Plains Bison Essay

The great American plains bison has had a very interesting past in America and has served a various amount of purposes. The American bison played a crucial role in the native American tribe’s ways of life here in Colorado. The American Bison also made an impact not only on the settlers of Colorado but on the north American prairie. On the verge of extinction, the bison was able to repopulate with help with Americas National Parks. After sometime Colorado cultivated its own herd of genetically pure bison. In May of two thousand sixteen president Barrack Obama named the Bison the official mammal of America and in the same week a new bison was born in Colorado’s wild herd. Lott remarked “Primitive American bison population ranged from thirty million …show more content…
The bison was the life force for the native American tribes and even held ceremonies to pay respect to the bison. The native Americans would use the fat of the bison to make various items such as soap and cosmetic aids. They also would use the bison tongue as a comb because of the rough texture. The native Americans maintained a steady plains ecosystem with regulated hunting and fires that would bring fresh grass for the bison. Before horses, the Native Americans would use wolf skin to get close to the bison, then they would rush the herd towards cliffs called “buffalo jumps.” Furthermore, with the progression of horses the Natives would single out bison instead of killing the whole herd. Thanks to the repopulation of the bison however, certain Indian tribes are starting their own herds and beginning to continue their old …show more content…
Bison were somewhat of a nuisance for settlers and considering relocation was out of the question due to the nature of the homestead act. This drove the settlers to kill the bison just because they were found on their property, and many of the settlers just killed the bison for sport, often shooting them while riding across the plains on train rides. Many settlers also used the bison as a form of income, often selling their hide and making various items out of the bison carcass, usually and unfortunately, most of the bison carcass would be thrown out to waste. This environmentally wasteful and non-renewable lifestyle eventually led to laws being created to try and limit this waste of commercial bison, however, these laws were rarely enforced or regulated, causing the bison population to slowly dwindle and decline. This unregulated, sport hunting/killing also caused a serious drift in the prairie ecosystem, especially after the start of the American and Indian wars. After the wars, the Americans forced the Indians into designated areas called reservations. This forced the American Indian to change their traditional lifestyle as well as forced the Indians to give up the ritual and general hunting of the bison. This change also led to the eventual overhunting and near extinction of the bison by Americans that in turn led to this drastic change in