The bison (Bison), also known as the American buffalo, once roamed the wild in vast numbers, with an estimated population of around 30 million. However, with the arrival of European settlers in the Americas, these majestic creatures faced one of the largest wildlife extermination events in history.
By 1884, the wild bison population had plummeted to just 300 individuals. One of the most famous photographs from the late 19th century captures two men standing atop a massive, pyramid-like pile of bison skulls an eerie testament to the scale of their destruction.
The bison is a massive species of cattle that once roamed in vast numbers across the grasslands and prairies stretching from Alaska in North America to the Gulf of Mexico in the far south. As the largest land mammal on the continent, it played a crucial role in the ecosystem. Indigenous peoples of the Americas relied heavily on bison for various aspects of their daily lives, using it for food, clothing, and shelter.
For Indigenous peoples, the bison was considered a priceless resource. Its meat provided essential nourishment, while its summer hide was used to craft durable tents. The thicker winter hide was ideal for making warm blankets and winter clothing. Additionally, they utilized the bones and horns to create various tools and everyday implements, ensuring that no part of the animal went to waste.
The bison once thrived in immense numbers, with an estimated wild population ranging between 30 million and 60 million. Despite this abundance, Indigenous peoples hunted bison only in quantities necessary to meet their needs, never in excess. They viewed the bison as a sacred and integral part of their culture, respecting its role in their way of life and ensuring sustainable hunting practices.
By the 1850s, Europeans had firmly established their control over the Americas and settled across the land. The United States had already declared its independence decades earlier, yet Indigenous peoples still remained. A significant number of them lived in the central and western regions of America, particularly in the Great Plains area.
Thus, they became known as the Plains Indians. However, it’s important to note that the term "Indians" is merely a reflection of European arrogance. These communities are more accurately referred to as Indigenous Peoples. When Europeans first "discovered" the Americas, they mistakenly believed they had reached India. As a result, they wrongly labeled the native inhabitants as "Indians," unaware at the time that they had actually arrived on an entirely new continent.
There was an ongoing conflict between the Plains Indians and the Europeans, as the latter sought to forcibly relocate all Indigenous peoples into small, designated villages. This would allow Europeans to seize and exploit the land, as they had done elsewhere.
At the time, the settlers were driven by what they called the American expansionist dream, believing it was their destiny to colonize the western territories. However, every attempt to invade the Great Plains was met with fierce resistance from Indigenous warriors, who inflicted heavy losses on them. The challenging terrain of the region further aided the Indigenous defenders, as only they truly understood its complexities.
The Plains Indians were highly skilled warriors and expert horsemen. On the other hand, the Americans had just emerged from a brutal Civil War, leaving them weary and unprepared for further battles. Realizing this, they devised a cunning and ruthless strategy to achieve their goals.
At the time, General William Sherman, a leading figure in the U.S. Army, proposed a devastating plan: since the Plains Indians depended on the bison for nearly every aspect of their survival, the army would exterminate the bison. By wiping out their primary food and resource supply, the Indigenous peoples would be starved into submission, forcing them to seek aid from the U.S. government and ultimately surrender.
At the time, the Indigenous peoples had little to no connection with the outside world, unlike the Americans, who could import everything they needed from Europe. This gave the U.S. Army a strategic advantage, allowing them to authorize thousands of European hunters to slaughter the bison on a massive scale.
Despite existing treaties between the U.S. Army and tribal leaders that explicitly prohibited hunters from entering Indigenous lands, the Americans, as usual, failed to honor their agreements. Instead, they allowed relentless bison hunting to continue, furthering their goal of starving the Plains Indians into submission.
Not only did the U.S. government allow the mass slaughter of bison, but they also actively protected the hunters, supplying them with weapons and ammunition to aid in their efforts. Additionally, the U.S. cavalry joined the hunters, directly participating in the extermination of the bison themselves.
When Indigenous peoples protested and human rights organizations intervened, Congress passed a law in 1874 declaring bison hunting illegal. However, President Ulysses S. Grant vetoed the decision, ensuring that the slaughter continued unchecked. This deliberate destruction of the bison population pushed the Plains Indians to the brink of starvation, forcing them to surrender to U.S. control.
President Ulysses S. Grant not only allowed bison hunting to continue but also declared it open to anyone who wished to participate. The Americans actively promoted bison hunting as a leisure activity, encouraging the public to engage in it for sport. They even invited European athletes and celebrities to travel to the U.S. and take part in the mass killing.
Thousands of bison were being slaughtered every single day. In 1876, one European hunter alone reportedly killed 5,800 bison in just two months, averaging around 100 bison per day. This relentless massacre pushed the species to the brink of extinction and devastated the Indigenous way of life.
The devastation didn’t stop there. When Americans realized that bison hides were in high demand in Europe, they began aggressively promoting the commercial value of bison leather. This fueled an even greater surge in overhunting, as hunters sought to profit from the booming leather trade.
One of the most horrific practices carried out by the hunters was skinning the bison and leaving their carcasses to rot, completely wasting the meat. Instead of utilizing it, they let it decay on the open plains. Some hunters even went a step further by poisoning the meat, ensuring that neither the Indigenous people nor the wild animals could consume it for survival.
Once the meat had fully decomposed, hunters would collect the remaining bones and skulls either as trophies to boast about their kills or to grind them into fertilizer for agricultural use. This was the period when the infamous photograph was taken, depicting massive piles of bison skulls, symbolizing the near-eradication of the species and the brutal impact on Indigenous communities.
At first, the Plains Indians could only watch in confusion as the Americans relentlessly slaughtered their most vital resource the bison. They didn’t immediately understand why the Europeans had suddenly stopped attacking them directly, as they had in the past. However, over time, the grim reality became clear.
By the time the Indigenous peoples realized what was happening, it was too late. The bison population had plummeted so drastically that there was barely anything left to hunt or eat. By the late 1880s, the number of wild bison had dropped to just 300 to 500 individuals. Some reports even suggest the number fell as low as 100, pushing the species to the brink of extinction and leaving the Plains Indians utterly devastated.
Thus, the Americans’ ruthless strategy succeeded, leading to the defeat of the Plains Indians. Deprived of their primary food source, they were left with no choice but to surrender out of sheer starvation. Forced to abandon their ancestral lands, they were relocated to restricted areas, where they were not allowed to leave.
Meanwhile, the occupiers of their land took control of food distribution, making the Indigenous peoples dependent on them for survival. Soon after, European companies moved in, seizing the land and its valuable resources. Areas once home to the Plains Indians were transformed into tourist attractions and recreational parks, erasing much of their history and way of life.
Ironically, after wiping out the Plains Indians and confining them to restricted areas, the Americans suddenly began questioning why the bison population had declined so drastically. Pretending to be concerned about animal rights, they claimed that such a loss was unacceptable and needed to be addressed just as they always do.
In response, they banned bison hunting and began arresting those who hunted the animal illegally. However, by that point, it was too late the once abundant bison had been pushed to the brink of extinction.
Fortunately, some wealthy American landowners had unknowingly preserved the species by keeping small populations of bison on their private ranches. This unintended conservation effort played a crucial role in preventing the species from disappearing entirely.
As a result, the U.S. government confiscated these privately owned bison and combined them with the few remaining wild ones, placing them in large protected reserves. For years, they were carefully bred and monitored to help restore their population.
Thanks to these efforts, the bison population gradually increased, and today, their numbers have reached approximately 500,000 individuals. However, this figure is still a mere fraction of their original population, which once ranged between 30 to 60 million before their near-extermination.