Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What killed the buffalo?

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Good afternoon, I trust the day goes well up there for you all.

In the early '80's I worked in a small 3 man cabinet shop owned by a Metis chap with the last name Barrett.

He'd grown up just east of your people in Qu'Appelle, I want to say maybe Wapella area?

Anyways he was maybe 15 years older than me but perhaps a bit less and told of finding a pemmican cache in a tree stump as a kid.

When I asked him what it tasted like, he replied, "Pretty much like all other pemmican I tried, which was terrible!"

I believe it was from him that I was told that the Metis didn't add berries to the pemmican they made for themselves as it didn't last as long with berries added, but the stuff sold to the fur trading companies could go either way.

That might be my remembering something mixed up too however, it was a long, long time ago that that conversation took place.

All the best.

Dwayne

Prime beef tastes better.

No it doesn't. When I'm at a restaurant that offers Bison I get Bison

Years ago I found one.

YMMV.
Bison burgers are OK. The steaks have a sweet “whang” to it that I don’t particularly care for. I’ve heard others compare it to horse meat. 😬

As far as prime US Beef, I’m betting you’ve never had a Certified Black Angus fillet that’s cooked medium rare over mesquite coals.

In more recent times we could ask the same questions about the Quebec caribou herd. I hunted NW Quebec in 2002 and 2003. Herd was estimated at 1.2 million head. We saw thousands. By 2017 the estimated herd was 200,000 or less and sport hunting stopped. Sport hunting had been taking less than 10,000 a year, native winter hunting somewhat more. I saw a place on Lac Minto where hundreds had drown and washed ashore so nature had an impact too. I believe it is never one thing but an overwhelming combination of factors. Migrating herds do so to avoid over grazing a single area. Snow geese eat the same lichen as caribou in their nesting area and their populations were expanding at the same time as the caribou. The lichen grows very slowly. I think available food became a problem and led to fewer calves and diseases.
Similar to the buffalo? Maybe. Easier to just blame climate change or hunters.

It sure ain't the Cowboys tonight!

WTF are you on???

If you’ve ever seen a buffalo on the prairie, they stick out enough to ensure their demise. Not hard to figure out.

Indians and settlers alike probably committing a good amount of wanton waste with no refrigeration and sub par tools.

Most probably just had the back straps cut out if that.

Then throw in the market hunters.

Prime beef tastes better.

Stephen Ambrose in his book “CrazyHorse and Custer” makes the case to f how prolific the Indian pony was at that same time. Those pony herds adapted well to the plains, and Ambrose says that left unchecked the ponies might have eventually pushed out the buffalo.
In “Son Of The Morning Star”, Connell tells of Crow Indians killing thousands of Buff taking only the tongue and leaving the rest for the buzzards.
Indians living in harmony with nature is white man’s hogwash. Most Indians believed that the buff would never run out, no matter how many they killed, at least up until the mid 1870’s when the herds started to dwindle. He also tells of them chopping down grove of trees to get the nuts they produced. The Indians thought it was “the fishes and the loaves” and it would never end. If the whites hadn’t taken over, maybe the Indian population would’ve kept the balance!
I have often seen the plain’s stretch for miles and wondered what would go through the mind pat seeing the buffalo in numbers only God could count! How I’d have loved to see it!
Reon

Until Columbus discovered the western continents, the Native American population was limited to what their environment could sustain. That population had reached the maximum carrying capacity of the land and animal populations there-on.

European diseases swept across the N American continent subsequent to 1500. Some estimates are the Indian populations were reduced by 80% or more by 1800. Which is to explain why Bison populations had reached an all time high by the 1800's.

Population numbers swell and ebb. Unsustainable high numbers are going to crash. It is natures way. With a little artificial help, local and global extinctions easily happen.

I use to shoot lots of pheasant's around this area now it's rare to see a nice cock,