I’ve always read that the US government waged a war on bison in order to starve out the Indian’s. Rather they did that after the herds were severely reduced due to disease from domestic cattle, overgrazing by cattle, ranchers shooting them on site, Native Americans and whites having access to horses, barbed wire fencing, more modern weapons, a rapidly growing and westward population, or railways.
I have no idea what was the main factor or factors. I’m sure that it all played a part.
Given the need for wide open spaces to graze and inability to retreat to cover in the way that elk can along with western expansion and technology it’s no surprise that there days were numbered.
