Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Indian Culpability in Bison Demise

That's an excellent article, thanks Salmonella.

I agree the whole "Noble Savage" thing living in harmony with the land is a crock. And the article is dead on about low population/low technology having the most influence. The advent of the horse changed a lot of things for the Indians.

When Dominguez and Escalante made their multi-cultural diversity tours up Eastern Utah and down through Western Colorado in the name of Spain, the Mountain Utes acquired the horse. Along with being the about the only Indian tribe not superstitious of the high country above timberline (which they used to their advantage) the Mt Utes kicked butt of both other Indian tribes and Spanish settlements, and lived pretty good for almost a century--until the evil White Man showed up for good and ruined the party......

The current interglacial period has probably been among the warmest, the popular Megafauna like Woolly Mammoths were in decline in the northern hemisphere even before humans set foot on this continent. Humans in some instances may have hastened the extinction of remnant populations, but climate change was the real culprit.

The last Mammoths in North America were found off the coastal islands of what is now Canada and Alaska 7000 years ago. In response to the changing climate they had shrunk to the point where they were 4-5 ft at the shoulder. Mini-Mammoths. I wonder if they would've make good pack stock for hauling out elk?

Noble savage, evil white man. Not.

It wasn't uncommon for them to light range fires to herd buffalo off of cliffs or into deep water. When the fires had done their jobs, they just kept burning until winter in some cases.

That's where the market hunters butchered bison. The elk bone piles--elk were actually killed off first--in some cases are as big as the bison bone piles. The market hunting of elk is not as well documented as bison because elk were killed for their meat and hides earlier. The bone piles are mostly found in northeastern Arkansas,, eastern Missouri and eastern Iowa. The part of the article that suggests market hunting didn't play a role in their demise ignores that evidence.

More likely the mini mammoth phenomenon was due to island restrictions. Like key deer.

Fires were not uncommon but I highly doubt the herd cliff coincidence was very common. It did happen because we have evidence, but common I doubt.

Bison can swim.

Also, the number of bison on the Great Plains was never more than 30 million, and probably more like 15-20 million. 75 years ago the number of 100 million bison was thrown out there, and became gospel for decades--and various environmental groups still intentionally use that figure It's only when the amount of biomass was estimated it was realized that no way more than 30 million bison could exist--and that is an upper limit.

The article is good, but I think in some cases it is overstating the effect Indians had on wildlife populations.

Another misconception is the assumption that every animal (in this case, Bison), regardless whether struck by arrow, spear, bullet or whatever instrument used died quickly and was soon recovered by hunters.

No telling the number of unrecovered wounded animals that didn't DRT but eventually died of their wounds and rotted away simply because there were so many that it wasn't worth the effort to track down and finish off. It was much, much easier and quicker to just kill another.

Jeebus Christo!

You been taking ques from Kamo?

Anyway, you white fuggers keep telling yourselves anything you need in order to assuage your guilt.

We (WASP - White Angelo Saxon Protestants) also had some campaigns organized by our Washington royalty to exterminate bison to weaken and disperse our native Americans. Similarly, but not intentional: When canneries ran out of salmon stock on our PNW streams, they moved to BC and Alaska and dammed, diked, and trapped entire salmon runs at the mouths of rivers with no thought of upstream villages needing the same to endure subsequent winter. Entire communities perished.

When Oregon became a state, one of the stipulations was there would be no dams in rivers supporting anadromous fish. That one sure went by the wayside. For the last 40 years I lived to spend 2 to 3 weeks angling for steelhead in our Columbia tributaries. That fishery is closed now with runs down to about 15% of historic numbers. I suspect Idaho has adopted the same regulations.

Writers describing Africa in the late 1800's painted pictures of landscapes almost completely devoid of game. Rinderpest (accompanying cattle from India) seriously ravaged all of the hoofed wildlife. Fortunately, there were some individuals with the genetics capable of weathering that storm and there was some recovery. One does not see seasonal migrations, however, that cover entire valleys and take days to pass.

As to wounded waste. Even the briefest reading of Teddy Roosevelt's outings

Given economic opportunity, I don't think there is a noble race on our planet.

You are correct it probably played a role, but mainland Mammoths were also shrinking in size, just not as small as the island variety.

Lol.....well said.

It is pretty amazing to think 7000 years ago there were mammoths still to be found in the wold.

This book has a good section on mega fauna.
https://www.amazon.com/Deer-World-Valerius-Geist/dp/0811704963

Good article OP and good post Hat. That’s about how I see it too.

That's the spirit!

Need a link/source for the OP.

Why does everyone think that all white people in the USA are descended from Angles and Saxons?

Answer me that!

Thank you, kaywoodie! I am a Celt and we don't like Saxons. We killed them as many as we could.

Because you round eye bastards all look the same.