Were Bison decimated by 1883?

[Bear Paw Jack]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190052818300087

I found this an interesting read. I never bought the buffalo were decimated by hunters and the army story.
It is a bit long but interesting and I felt worth the read.
Be interesting to hear back from the historians, veterinarians, ranchers and others here on the forum.

 

[Ray Newman]

I read and heard before that the buffalo were not exterminated by the white hunters, but other causes, such as disease as one of the non-hunting contributing factors.

However, such theories will never get any traction as the public has been indoctrinated into believing the buffalo were killed off by greedy, culturally insensitive, and racist white hunters in order to decimate and subdue the peaceful and noble Native American tribes for the sole purposes of stealing their lands and the natural resources of those lands. Just like everything else, it's all the white man's fault.

 

[powder smoke]

^^^^^^^^^^^^What he said!^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Selena]

Were the bison over-hunted? To a degree yes as the hide was in high demand for power transfer belts to power the industrial revolution. That the hunters put pressure on the herds cannot be denied, whether that pressure was great or small is subject to debate. However most of the history books (at least those printed before 1950) I've read on the subject claim the main cause were three or four major outbreaks of hoof and mouth disease. Of course those persons only had first hand accounts and not the "perception of history" we do. :roll:

 

[Ale-8(1)]

All bogus. "Everybody knows" that the government had the army kill all the buffs to force the Indians to agree to live on reservations where they would receive food. I believe it because I saw it on the 'net and "everybody knows" that's the only source of TRUTH.

:wink: :wink:

 

[Robb Barnes]

have always thought that if the estimates of herd size were correct there must have been other factors to the decimation than market hunting. But like others have stated, natural factors do not have near the emotional response as does mans avarice.

 

[BearBio]

I haven't read nor researched the article so I can't answer to that. BUT!!!!A PET PEEVE!!!! The term "decimated" means to reduce by 10 per cent ("Deci" = "ten") Comes from the old Roman practice of killing 10% of captured prisoners.

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

A very good (long) article about probable real causes of the collapse of the buffalo population in the 1870s and 1880s. It never made sense to me that meat hunters could kill 20-60 million in just a few years. Once you get more than about 20 miles from either side of the rail line, transporting the meat for profit would get difficult. Killing all the buffalo to make the plains Indians suffer only made sense in areas that still had an active campaign with the various tribes. Once the tribes were pacified or defeated, then no need to slaughter their food source, os that theory never made much sense.

Epidemic always did, much like rinderpest destroyed the cape buffalo population in southern Africa at the end of the 19th Century. Disease introduced by domestic cattle made sense, just like disease introduced by Europeans took its toll on Native Americans in North and South America.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190052818300087

 

[Achigan]

Another source(wiki), mentioned an extended drought about this time frame also. There was competition between different plains tribe aover which had the right to hunt bison as well.

 

[Rick Courtright]

I haven't read nor researched the article so I can't answer to that. BUT!!!!A PET PEEVE!!!! The term "decimated" means to reduce by 10 per cent ("Deci" = "ten") Comes from the old Roman practice of killing 10% of captured prisoners.

Hi,

Lest we should let our brains ossify:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-original-definition-of-decimate

I believe they would probably be polite and give you a nod concerning your research into its Latin roots, yet disagree heartily with you on the use of the verb today. Ya gotta be careful before trying to take a stand on "how it is" in the shifting sands of the English language.

Rick C

 

[Cracker-American]

Decimate to the last man. One of my favorites. I plead guilty to being a decimate snob. After reading Rick's link I am willing to try and change my ways. As for the buffalo, I wasn't there I just know their gone.

 

[Rook]

I sorta doubt these buffalo died from a disease.

A mountian of buffalo skulls near Ft. Sill.

Buffalo hides in Dodge City, Kansas.

A pile of bison bones along the railroad tracks in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1890. They were on their way to England to be ground and used for bone china.

 

[eveled]

I’ve read that they collected a lot of bones off the prairie that had been long dead including many dinosaur skeletons.

 

[InjunBro]

As usual there's 3 sides to every story: yours, mine & the real one. No doubt commercial hunting, mostly for skins not meat, was a huge factor in wiping out the buffalo herds. Commercial hunting is nothing like sport or subsistence hunting. Drought is always a factor but the army burning the prairie grass to cut their feed down & defeat the Indians they couldn't beat otherwise (read about Red Cloud defeating the army) was also a factor. Getting rid of buffalo made for a lucrative beef ranching business, put Indians on reservations where they could be controlled & gave jobs to soldiers. Another case of Gov't trying to manipulate everything.

 

[miniman]

theres a few hundred head at the north rim of the grand canyon.

 

[Achigan]

I sorta doubt these buffalo died from a disease.

A mountian of buffalo skulls near Ft. Sill.

Buffalo hides in Dodge City, Kansas.

A pile of bison bones along the railroad tracks in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1890. They were on their way to England to be ground and used for bone china.

In this last image the horns appear to be cattle, rather than bison.
There is a small herd in the Teddy Roosevelt National Park in ND.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Actually; Just as the Native Americans had NO resistance to the diseases brought to this country, the Bison had NO resistance to the diseases spread by Long Horn Cattle and other such herds; Thousands of Bison died thanks to cattle drives. Vast herds of dead Bison were frequently found in the plains.

 

[mistermills357]

They went somewhere, and they did it somehow, and not many are left. So something killed them, something devastated them.

And it can be two things, which jump out, they were hunted exceedingly, and disease ravaged them. But, they are gone, there are not any great herds anymore.

 

[Rook]

They went somewhere, and they did it somehow, and not many are left. So something killed them, something devastated them.

Yep, it's a real mystery alright. :lol: :lol:

 

[vito]

I don't need to read any articles or history books. I saw "Dances with Wolves" and know that this was the true story of the killing of the Buffaloes. It was the evil Indians killing these animals instead of buying their meat at the local supermarket like everyone else. That white former baseball players like Kevin Costner helped them in this effort just shares the blame a bit.

 

[Colonialgirl]

Sheridan was no genius and in my book NO hero and certainly NOT too smart about biology/ecology.

 

[mohavesam]

Truth is what we learned in the sixties.
Also learned what types of people try to re-write history.
One is a whole lot more honest than the other.

 

[bogus bill]

Somewhere I read the same as DixieBoy posted. General Sheridan I believe was the biggest single force in promoting hyde hunters to starve the Indians to submission. Also with time had he not the very same result would have happened within the next 30 years or so as the west got populated.