The wild bison in Yellowstone National Park are the last major herd of buffalo, the least domesticated members of their genus left in the United States. When Yellowstone was established in 1872, an estimated 25 wild bison roamed the park, a relic of the great herds that once roamed the entire West. With protection, the Yellowstone bison herd numbers between 4000 and 6000 animals.
The decline of wild bison on the Great Plains began in the 1700s with the tribal adoption of horses by northern tribes who obtained them by trade from more southern tribes who had stolen them from the Spanish herds in New Mexico and Texas.
The romantic era of the plains Indian bison hunter, which has become the “stereotype Indian,” began at this time and lasted little more than a hundred years. This led to the regional extirpation of bison across much of the West.
The mounted hunter on a horse created a new predator for bison whose primary evolutionary predator defense was to run. Mounted horse riders could easily overcome bison. Buffalo hides became a significant source of commerce for Indian people, who used to obtain more horses and wives or trade goods like guns, ammo, metal knives, pots, and other accouterments necessary for survival.
In the past, before horses, hunting bison was haphazard. A hunter could carefully approach a herd and kill a few animals before the animals stampeded or left. Occasionally, entire herds could be driven over a cliff, but such situations were scarce.
This map shows the decline of bison. Commercial bison hunting did not start until after 1870, but by that time, bison had been reduced to a northern and southern herd, and extirpated from much of the West due to tribal hunting.
With the horse, hunters could roam further to find more distant animals, and mounted hunters could encircle a herd and kill an entire bison group. The horse also allowed for the transport of heavy hides and meat. With the horse, the Indian became a “super predator.”
Indian hunters preferably selected bison cows, the reproductive segment of the herd, for slaughter because their meat was better and their hides more valuable for all uses from tepees to trade.
By 1870, due to Indian slaughter, bison had been eradicated or were functionally extinct from Idaho, Utah, North Dakota, Manitoba, South Dakota, New Mexico, Nebraska, western Wyoming, and portions of Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and Southwest Montana.
This was before any significant white settlement of the western plains and mountains, which only began after gold and silver were discovered, starting with the California gold rush of 1849, and later in other western states like Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, after the 1860s.
After the Civil War, with the coming of the railroads westward into the last refugees of the remaining herds, bison were slaughtered without mercy by white commercial hunters along with the tribal hunters. By the 1880s, bison were functionally extinct across the West.
EXTINCTION OF WILD BISON
A few small relic herds remained, mostly on private ranches, including the small Yellowstone herd. With protection, bison numbers grew, so over 400,000 or more bison are scattered around the country on private ranches, state parks, national parks, wildlife refuges, and other public lands. However, nearly all of them are managed like domestic livestock. They are not wild.
They are fenced inside small pastures so they cannot migrate. They are regularly fed hay or other feed during drought or in harsh winters when the snow is deep. They are often inoculated against disease. They are protected from predators. Many are selectively bred. In short, there are no wild bison herds of any significant size in the lower 48 states other than those that reside in Yellowstone National Park.
I find it difficult to believe that tribal hunters are sincere when they exclaim support for wild bison. If that were the case, they would abstain from killing bison trying to move beyond the park to other public lands.
Furthermore, tribal acceptance of dead or alive bison helps the Montana Livestock Industry achieve its goal of keeping buffalo bottled up in Yellowstone National Park.
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