Many do no realize it, but due to the deerskin trade beginning in the late17th early 18th century, the same thing almost happened to the whitetail deer.
Always use as an example for native waste of resources the Gilbert site, Rains Co. Texas. Site full of French Trade goods from Natchitoches. When archaeologists began finding fully articulated whitetail skeletal remains there, piled one on top of the other. They knew they were only really utilizing the hides.
As a sidenote many southeastern tribal members in the early 19th century had never even seen a deer until they got to Oklahoma. (One of the reasons Pushmataha was ready to move there from Mississippi ! He hunted butfalo in what is now SE Oklahoma as a young man).
Yep. Elk too. They were once “plains game” and roamed the plains in huge herds. They weren’t just found in the Rockies like mostly today.
