	Bibliography