For centuries bison dominated the Great Plains of North America, playing a very essential part in shaping ecology. They have a curly long coat, a strong sense of smell and hearing, as well as poor eyesight. Bison are known for once being a lifeline for Native Americans, used for much of their food, shelter, and clothing. There is no other animal to cross the plains that is known more for their demise, than the North American bison.
Bison traveled to the North American plains and filled the land before people had begun to settle. Native Americans settled shortly after, and it is believed there was an estimated thirty million to sixty million bison in the 1500's. Early settlers described the Great Plains as a "black robe" due to the high quantity of bison dominating the land. Native Americans depended on bison to survive, hunting them and using them for food and clothing. They were held in very high regard and Native Americans considered bison a spiritual animal. When Native Americans hunted bison, they utilized every part of the animal so that none of the killing was in vein. The hides were used as shields, made moccasins, saddles, as well as shelter. The hair was used to stuff pillows, make robes and sturdy ropes. They also managed to use the brains, bones, and stomach lining. The brains helped to prepare the hides when constructing teepees, while the bones helped to keep the shelter sturdy. The stomach lining was used for medicinal purposes. They also used the bones to help build bows and arrows, and the hooves provided a type of glue to help hold everything together. The immigration of white settlers quickly put the bison herds in danger and soon the land turned into violent war between Whites and Indians, bison and cattle. Pioneers slowly pushed out bison to make room for their selves, and some settlers killed bison on their land to make room for their own livestock. By 1802, no bison remained in the state of Ohio. As more settlers came in, Native Americans were being challenged for land they had already claimed and a war began. By the time the Native Americans had discovered horses, which they traded with things they'd made from bison, they were able to hunt faster than before; therefore expanding their hunting range and taking down twice as many bison. When the Native Americans resisted the takeover of their lands, Andrew Jackson declared the Indian Removal Act and ordered soldiers to run them off of the land. By this time, bison were sharing their grasslands with horses, other livestock, Native Americans, and white settlers bringing in cattle diseases and grazing competition with feral horses. Due to the Native Americans fighting back for their land, soldiers began to hunt bison in order to take away their primary source of survival. Construction of the railroad divided the bison into two herds, north and south. The railroad also brought the arrival of hunters looking to make a living meeting the demands of hides in Europe. Others who hunted for sport shot bison by the dozens as the herds ran alongside the train. Some hunters were hired to kill bison in order to feed and clothe railroad workers. Buffalo Bill was a famous soldier who was hired to hunt bison to provide food and clothing for railroad workers and army posts. By his own count, he killed more than four thousand bison in less than a two year span. The demand for beef and hide escalated after the civil war, when the North began to rebuild. In 1870, an estimated two million bison were killed in the southern plains. Bison bones were used in refining sugar, making fertilizer and fine china. Germany had begun turning hide into fine leather, and an average of four and a half million bison were hunted and sold by the end of 1874, leaving only a few hundred free-ranging bison left. Homesteaders learned how profitable owning bison was and began capturing bison to establish private herds.
In 1905, the American Bison Society was formed to recreate more free-ranging herds. President Roosevelt was able to convince congress to build wildlife preserves, and homesteaders began to offer up some of their captured livestock in order to stock wildlife parks and perseverations. In 1906, less than one thousand wild and captive bison remained in North America. The parks were able to protect the bison and rebuild the population. In 1919, parks and wildlife preserves were able to estimate more than twelve thousand bison. Not all parks were able to keep the bison population up and healthy, many bison were tested and found to have brucellosis, which is a disease caused by bacteria that can be passed through infected fecal tissue. Because of the disease and its effects on captured herds, some parks chose to interbreed their bison with cattle in order to help reboot the bison population. Domesticated herds of bison, not only began to lose the wildness that was once believed to make them majestic, but also the interbreeding between bison and cattle resulted in offspring with poor reproduction and poor resistance to disease. As the offspring began to show less and less ability to reproduce, the preservation began to dwindle. Only one park was able to keep true to bison genetics and help increase the population of bison similar to their ancestors. Today, there are over two hundred thousand bison roaming North America, although some are interbred or used for commercial purposes such as hide and meat. Today, meat is the primary source for keeping the bison population numbers up. Bison are slowly losing the genetics that made them such an important part of our nation’s history by being bred with cattle. Some have become to look like a bison, with a cow’s coloring and spotting, but for the most part they still look like the same bison that traveled over to North America so long ago but shorter. Some believe that the North American bison from the earlier times actually did become extinct, although Yellowstone Park claims to have thousands of bison that are not hybrids.