Part I – Saving the Buffalo from Extinction

Part I – Saving the Buffalo from Extinction

by | May 19, 2020 | Blog

Clearly, the buffalo were headed for extinction. No one seemed to care.

The “bottleneck”—as it’s been called—drew even closer each year after the last great buffalo hunt on the Great Sioux Reservation in 1883.

The low point came in the 1890’s, or perhaps later, around the turn of the century. That was when the “safe and protected” Yellowstone Park herd, estimated at 200, was suddenly decimated by poachers seeking trophy heads.

Fewer than 25 buffalo, well hidden in remote and rugged canyons, survived that slaughter in Yellowstone Park.

The species was nearly choked off completely at that time. Even the few hundred remaining seemed destined to dwindle.

William Hornaday voiced his despair over the buffalos’ nearly-inevitable extinction in his 1889 book, “The Extermination of the American Bison.” He wrote:

“The wild buffalo is practically gone forever, and in a few more years, when the whitened bones of the last bleaching skeleton shall have been picked up and shipped East for commercial uses, nothing will remain of him save his old, well-worn trails along the water-courses, a few museum specimens, and regret for his fate.”

Hormaday despaired that ‘when the whitened bones of the last bleaching skeleton were picked up and shipped East’ the only memory of buffalo would be trails to water, regret for his fate, and a few specimens in museums. Photo National Park Service.

 

As head taxidermist at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, Hornaday worked hard to collect dead buffalo specimens. He believed it was his duty to help the nation’s most important museums show future generations how magnificent the buffalo had once been.

Difficulties in raising Buffalo

Some ranching families stepped in to save a few buffalo calves, but their efforts were scattered and uncoordinated. Likely most did not see themselves as important links in the void of trying to save an entire species.

Raising a viable herd became more and more difficult as years went by. Even if fragile young calves survived their initial crisis of bonding and grew to adulthood. Even if their saviors found adequate pasture not needed for other farming.

There was no market for buffalo. No one wanted to buy them. They were difficult to handle, and worst of all, they quickly outgrew their boundaries.

When too crowded, they simply broke through confining fences and caused havoc in the community. Angry neighbors waved pitchforks over ravaged crops.

No government program advocated their rescue. Even toward the end, no experts reached out to save the majestic buffalo.

When the owner of a small herd died or lost his land, the herd had to be disposed of—and usually quickly. The buffalo herd was multiplying fast and pasture boundaries were easily breached.

All too easily came the obvious solution—at the butcher shop. Slaughter the entire herd, when heirs could no longer handle the buffalo. End of problem.

But a few feeble glimmers of hope shown through.

Actually, there were five.

These five family groupings get the credit—and our gratitude—for establishing viable buffalo herds that grew and multiplied. They are:

1. Samuel Walking Coyote and herd purchasers Charles Allard and Michel Pablo in western Montana;

2. James McKay and neighbors in Manitoba, Canada;

3. Pete Dupree and herd purchasers, the Scotty Philips in South Dakota;

4. Charles and Molly Goodnight of Texas;

5. Buffalo Jones of Kansas.

Separately, these people brought buffalo back in significant numbers for survival—onto the western plains and grasslands where they have always thrived so well.

These were ordinary people—westerners, ranchers, even buffalo hunters—with boots on the ground. Or more specifically, in over half the cases—moccasins on the ground.

Separately, five family groups of ordinary people in their own communities captured wild calves, raised them into viable buffalo herds and brought the animals back from near extinction. Photo by Brian Miller.

 

The first three of these five family groupings had Native American roots. The last two were white ranching families.

Without them, buffalo would have gone the way of the passenger pigeon.

William Hornaday’s dire prediction could have proved true. The last whitened bones of the last bleached buffalo skeleton could have been shipped out for fertilizer.

Sam Walking Coyote’s trek over the Rocky Mountains

Samuel Walking Coyote of the Pend d’Oreille Indian Tribe in western Montana had no intention of raising buffalo—or of helping to save the species.

After all, he came from west of the Continental Divide—not the historic home of Plains buffalo.

But there he was with eight half-grown buffalo calves on the east side of the Rocky Mountains and a longing to return back home.

He wasn’t sure he’d be welcome. He knew he might already be in trouble with the Fathers at the Mission. But he hoped the calves might be viewed as a nice gift for them.

Walking Coyote lived with his Flathead wife on her reservation in western Montana.

There are several versions of Walking Coyote’s story. But as with most of the other heroes of this buffalo saga, he could neither write, nor read his own account of what happened.

In the summer of 1872 he decided to ride east across the Rocky Mountains on old Indian trails over the Continental Divide and spend the winter hunting buffalo in Montana’s

He made the trip and had a fine time hunting buffalo with Blackfeet hunters who scouted far up the Milk River close to and likely across the border into Canada.

Orphaned calves bonded with the horses and followed the Blackfeet hunters home. Photo by Chris Hull, SD Game, Fish, Parks.

 

After one hunt, eight orphaned buffalo calves came into their camp and bonded with the horses. They stayed around the rest of the winter and ate hay with the Native horses.

During this time, Sam Walking Coyote fell in love with a young Blackfeet woman from the tribe, and arranged with her family to marry, ignoring the fact he already had a Flathead wife.

Two wives were permitted in both tribes. Often it happened through necessity, as when an impoverished widow was brought into her sister’s family for protection.

But Walking Coyote knew very well that the Jesuit priests at St. Ignatius Mission would be angry to discover his second wife.

He longed to go home, and was persuaded by a friend that the buffalo calves would make a fine gift for them, as a way to make amends.

So, one pleasant spring day, after some of the snow had melted from the high trails, Walking Coyote and his new wife set off west to cross the Rocky Mountains with their little caravan, several pack horses, dried buffalo meat and the eight buffalo calves.

It was hundreds of rugged miles travelling over and up and down the Continental Divide.

The trail they followed was long and treacherous, up one steep mountain pass and down the next, alternately leading and driving their little herd, scrambling over rocks and fallen timber. They waded through icy rushing rivers and deep snow banks.

Sometimes they tied the smaller calves onto the backs of horses, when they were too tired to walk.

Grass for the livestock became scarce and there was no game to eat. Two of the calves died along the way.

At long last they came out on the west side of the mountains and made their way down onto the Flathead reservation.

A man named Que-que-sah is quoted in an interview by the 1942 W.P.A. Writers’ Project, as saying, “I was in the village St. Ignatius that day in 1873, when [Walking Coyote] rode in with his pack string. He had four buffalo calves on pack ponies. I recall that they were rather small. One, in particular, was very young and weak.”

As it turned out, the priests did not look with favor on Walking Coyote, his new wife, or even the gangly buffalo calves. They scolded him severely, and he was punished by his first wife’s tribe.

Banned from the mission, he moved his buffalo farther on down the valley. There they became pets and objects of great interest to the Native people.

“We were all greatly interested in the welfare of Samuel’s calves,” recalled Que-que-sah. “I think that every Indian on the reservation looked upon this little herd as the last connecting link with the happier past of his people. I know we all protected them, wherever they were grazing.”

The Native community grew committed to the little herd’s survival, writes Ken Zontak in “Buffalo Nation.”

Interestingly, the west side of the Continental Divide was not the natural home of Plains buffalo. Historically buffalo lived only east of the Divide and did not come across the Rockies.

But the six calves thrived there on the rich mountain grasses and multiplied.

By 1884, Sam Walking Coyote owned a herd of 13 tame buffalo.

Pride of the community: Walking Coyote’s small herd wandered unmolested on the Flathead Reservation. Photo by SDGFP.

 

“The small herd wandered about the Flathead Reservation unmolested and caused much excitement during calving time,” wrote Zontak.

“Their bison served as the pride of the community, with Sunday observers visiting after church at Saint Ignatius to view the icons of a bygone era.”

However, as the herd increased, the huge animals broke down fences and destroyed crops. They were becoming a nuisance to Sam’s neighbors.

He decided to sell them to Charles Allard and Michel Pablo, friends of his and ranchers in the valley, who were interested in raising buffalo.

The Canadian Winnipeg Tribune stated that Walking Coyote had a prospective Canadian buyer, but negotiations broke down when he named his price–$250 a head.

The Winnipeg newspaper reported, “Donald McDonald, the last man to represent the Hudson’s Bay company on United States territory, entered into negotiations to purchase that little herd of the last plains buffalo remaining alive.

“But C.A. Allard and Michel Pablo, two Montana ranchers, made a deal with Walking Coyote, at $250 a head for the animals.

“Walking Coyote insisted on having actual money. He refused to accept a cheque. Allard and Pablo were busy counting out the greenbacks into piles of $100, each of which was placed under a stone, when they saw a mink.

“Instantly, Walking Coyote and both the ranchers went after the mink, and for some minutes forgot the piles of money, to which they hurried back, to find it safe, with a lone Indian looking at it with covetous eyes,” according to the Winnipeg Tribune (Dec 22, 1922). .

Both the new partners had Native American mothers, and Pablo’s wife was Salish. They had rights to run buffalo free on Indian lands.

Pleased with their purchase of buffalo, they bought 26 more, along with 18 cattalo—half buffalo, half cattle—from Buffalo Jones of Kansas.

A healthy herd, it multiplied and by 1895 they owned 300 head of buffalo grazing them on the same free Indian Tribal ranges.

Then Allard died unexpectedly at age 43, and the herd was divided. Allard’s half went to several buyers. Some went to Yellowstone Park to begin replenishing that herd.

Michael Pablo and his Montana buffalo herd. It soon multiplied to over 300 head—and more.

 

By 1906, with his herd doubled again to 300, Pablo learned the Flathead reservation was opening to homesteaders. He’d lose his free range there. He offered to sell the whole herd to the US government for $200 per head, but Congress turned it down as too expensive.

Eventually he was able to sell his entire herd—redoubled again to over 700 head—to the Canadian government. Price: $250 each including freight by rail.

James McKay, a Canadian Métis hunter

Frequently, James McKay, also known as Tonka Jim, joined the twice-yearly Red River Métis hunts.

Living near Winnipeg, Canada, Tonka Jim McKay began his career working for the Hudson Bay fur trading company, as did his Scottish Highlander father. His mother, Margarete, was Métis.

James McKay, a Metis fur trader, became a politiician, translator and guide. On Matis buffalo hunts, worried at the scarcity of buffalo, he began saving calves.

 

He served as postmaster and clerk, managed small trading posts mostly in what are now southwestern Manitoba and southeastern Saskatchewan, and established two Hudson Bay posts in US territory.

Moving into Manitoba politics, he represented the Métis people and helped them negotiate treaties. He served Manitoba as president of the Executive Council, Speaker of the Legislative Council and Minister of Agriculture.

With his knowledge of the prairies and indigenous people, McKay also excelled as a frontier interpreter and guide. Often he wore the popular Métis attire—a hooded blue capote with pants of homemade wool, moccasins and a colorful sash.

With each buffalo hunt, McKay noted his friends were going farther west and south into Montana with their Red River Carts to find buffalo herds.

Tonka Jim McKay enjoyed wearing the popular Metis garb: Hudson Bay coat with hood attached, tied at waist with colorful sash. Voyageur Capote Coat with Nancy Gouliquer, Manitobamuseum.ca.

 

With the massive kills of their large Métis parties, the Plains buffalo were quickly disappearing from Canada, as well as the northern states.

At the same time the constant hunting pressure pushed the Wood Buffalo farther and farther north in Canada.

McKay became alarmed at the scarcity of buffalo. On an 1873 Métis hunt he captured three calves with the help of friends and the next year, another three, bonding them with nurse cows on his Deer Lodge ranch some 28 miles west of Winnipeg.

He purchased a few more calves from Native hunters who went west to hunt and returned through Winnipeg.

In about 1877 McKay sold five calves to Colonel Sam Bedson, a penitentiary warden, for $1,000. Bedson’s buffalo thrived. By1888 he owned nearly 80 full-breed buffalo and 13 half-breeds.

Exhibition herd in paddock at Banff National Park, Alberta.

 

Unfortunately, in 1879, just as his buffalo herd was gaining some natural increase, Tonka Jim McKay died at the age of 51.

After his death some of McKay’s buffalo went to the Canadian government. Others went to another neighbor who then donated all of his 13 buffalo to Rocky Mountain Park in Banff for a special exhibition herd.

Charles and Molly Goodnight in Texas panhandle

When Charles Goodnight was 11, he moved to Texas from Illinois with his parents—who got caught up in the ‘Texas Fever’ of the 1840’s.

He fit right in, growing up on the new frontier, and took on several ranching positions before settling down as a rancher himself.

One of these jobs was trailing Texas cattle north to market. With drover Oliver Loving, he became well-known for blazing the Goodnight Loving Trail to the railroads in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The trail proved a success. Over the years hundreds of thousands of cattle were driven up the Goodnight Loving Trail from the Southern Plains to Cheyenne and then shipped by rail to eastern markets.

Charles Goodnight, a prominent cattleman of the Texas Panhandle, “approached greatness more nearly than any other cowman of history,” according to writer J. Frank Dobie.

 

Goodnight also killed his share of the wild buffalo that covered the Texas plains and competed with cattle for grass.

One day while buffalo hunting, he discovered that very young buffalo calves tired quickly and dropped behind when the herd stampeded. He decided to capture some of them.

“The first time I went out to get buffalo calves, I moved them up a little until three of the calves fell behind. I cut them off and they followed the horse home and into the corrals,” he recalled years later. “When night came I roped them and put them to their foster mothers, Texas cows.”

A few days later he cut out two more in the same way, but thought he needed one more.

“I wanted six, so I went out again and found one calf about twenty-four hours old. I scared the cow off some distance, and put the calf on my horse. But the cow returned and attacked me so viciously that I had to kill her to save my horse. I felt badly over it then, and the older I get, the worse I feel about having to kill that cow.”

Goodnight mothered up the six calves with range cows, and when they were eating well he left them with a friend, who agreed to care for them on shares for half the profits.

But when he returned, he was disappointed to find the friend “got tired of the business and sold out, and never even gave me my part of the money.”

In 1870, Goodnight married Mary Ann ‘Molly’ Dyer, a teacher from a small town west of Fort Worth, and began building up his own ranch in the new country of the Texas Panhandle.

Goodnight credited his wife Molly for renewing his interest in raising buffalo calves.

 

Molly realized the buffalo were fast disappearing and urged her husband to help save them.

He gave his wife credit for renewing his interest in raising buffalo.

“In the spring of 1879—to be exact, May 15th—at my wife’s request, I started out to look for some young buffalo. At last I found a few younger ones in Palo Duro canyon, and roped them from horseback.

“The month following, W.W. Dyer, my wife’s brother, caught two young females. From this start we have now a herd of 45 purebred buffaloes”

By then Goodnight owned many cattle and claimed 60,000 acres of pasture. He set aside 600 acres for a fenced buffalo park.

Together Charles and Molly Goodnight continued building up the first Texas Panhandle ranch, the JA Ranch, in the Palo Duro Canyon of the Texas Panhandle.

There they lived “the good life” in a Victorian-style home, and Mollie cooked for and entertained heads of state, hungry cattlemen and cowboys, as well as the Comanche leader Quanah Parker.

Mollie Goodnight taught children in the bunkhouse. The cowboys slept there at night, and she moved their things aside for school during the day. The house had electricity and sheltered hundreds of ranch workers and cowboys over the years.

Molly Goodnight was known as compassionate, one of the few women living in the Texas Panhandle. She is given much credit for saving the original southern buffalo in their purest form.

At one point the Goodnights obtained two buffalo—a yearling and a two-year-old—from Colonel B.B. Groom’s ranch and sent two cowboys to pick them up.

Palo Duro Canyon of the Texas Panhandle, where the Goodnight buffalo herd hid out for years.

One of the cowboys, Mitch Bell, “goodhearted veteran of the Palo Duro,” recalled that they took a camping outfit, wagon and horse feed, since they would be out three nights.

Tied to the wagon was Old Blue, a ranch steer.

Bell said they roped and dragged the two buffalo up and necked them tight to Old Blue.

“Then we turned Old Blue loose, and he was the maddest steer I ever saw. He jerked the little one down, drug him a long-ways, and I thought was going to kill him, sure. But finally he got up, on the same side with the other buffalo, and he stayed there all the way back to the ranch.”

A pair of Goodnight bulls with authentic southern genes. Caprock Bison Release, Earl Nottingham.

Goodnight began experimenting with cross breeding in 1884, crossing buffalo with Polled Angus and Galloway cattle, and developed a herd of sixty cross-breds he called cattalo.

Their buffalo herd continued to increase and by 1910 was reported as totaling 125. On January 1, 1914, the total was 164, of which 35 were bulls, 107 were cows, and 22 were calves. The highest number the Goodnights reported was about 250 head.

The Goodnights donated and sold buffalo directly from their herd to Canada, Germany, Nevada, New Hampshire, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Montana, New Mexico and New York. The genetics of the few remaining buffalo were becoming quite mixed.

Many of their donations to zoos and parks helped to start new buffalo herds.

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Next: Part II-Saving the Buffalo from Extinction
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Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Buffalo Stampede

Buffalo Stampede

by | May 12, 2020 | Stories

Many buffalo stampedes were described by hunters, soldiers and early settlers on the plains and prairies. They regarded stampedes as spectacular and grand, but “awful in its results,” according to David A. Dary in The Buffalo Book.

It took little provocation at times to get a stampede started—the yipping of a prairie dog, the cry of a wolf or coyote, a flash of lightening, or a clap of thunder could set it off.

Sometimes it took only one buffalo snorting and starting to run on its own, for others to join him in a chain reaction. In seconds a peaceful herd of grazing buffalo could become a charging mass that ran hard for ten or twenty miles.

Once running, the buffalo herd trampled everything in their path, including other buffalo too slow to keep ahead of the mass. They could not be turned. Or they would turn abruptly at some obstruction.

This drawing depicts Theodore Roosevelt’s account of a Texas hunt in 1877 by his brother Elliot and his cousin John, who were caught on the Staked Plains by a buffalo stampede. Their only chance was to split the herd, which they did by shooting continuously into the charging mass. Drawing by Frederic Remington.

In April 1846 George Andrew Gordon was out hunting with four friends on the plains of northwestern Texas.

Gordon became separated from the others and in trying to find them, he lost all but one of his rifle bullets. To see better, he began to ride his horse to the top of a nearby hill.

Suddenly he heard a low murmuring sound “as of the wind in the tops of pine trees.”

The sound increased, became a deafening roar. The ground shook and he said his horse shook with fear. But the only place of safety seemed to be a small grove of trees at the top of the hill.

 A moment later he saw the buffalo coming and kicked his horse into a gallop.

 The trees were about a foot in diameter and free of undergrowth. Only one tree had branches low enough for him to reach.

 Gordon stood up in the saddle and grabbed a branch, pulling himself and his heavy rifle up into the tree.

 The rushing buffalo were almost upon him, when they apparently heard or smelled his terrified horse, and tried to turn or stop, but slid and fell in a heap.

 “In the twinkling of an eye,” he recalled later, “they were overwhelmed by the pressure behind. I have never seen two railroad trains come together, but one who has seen the cars piled up after a wreck can imagine how the buffalo were heaped up in an immense pile by the pressure from behind.”

The buffalo in the rear kept coming at a gallop, but as they reached the heap of trampled and dying buffalo just in front of the horse and man, they dodged to one side or the other.

He watched from his perch on the tree, while his horse stood there against the tree shaking with fear.

“I could now enjoy a spectacle which I fancied neither white man nor Indian had ever before seen. The front rank as they passed was as straight as a regiment of soldiers on dress parade. The regularity of their movements was admirable.

“It appeared as though they had been trained to keep step. If one had slackened in the least his speed, he would have been run over.”

 It took nearly an hour of “alternate terror and pleasure,” as Gordon described it, for the entire herd to pass out of the small grove of trees, as he clung tightly to his branch.

 He sat there a few minutes after they’d gone, wondering if he’d had a bad dream. Then he climbed down from the tree and took up the reins of his horse, which was still standing there shaking.

 (David A. Dary, The Buffalo Book: The Full Saga of the American Animal, 1974. Swallow Press.)

 

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Social Behavior: A Tale Too Marvelous to Go Untold

by | May 12, 2020 | Blog

Buffalo are social creatures. They like living together in herds.

But not just any herd. Their own herd. The one in which they know everyone else intimately. Usually they are relatives.

Cows with young calves, still red-gold hair. Buffalo like living in herds of animals that they know. Photo by F.Berg

And not too large a herd—30 to 60 seems a good size.

Except sometimes it’s the “bigger the better.” That happens in late July and August when historically the great herds came together for breeding season.

Professor Dale F. Lott writes that the relationships between bulls and cows become especially intense at that time. But that, however, the intensity is shifting and short-lived.

In his book American Bison: A Natural History, he describes the buffalo’s social behavior as “too marvelous a tale to go untold. The most complex relationships play out.”

It’s true. Who knew those sometimes sleepy-looking animals have such complexity and intensity in their relationships?

Maternal Herds—an older Grandmother Leads

For most of the year, the buffalo sort themselves into “cow groups” or maternal herds and “bull groups.”

The Vasquez de Coronado expedition exploring Texas in 1543 reported their surprise in seeing “innumerable herds of bulls without a single cow, and other herds of cows without bulls.” Kansas Historical Society.

The Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado travelled across the southwest as far north as Kansas following buffalo and Indian trails searching for gold. His great expedition of 300 soldiers and some 1,000 Indians often shot buffalo for food, but found no riches.

A soldier along on the expedition wrote of the buffalo they encountered in Texas in 1543, “We were much surprised at sometimes meeting innumerable herds of bulls without a single cow—and other herds of cows without bulls.”

Maternal herds include buffalo cows and calves and young bulls up to 2 or 3 years of age.

Cows and calves and young bulls live together in maternal herds. NPS.

An older grandmother is the usual leader of the herd. She leads them to water at the time that seems right to her.

When she bosses the others around and disciplines those who need it, that’s considered okay. It’s her job. They give her due respect, knowing she’s earned it.

Then there are the simpler, more lasting relationships between cows in a herd. Often they are related to each other. Mothers and sisters and aunts.

When they need help, a sister might come to help.

Cows are fiercely protective of their caves—and calves have a special relationship with their mothers. But once separated, that bond may be broken and the mother not return to her calf.

Mothers fiercely protect their calves. Photo by Chris Hull, SD Game, Fish and Parks.

Heifer calves stay long-term with their mother’s herd.

Bachelor Herds of Young Bulls

Bull calves are only allowed to stay in the herd with their mothers until they become too large and aggressive.

Then they are kicked out of the maternal herd to join bachelor groups that wander at some distance from the main herd.

In the wild herds of long ago, with roughly equal numbers of males and females, bachelor herds were known to be large.

Today in managed herds, young bulls are usually sold off long before they reach age three. They sell well in the market place, either as potential herd bulls or when slaughtered for meat.

In Indian tribal herds young bulls are especially desirable to provide meat for naming feasts and community gatherings. By giving of their meat, they honor the person celebrated, especially when the honored one is a young man.

 

 

 

Young bulls are usually sold to avoid over-grazing of pastures.

This prevents buffalo herds from out-growing their land base. Otherwise the herd will double and redouble in a few years, soon over-grazing their pastures.

Having fewer bulls means less fighting, and makes breeding easier for the dominant bulls.

Older bulls wander farther away from herd, sometimes in tandem with another old bull. Photo by Vince Gunn.

The oldest bulls likely wander farther away. Maybe they lost too many battles and were chased way by dominant bulls.

Sometimes a lone older bull moves in tandem with another old bull, staying a quarter mile or so distant from each other. Other times each may be totally alone.

An older bull often ranges far from his home herd. Yellowstone Park, NPS.

Noble fathers Defend

For most of the year, except during breeding season, the big bulls are often found at some distance from the herd. Nevertheless, they stay watchful.

Buffalo bulls are born with a strong sense of responsibility.

They keep an eye on predators—such as the wolf packs of former days that followed the herds.

Lewis and Clark wrote about the buffalo herds “and their shepherds, the wolves.” While the wolves did not usually attack healthy buffalo, they often killed a lone injured buffalo hanging off to the side.

The bulls paid little attention to the wolves unless they were threatening the herd.

Then the “noble fathers,” as they’ve been called, moved quickly to protect mothers and calves.

I saw those “noble fathers” in action once myself. Our kids were teenagers then and with friends, we were riding horseback in the North Unit of Teddy Roosevelt Park.

We were about 15 riders, talking and laughing—so we probably looked like trouble as we came trotting over a hill.

There below us in a broad valley, a herd of about 60 buffalo were spread out grazing. They looked up and started to run, alarmed by our sudden appearance.

We pulled in our horses and paused to watch.

They didn’t run far. The big bulls stopped in an open area and formed a tight circle facing us, shaking their massive heads. Cows and calves took to the inside behind them.

Here’s how Colonel R.I. Dodge, described the behavior of bulls reacting like this in his 19th century book, Plains of the Great West.

“The bulls with heads erect, tails cocked in air, nostrils expanded and eyes that seem to flash fire, walk uneasily to and fro, menacing the intruder by pawing the earth and tossing their huge heads.”

Our modern-day buffalo bulls reacted in just that way—flashing fire, pawing the earth, shaking their heads in fury. Plainly, they were in a defensive mode that they all understood—the bulls ready and eager to take us on. The calves well-hidden and protected.

We understood them, too. It was clear they intended to fight if needed.

As we paused to watch, we were delighted to think that—for over 100 years, this very herd had lived safely inside a national park, without any large enemies to fear. No wolves nor grizzly bears nor hunters.

Yet these “noble fathers” stood ready to fight us off and protect with their lives the young calves and their mothers, just as their ancestors did long ago when real enemies threatened. No hungry wolves would have broken through their defenses that day!

We skirted far around and let the bulls think they had stood off our attack.

In an unusual rescue of long ago, a Blackfeet Indian reported seeing a young buffalo bull charge a grizzly bear that had attacked a heifer.

The grizzly was lying in wait, hidden by a trail near a creek when a small bunch of buffalo trailed down to drink. Led by a young heifer, they walked down the bank in single file.

As the heifer passed under the clay shelf where the grizzly hid, he reached down with huge front paws and caught her around the neck, then leaped on her back.

With a loud snort, she struggled to escape.

Suddenly a “splendid young buffalo bull” came rushing down the trail and charged the bear, knocking him down.

They fought fiercely. The grizzly tried to grab the bull by the head and shoulders, but could not hold him.

The bull slashed furiously with his heavy horns.

Blood gushing from mortal wounds, the bear tried to escape, but the bull would not let him go. He kept up the attack until he had killed the bear.

Even then he continued to gore and toss the bear’s carcass off the ground. He seemed insane with rage.

The Blackfoot hunter—who was also hiding near the trail—was much afraid he’d be discovered and attacked too. Finally, to his relief, the bull dropped the carcass and went off to join his band.

Ernest Thompson Seton, a Canadian writer, reported in Lives of Game Animals that “when calving, a buffalo cow can fight off one or two wolves. But if more attack, she calls for help.

“Her loud angry snort will quickly bring the bulls to her aid.”

When hunting, Native hunters preferred to kill cows and young bulls, for better, more tender meat than they’d get from the tough older bulls. But first they had to get past the big bulls that protected the outside of the herd.

A white hunter who joined the annual Miami hunt in Kansas in August 1854 explained how the Miami Natives reached the animals they wanted.

Big bulls took to the outside of herd when attacked, protecting cows and calves in center. CM Russell.

“They shoot down several bulls. As a gap in the line is thus made, they dash their ponies through the breach, conforming speed and direction to that of the herd.

“Gradually working toward the center, they find the cows, calves and two-year-olds, thus securing the finest robes and choicest meats.

“When their revolvers are empty, for only revolvers and bows and arrows can safely be used in this mode of killing, they worm their way out of the herd in the same manner as they entered.”

In blizzards and fierce storms, too, observers say, the large bulls form a triangle facing into the wind and shield cows and calves from wintery blasts.

Breeding Season: When big Herds Come Together

During rut, the late July and August breeding season, when large herds came together—and still do in places with large herds like Yellowstone Park—the buffalo relationships “embrace attraction, rejection, acceptance, competition and cooperation within and between the sexes,” according to Professor Lott.

At National Parks, larger herds come together during breeding season in late July and August. Badlands National Park, SD, photo by Stephen Pedersen.

Lott writes that these relationships, though intense, are short-lived.

As young boy Lott grew up in sight of buffalo every day on the National Bison Range in Montana. He was born there in 1933—the same year as White Medicine, the most famous white buffalo of all time, who lived there all his 26 years.

He was very familiar with what he called the buffalos’ “social behavior, too marvelous a tale to go untold.”

Lott describes the chaos of breeding season. In rut, he says, the major dominant bull seeks out a cow that is nearly ready to breed, and “tends” her for a day or two, staying close and chasing other bulls away.

After she is bred, he finds another cow. If a rival bull is tending that cow, the dominant bull chases him off if he can, and takes over.

If he can’t, but persists, they fight until the battle is settled.

Two big bulls will fight furiously, slamming heads, battling for dominance. But most of their interactions are peaceful, as all know their rank order and tend to accept it.

The weaker, more submissive bulls give up easily and wander away. They know they can’t win—maybe they’ve battled that tough bull before.

The winner recognizes the other’s surrender and without wasting any more energy, lets him go.

Pecking order sets Buffalo Rules

Every buffalo knows where he or she stands in the herd’s ranking order. Each defers to those with higher ranking, and takes advantage of those with lower rank, pushing them away from what are deemed the tastiest grasses.

Each animal knows where he or she stands in the herd’s pecking order. Photo by Mana2580.

It’s called the “pecking order,” enforced by all. Each individual has a strong sense of where he or she stands in the herd, and accepts and respects that pecking order.

Regardless of how they are related, each of the females is in a dominant or submissive position to each of the others. A calf ranks with its mother.

In field research for his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin, Tom McHugh spent three months studying the ranking or “pecking” order of 16 buffalo in a Jackson Hole Wildlife Park near Yellowstone.

McHugh identified each buffalo, naming them by their horns (“Ring,” “Straight,” “Uneven”), their hides (“White Hump,” “Dark Hump,” “Scar”) or facial features (“Thin”). He got to know each individual and gave each a name and number—with a dab of paint when necessary, especially for the yearlings and 2-year-olds, which were harder to distinguish from each other.

When all were clearly identified and he could tell them apart, McHugh began charting their interactions.

Lacking sufficient grazing that winter, the buffalo were fed hay. As the hay wagon dropped its load each morning, the rankings were clearly revealed.

The main dominant bull strode to the first pile of hay, pushing all others away, shaking his head threateningly. The others moved off with scant protest to another pile—where they jostled the more submissive ones there.

Before long that first bull saw a newer, better pile of hay, and moved aggressively to claim it.

Three cows, already eating there stepped away quickly, jostling each other for position at the next best hay pile.

After a short time, the dominant bull moved on to a pile of hay he perceived as better, again chasing away subordinates. Usually he was treated respectfully—the more submissive ones simply moved away.

Big bulls eat their fill before allowing others to reach tasty hay. Photo by F Berg.

Typically, he ate there only a short time before moving again and displacing other buffalo—who displaced and jostled others and moved down one pile or more.

Meanwhile the 2nd and 3rd ranked animals moved up behind Number 1, displacing those of lower rank.

And so it went, from one pile to the next—the bigger, more aggressive buffalo displacing lower levels. However, they invariably showed submissive behavior to those of higher rank.

McHugh reported that Bull 6 dominated Bull 5, who dominated White Hump, who dominated Scar and all the way down the line to Yearling Heifer1B, the lowest-ranking animal of all.

Unfortunately for her, Yearling Heifer1B was subjected to head butts and horn prodding from all the other buffalo. She dared not retaliate against any of them.

Satisfied that he had discovered the truth of hierarchy for his book, “The Time of the Buffalo,” McHugh concluded: “Research showed that, far from being an arbitrary collection of similar animals, this society of buffalo was organized into a complex and discernible order of rank!”

McHugh also reported that rankings were disrupted with the birth of new calves, or when a new individual joined the herd, or young bulls began to assert themselves over previously dominant cows.

Rankings are disrupted when new individual joins the herd or young bulls begin to assert themselves. Photo by Richard Lee.

With such interruptions, a new hierarchy took over. Then, after things settled down again, each individual quietly accepted the new rankings.

Indeed, as Lott attests, such buffalo herd relationships are “too marvelous a tale to go untold.”

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Coming next: Saving the Buffalo from Extinction.”

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Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

NBA Summer Conference postponed

NBA Summer Conference postponed

by | May 11, 2020 | News Articles

The National Bison Association has announced that due to the COVID-19 outbreak the Annual 2020 Summer Conference planned for June 21-23 in Little America, Wyoming, is postponed. The Rocky Mountain Bison Association, slated to be regional hosts, has agreed to host the 2021 Summer conference instead.

The NBA executive committee, which recently met with a conference call and unanimously voted to postpone the event, is now planning to sponsor a virtual bison learning seminar in lieu of the conference. Details to be announced. The leadership thanks NBA members for understanding and wishes everyone good health and safety in these difficult times. For more information, visit bisoncentral.com, or contact jim@bisoncentral.ccsend.com, National Bison Association, 8690 Wolff Court #200, Westminster, CO 80031.

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Buffalo vs Bison– What Shall We Call Them?

by | May 5, 2020 | Blog

Magnificent monarch of the Plains surveys his lush grassy range in the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. National Park Service.

What shall we call this magnificent monarch of the Plains—buffalo or bison?

Some people are adamant: the term buffalo correctly refers only to water buffalo in South Asia and Cape buffalo in Africa. We are simply wrong, misinformed, or ignorant to even think of calling the American bison—Buffalo.

Amy Tikkanen, writing in the Encyclopedia Britannica lays it all out. In her world it comes down to “Home, Hump and Horns.” Bison have one set, and buffalo the other.

But not so fast.

Many people who know the science simply prefer the term buffalo. I think most of us in the west—where the buffalo still roam in rather large numbers—do prefer it.

It rolls off the tongue in a friendlier way.

Yes, in scientific usage we agree, it is bison—as is bovine, equine and canine.

My husband Bert, a veterinarian, often used those terms when explaining treatments.

But do we call the cow, horse or dog those scientific names—bovine, equine and canine—in everyday talk?

One happy dog—or is he a friendly canine? Photo by Eric Ward.

Of course not. We don’t even think of them, our beloved friends, that way, do we?

Historic use of Buffalo in America

The word Buffalo actually came from early French fur traders and trappers who called the animals les boeufs, a Greek word for “the beeves” meaning oxen or bullocks.

In that context both names, bison and buffalo, have a similar meaning.

Buffalo has a long history of being used in North America, dating from 1625 when first recorded—even before bison was first documented, in 1774.

Buffalo even has a verb form—to buffalo, meaning to overawe or bewilder.

Here in the west we are well aware that a number of our other species were misnamed by early visitors.

Like buffalo, these early names often stuck, and have become generally accepted into our language, even though they may not derive from their proper scientific origins.

A herd of antelope mingles with the buffalo on this range. SD Tourism.

For instance, our antelope is really a pronghorn. An American jackrabbit is a hare, not a rabbit.

Our elk is really a wapiti, while our moose is the same as the European elk. And American caribou are identical to domesticated reindeer in Europe and Siberia

But that’s okay—we like it this way.

The American Bison Association has made attempts to persuade buffalo ranchers to call their livestock bison. It does seem to work well when ranchers sell meat.

Maybe we all need a bit of distance for that.

That’s not the issue.

Otherwise, calling them Bison seems to put these magnificent, iconic animals out there at some distance. There’s no heart in it.

In contrast, Buffalo seems a good, solid, friendly yet respectful name, with no formality separating us from these majestic animals.

You can put some love into it if you choose.

“Give me a home where the Buff-a-low roam, where the deer and the antelope play.”

“Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,” a song for all ages. Photo by Akshar Dave.

“Buffalo gals gonna come out tonite–come out tonite–and dance by the light of the moon!”

Can’t do that with Bison.

That’s not really the issue, though.

Confusion of ‘Home, Hump and Horns?’

I think we can all agree that the Encyclopedia Britannica item as written by Amy Tikkanen, sets the argument out scientifically and clearly. No wiggle room there.

“It’s easy to understand why people confuse bison and buffalo,” Tikkanen writes. “Both are large, horned, oxlike animals of the Bovidae family. There are two kinds of bison, the American bison and the European bison, and two forms of buffalo, water buffalo and Cape buffalo.

Water Buffalo live in South Asia. They tend to have large horns—with wide graceful curves—no hump. Photo by Lewie Embling.

“However, it’s not difficult to distinguish between them, especially if you focus on the three H’s: home, hump, and horns.

“Contrary to the song ‘Home on the Range,’ buffalo do not roam in the American West. Instead, they are indigenous to South Asia (water buffalo) and Africa (Cape buffalo), while bison are found in North America and parts of Europe.

“Another major difference is the presence of a hump. Bison have one at the shoulders while buffalo don’t. The hump allows the bison’s head to function as a plow, sweeping away drifts of snow in the winter.

“The next telltale sign concerns the horns. Buffalo tend to have large horns—some have reached more than 6 feet (1.8 meters)—with very pronounced arcs. The horns of bison, however, are much shorter and sharper.

“Despite being a misnomer—one often attributed to confused explorers—buffalo remains commonly used when referring to American bison, thus adding to the confusion.”

Of course, Britannica is British, lecturing us a bit on our use of the English language. That’s okay, we can take it.

Confusion is not really the issue either. Neither is science—we understand and accept that.

The thing is, we just like the buffalo. And we like to call them that. It fits.

A ‘Harmless Custom’

William T. Hornaday, that great historian of the species, was good-humored about it. He called the animals, Bison in his own writings. Nevertheless, he wrote in 1889:

“The fact that more than 60 million people in this country unite in calling him a buffalo, and know him by no other name, renders it quite unnecessary to apologize for following a harmless custom which has now become so universal—that all the naturalists in the world could not change it if they would!”

Yellowstone Park buffalo graze contentedly on Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux reservation in northeastern Montana. Photo by F. Berg.

Professor Dale F Lott, University of California scientis, puts it even better, I think. He’s not confused about anything– most especially his beloved buffalo!

 Born on Montana’s National Bison Range, where his grandfather was Superintendent, he grew up seeing buffalo on the hills every day. His father, from a nearby ranch, worked on the Bison Range—and had married the boss’s daughter.

Professor Lott, who in my opinion surely loved and understood the buffalo as much, if not more, than any other scientist who wrote of them, explains why he uses both terms interchangeably.

 “I’ve given a lot of thought to whether I should call my protagonist bison or buffalo,” he explains in the preface to his book: American Bison: A Natural History.

 “I decided to use both names.

 “My scientist side is drawn to bison. It is scientifically correct and places the animal precisely among the world’s mammals.

“Yet the side of me that grew up American is drawn to buffalo—the name by which most Americans have long known it.

Buffalo honors its long, intense and dramatic relationship with the peoples of North America.”

Lott leaves the discussion there. Enough said.

Ervin Carlson, former Director of the Blackfeet Buffalo Program on the Blackfeet reservation in Northwestern Montana, and past President of the Intertribal Buffalo Council, has put some thought into this issue, too.

He says his people do not call thes animals Bison.

“We think of Bison as a white man’s term.

Ervin Carlson, former president of the InterTribal Buffalo Council, which assists tribes in returning buffalo to Indian country, surveys a new herd released on Cherokee Tribal land in northeast Oklahoma on Oct. 9, 2014. The buffalo were brought from South Dakota by cattle truck. Photo by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman.

“They were everything to us—we survived on them.”

And when the buffalo suddenly vanished, many of the Blackfeet people starved to death. Of course, they have the right to call these beautiful creatures Buffalo!

No less an authority than the National Geographic Magazine, which has published many buffalo articles over the years, has declared the terms Bison and Buffalo interchangeable.

National Geographic in its Feb 2020 issue–on the controversy of the American Prairie Reserve land purchases in central Montana—declares the terms Buffalo and Bison interchangeable. Photo by F. Berg.

In a recent article on the western lands buffalo controversy, National Geographic stated flatly, “Historians estimate there were tens of millions of bison—the term is interchangeable with buffalo—when Lewis and fellow explorer William Clark traversed the northern plains.” (Feb.2020, p75)

Buffalo is defined in that magazine’s Style Manual as, “Singular and plural. Acceptable synonym for bison, which is the scientifically correct designation.”

Apparently, this means that it got the green light from the style committee, which had given it a close review.

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary accepts three categories of “buffalo.” Screenshot.)

Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary also accepts both terms, and in one definition defines buffalo as “any of a genus (Bison) of bovids: especially: a large shaggy-maned North American bovid (B. bison) that has short horns and heavy forequarters with a large muscular hump.”

It also defines the term as “the flesh of the buffalo used as food.”Native Americans often prefer to use buffalo names in their own languages when talking with each other, such as the Lakota terms, Tatanka and Pte.

Other people play with the pronunciation a bit.

Fans of the North Dakota State University Bison football team, winner of 16 national championships and having won its past 36 games, the longest streak in FCS history, have their own style of cheering—roaring—with a “Z” sound.

That ”Z” chant resounds throughout football stadiums across the land—as in “Go Bizon.”

These fans even have their own curled 2-finger salute that goes with the chant to denote the precisely curved horns of a prized bison head.

‘Buffalo Honors a Long, Intense Relationship’

So, when it all shakes out, what should we call them? These majestic, magnificent creatures of the Plains and Prairies?

My answer is this—a consensus of those I call experts:

Curled 2-finger salute of North Dakota State Bison fans denotes curved horns of prized bison head. Photo by Mike Stone, OregonLive.

Call them whatever you like, the term with which you are most comfortable—or use both interchangeably.

Maybe Buffalo when you’re with friends—or Bison.

Bison when you’re with scientists—or Buffalo.

Whichever feels right to you. But as Hornaday suggests, don’t apologize.

It’s a mistake for Americans to think we “should” call our own Greatest Mammal whatever others tell us we should.

We can say, cheerfully, with a smile, no trace of rancor, “No, I don’t think so.”

To many of us, they are simply buffalo.

Buffalo honors the “long, intense and dramatic relationship” these iconic animals have with North Americans. SD Tourism

This is the name that honors the majestic animal we know.

Buffalo celebrates that “long, intense and dramatic relationship” they have with the Native people and settlers of North America.

And that’s the issue.

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Coming next: Buffalo Social Behavior—”Too marvelous a tale to go untold.”
–Dale Lott, California

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Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Buffalo Hunting Accident

Buffalo Hunting Accident

by | May 5, 2020 | Stories

Bears Arm, a second chief of the Hidatsa, told how he got caught on foot in the middle of a stampeding buffalo herd.

It was during the glorious days of “running buffalo.” Those days arrived with horses on the northern plains, sometime after 1700 and ended with the last of the wild buffalo in 1883.

The first horses arrived in Puerto Rico, North America, with Columbus and the Conquistadors on his second voyage in 1493.

The conquerors from Europe did not want the Natives to learn to ride. They succeeded for awhile.

But during the next years, through escape, raids and trading, horses worked their way north.

By the early 1700s the Commanche and Apache owned sizeable horse herds.

As they traded with northern tribes, a new horse culture grew up across the west that extended from Texas far north into the northern plains and prairies of Canada.

American Indians on the Plains became excellent riders—perhaps the best horsemen the world has ever known. Many men owned large horse herds.

From childhood, Native boys and girls lived on horseback. They grew up with horses, raced each other on horses, and helped train horses.

On coldest nights, they helped their fathers bring a favorite horse into the tepee when blizzards raged.

Once the Native Americans had horses, hunting became far easier and more exciting.

A good horse could run as fast as the buffalo—although they could not run at top speed for 10 miles, as the buffalo could.

But Native hunters had their tricks to turn a running herd, such as by killing the leaders.

Still, hunting accidents often happened and they could be deadly.

A good buffalo horse was well trained.

He could single out the exact buffalo he knew his rider wanted, cut in close and stay there—while dodging the huge hairy head with its viciously slashing horns, responding instantly to the rider’s knee pressure or a shift in weight, and avoiding badger holes.

At the same time his master was leaning over—with the utmost freedom to use both arms and hands in firing one deadly arrow after the other from his bow into the buffalo’s fatal spot.

The Hidatsas lived along the Missouri River at a place called Fish Hook Village, named for a sharp turn in the river.

One day, from across the river, near what is now Washburn, North Dakota, the scouts signaled. A great buffalo herd was grazing not far off.

The hunters made plans to run them, and performed the traditional ceremonies. Then they set off across the river.

Bears Arms wanted a large buffalo hide, so he decided to kill the largest bull he could find.

Most of the other hunters wanted tender and tasty meat for their families. So they were looking for younger cows and young bulls.

“I was not hungry just them. I did not want to kill cows.” Said Bears Arms.

“Riding along, I saw a splendid big fellow.

“I rode along his side—on the right side. You should always kill buffalo bulls from that side. You can shoot arrows better.”

He picked out the fatal spot. Low behind the front leg to reach the heart or lungs.

“I made the hit I wanted. But the arrow did not reach his heart.

Riding deep into the buffalo herd could be extremely dangerous. Painting by CM Russell.

“The buffalo made a very quick turn.

“He caught my horse and threw him into the air.

Bears Arms leaped free of the injured horse.

“While he was tearing his guts out, I got away afoot.

Bears Arms was right in the middle of the running animals. He had to keep running or get run over.

He looked for help, but was separated from the other hunters. They shouted and tried to get through the stampeding herd, but could not come to his rescue.

No one could see well in the swirling dust and dirt.

“The buffalo were scared and running fast. The dust was thick. The roar of their feet was terrible.

“No one could reach me now.

“I grabbed a cow by the hair of her neck and ran along by her side.

“She was afraid of me.”

The cow kept trying to get away toward the outside of the main herd.

Protected by the bulk of her body against him, and still holding on to her long hair, Bears Arms worked his way clear of the stampeding hooves behind. He held his knife ready in case she turned on him.

“I got away then,” he said.

“I did not kill her because she had been good to me.”

The old bull stopped too, at the edge of the herd, stumbling and bleeding.

“He did not run far. He was shot in the lungs and was bleeding bad from his nose and his mouth now.

“He stood apart alone and died standing up.

“I lost my horse. But got the biggest hide there!”

It was a good day for the hunters, and Bears Arms began skinning his big bull.

(Story recorded by Colonel A.B Welch among oral histories given by older men of the Mandan, Arikara and Hidatsa along the Missouri River in Dakota Territory during the late 1800s.

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Dave Carter inducted into National Buffalo Hall of Fame

Dave Carter inducted into National Buffalo Hall of Fame

by | May 5, 2020 | News Articles

Dave Carter has served U.S. bison ranchers, marketers and supporters for nearly two decades. Under his leadership, NBA has forged strong relationships with key agencies in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and agricultural leaders on Capitol Hill.

DENVER, CO (January 31, 2020) – The National Buffalo Foundation has inducted Dave Carter, executive director of the Westminster, CO-based National Bison Association (NBA), as the 31st member of the National Buffalo Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is housed in the National Buffalo Museum in Jamestown, ND.

The induction was announced in a surprise ceremony during the closing banquet of the National Bison Association’s 25th anniversary convention in Denver in late January.

Carter has served as the bison association’s executive director since 2001. During that time, the U.S. bison business recovered from a devastating downturn in 2000, and has grown into a strong steady sector of agriculture. Carter has aggressively promoted the health, environmental and culinary benefits of bison meat to the American public throughout his tenure as executive director.

Carter has also increased the National Bison Association’s presence in Washington, D.C. Under his leadership, the association has forged strong relationships with key agencies in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and agricultural leaders on Capitol Hill. In 2012, Carter linked the NBA with leaders of the InterTribal Buffalo Council and the Wildlife Conservation Society in a four-year legislative campaign that resulted in bison being formally designated as the National Mammal of the United States in 2016. He is currently working with key Senators and Representatives to pass the Truth in Water Buffalo Labeling Bill, which would halt deceptively labeled water buffalo meat and food ingredients from being sold in the United States.

The plaque honoring Carter in the Hall of Fame reads, “For close to two decades, Dave has guided the bison industry in an extraordinary way through good times and not so good times. He continuously places a bright light on the American bison to the public, the producers, the conservationists, the native community, and those in government who need to hear his message.”

Cecil Miskin, president of the National Buffalo Foundation, noted,” Our hats are off and our hearts are proud. Dave Carter is truly the best friend bison has had in this century.”

In addition to serving as executive director of the National Bison Association, Carter and his wife, Sue, actively maintain a small herd of bison which they operate in partnership with three other herds in eastern Colorado.

Carter joins 29 inductees in the Hall of Fame, including Charles Goodnight, Teddy Roosevelt and nine additional historical figures, as well as Ted Turner and 18 other contemporary bison champions. Goodnight was among the ranchers who helped bring bison back from extinction in the late 1800s. Turner has played a pivotal role in the modern restoration of bison.

The National Bison Association, founded in 1995, represents nearly 1,200 ranchers, marketers and bison enthusiasts in 48 states and 10 foreign countries. The National Buffalo Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to bison research and education.

Jan. 31, 2020 News Release National Bison Association

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

NBA Summer Conference postponed

Summer NBA Conference meets in Wyoming, June 21-23

by | Apr 28, 2020 | News Articles

Join the National Bison Association for its annual summer conference at Little America in beautiful Cheyenne, Wyoming! Hosted by the Rocky Mountain Bison Association, the 2020 Summer Conference will feature great bison feasts, top-notch networking opportunities, education on topics pertinent to the bison business, and at least two working bison ranch tours in the Cheyenne area. Please mark your calendars for this great event and don’t miss out on the summer’s biggest bison get together. For travel planning, please note, conference programming will technically begin on Monday, June 22nd. June 21st is a travel day with a welcome reception planned for that evening. The conference will end on June 23rd after a conference banquet dinner. The mission of the NBA is to bring together stakeholders to celebrate the heritage of the American bison/buffalo while educating and creating a sustainable future for our industry. Learn more at www.bisoncentral.com.

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Welcome to Buffalo Tales and Trails!

by | Apr 28, 2020 | Blog

Welcome to our first issue of Buffalo Tales & Trails! Everything you ever wanted to know about buffalo!

Thanks for your interest in buffalo! We are bringing you a combination blog and website.

My assistant Ronda Fink and I have produced books and websites, but never before a blog. So this is more than a first issue—it’s a new venture for us!

But not a new topic. Buffalo are old as the hills in the northern plains. We know them. Yet they are still surprising us with their wild nature and amazing capers.

Our mission is first of all—to help young people get to know and love the magnificent buffalo/ bison—America’s new National Mammal! This means teachers need to be involved.

So this is first of all for teachers and their students! Especially Native American students who have a special awe and pride in their buffalo.

And of course, we invite everyone who has a soft spot in your heart for buffalo. Come along on this incredible journey. We won’t let you down!

You can be an expert of sorts on this very specific subject. It’s a fun topic.

The American Bison became the official National Mammal of the United States on May 9, 2016, when President Obama signed the National Bison Legacy Act. Photo courtesy of SD Game, Fish and Parks, Chris Hull, photographer.

It’s a great milestone for an animal that played a central role in America’s history and culture, helped to shape the lifestyle of Native Americans on the open Plains, and then declined within a hair breadth of becoming extinct.

Today, buffalo live in all 50 states and across Canada, and serve as a symbol of American unity, resilience and healthy lifestyles and communities.

My name is Francie M. Berg. I didn’t know much about buffalo when my husband, a veterinarian, and I moved our family to Hettinger, North Dakota.

Sure I’d seen them in herds here and there, grazing up a green coulee or standing sleepily in a corral.

Much like cattle, I thought. As I said, little did I know.

Where the Buffalo stories Come Together

Then I discovered we’d come to the place where all the buffalo stories come together, now and in the distant past. It happened right here on the western border between North and South Dakota.

This area of the Northern Plains was home to buffalo from ancient times.

Here early hunters, with no horses or guns, ran buffalo off the Shadehill buffalo jump as long ago as 7,500 years, according to archaeologists from the University of North Dakota, among others who checked this out.

The buffalo left the Dakotas in the 1860s, as settlers moved in.

But then the very last wild herd of 50,000 buffalo migrated here in 1880.

That was followed by the last great buffalo hunts—traditional Native hunts with due ceremony. We have first-hand accounts from the hunters themselves.

The last great buffalo hunts were here—traditional Native hunts of the last wild herd of 50,000 head. Buffalo Hunt, by Alfred Jacob Miller 1838. Amon Carter Museum.

Hey, how come no one knows about this? Why isn’t it in the history books?

Then, when they faced extinction, 5 buffalo calves were rescued here on the South Grand River and nourished by a Native American family, the Duprees, who gained international fame for helping to save the species.

They multiplied and today buffalo and deer again roam in our rugged buttes and badlands, forest service lands and grassy plateaus—lands that look much as they did 150 years ago.

Paying more attention, I listened to the stories, read a few more buffalo books. It was an awakening for me.

Wow! These are not cattle! Actually, more like wild animals—deer caught in the headlights.

Buffalo are not cattle! More like wild animals, like deer caught in the headlights. Photo by Denise Anderson, Bismarck.

I’ve been collecting buffalo stories ever since.

For over 35 years I’ve been researching buffalo, reading every source I could find, visiting public, commercial and tribal herds, talking with down-to-earth bison ranchers from across the country, scrambling in the rocks above some of the most famous buffalo jumps in the Rocky Mountains, and writing three books about the majestic buffalo.

We now have a historic tour of 10 famous buffalo sites for you. More about that later.

People tell me that the more you get to know buffalo, the more you love them. It’s true, I’ve found.

Yes, along the way, it seems, I’ve been smitten by these magnificent animals. We’re so glad to have you along for the ride!  And we think you might develop a passion for these majestic animals, too.

Getting to Know you, Our Readers

We want to get to know our readers. You and your family and your friends.

You can help us find the best buffalo stories. There are many.

We’ll also explore the science. Together we’ll venture along new trails. Dare to take least-travelled roads. Ask the perplexing questions.

With your help, we’ll cover a wide spectrum of buffalo lore and learning, and entertain you along the way.

And, yes, please warn us if we seem about to fall off a buffalo jump—or take a disastrously wrong turn  .  .  .

1. First of all, we hope many of our readers are TEACHERS—you smart, busy people, always looking out for new and interesting ways to interact with students. We’re here for you.

2. We also hope to have your Students on board, especially Native American Youth, with your special awe and pride in buffalo.

Back to school. How about a buffalo story? Photo by Kuanish Reymbaev

3. Younger Kids, too—we’ll find some fun videos for you.

4. Also, please join us, Bison Experts—Scientists, College Professors, Forest
Rangers and Native Tribal buffalo managers. You wonderful people. We’re here to learn from you. Please don’t leave us. After all, you might be an expert who—once in awhile—just needs to smell those wild roses blooming along the buffalo pasture fence? We’ll help you!

5. Then of course, we want the Moms and Dads to join us—you busy, busy people,
pulled 6 ways from Sunday, a dozen new stresses every day. We wish you the peace and pleasure of contemplating a buffalo herd right here, online if not for real. You deserve the tranquility of enjoying an engaging buffalo photo or story for a few minutes

6. Also, we plan to have real Buffalo Ranchers on hand, you bold and adventurous women and men—who know your buffalo—and will tell us some of your wonderful stories. (And if we visit, maybe you’ll share a bowl of your delicious buffalo stew with us! Mmmm!) It’s been said, “Everyone who works with buffalo has a story.” We invite you to tell us a few of your own.

Buffalo ranchers Steve and Roxann McFarland work buffalo in the chutes on a cold January morning on their ranch southwest of Hettinger. Photo by Francie Berg.

7. Oh, and we’re not forgetting Grandmas and Grandpas! Looking for a bit of fun and new experiences when you open your computer? Maybe you live alone and it gets lonesome at times, doesn’t it? Need a friend? We promise you’ll meet herds of four-legged friends right here. But a word of caution, don’t expect the cuddly kind of friends! What we’ll bring you are sound and solid, four-feet-on-the-ground, no nonsense, but near-wild animals, who will gain your respect, and I think, in time, your affection.

And some fun stories too!

Enjoy the journey!

Want to Raise your own Buffalo Herd?

Wouldn’t that be fun!! Your own buffalo herd!

My Veterinarian husband—a practical man who soon gained buffalo experience—nixed that idea every time I brought it up.

“Buffalo are like rabbits! If you’re not careful, pretty soon you’ve got too many!” A Wyoming rancher warned her friends after watching their herd grow from 1 bull and 2 heifers to 500 animals—outgrowing their pastures. SD Tourism.

But there are many hobby buffalo farmers around. If you yearn to have your own buffalo, say, a bull and 2 cows—well, many buffalo ranchers, big and small, started in just that way.

They called it a “hobby herd.”

It’s not an entirely bad idea.

Just watch a group of Native American boys and girls visiting their own tribal herd. Note the pride and awe in their eyes, their silence and whispering voices, and you’ll have an idea of the respect these animals command, just by being themselves.

But watch out! Be warned of two things: they multiply and they’re not as gentle as they look.

“Buffalo are like rabbits! If you’re not careful, pretty soon you’ve got too many.” That’s what Toots Marquis, a woman rancher from Gillette, Wyoming, warned her friends.

A group of Native American boys and girls from the Oneida Tribe in Wisconsin get a rare close-up view of their tribal herd on a field trip. Courtesy of Oneida Tribe.

The grandfather in her family bought a buffalo bull and two heifers, just for the novelty of it, to run with his cattle.

In what seemed like only a few years, they multiplied to 500 animals. By the time Marquis was left in charge by herself, she struggled to cull them back and keep the herd at around 75.

And don’t imagine that buffalo are going to be nice and cuddly.

Even playful calves bucking through a herd—don’t think you’ll join them. There’s more than one hostile mother watching, possibly all set to charge.

Don’t even think of posing for a selfie by edging close to a lethargic-looking bull. Remember the warnings, you’ll need something large—like maybe a pickup truck—between you and that big guy, just standing there watching you with what, deceptively, looks like sleepy eyes.

Don’t even think of posing for a selfie by edging closer to a sleepy-looking bull buffalo! He can spin on a dime and run 40 miles an hour! Instead, keep something big–like a pickup–between yourself and that bull. Video by WPLG TV station.

Their sleepy demeanor has fooled many. That bull can spin on a dime and run 40 miles an hour!

Can you? If not, then look out!

One day in 1906, a group of Mexican dignitaries came up the Missouri River in a tour boat to see Scotty Phillip’s buffalo herd in the badlands. They laughed at the big bulls, and boasted—with a bit too much exuberance—that their feisty Mexican fighting bulls would make short work of those lazy, slow moving bulls.

They challenged a bull fight—but that’s another story. We’ll tell you about the Mexican bull fight in Juarez another time (or you can read about it in Buffalo Heartbeats on page 182).

Then there are the fences. Are yours high enough? Strong enough?

You don’t have to own buffalo to enjoy them, of course. You can see them in many state and National Parks in the US and Canada.

In fact, I’m pretty sure everyone who has a passion for them might need to contemplate a live buffalo herd occasionally for a good measure of that peace and tranquility.

People tell me the more you get to know buffalo, the more you will love them. SD Game, Fish, Parks, photo by Chris Hull.

Don’t worry. Most of us can find buffalo around—in public zoos and parks, or private herds that you might view from the road, or nearby tribal herds which you can arrange to visit.

You might be surprised at the bison opportunities near where you live right now. If not, please come to see us on the Northern Plains, or contact your nearest Indian Reservation. They enjoy showing their buffalo herd to visitors.

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Coming next: Buffalo vs Bison — What shall we call them?

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Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Noble Fathers

Noble Fathers

by | Apr 28, 2020 | Stories

I’ll leave you with a remarkable buffalo story—one of my favorites—told by a soldier on the Plains way back in buffalo hunting days.

One day an army surgeon was out buffalo hunting. As he headed back to camp he saw what he described as “the curious action of a little knot of 6 or 8 buffalo.”

Riding closer, he saw they were all bulls, standing in a tight circle with their massive heads facing out, snorting and pawing dirt.

A dozen large gray wolves danced around them in impatient expectancy, licking their chops.

Large gray wolves danced around the circle of bulls in impatient expectancy, licking their chops, while the bulls faced them, snorting and pawing dirt. Painting by C.M. Russell, Courtesy of Amon Carter Museum

After a few moments the knot broke up, still keeping a compact mass, and started off for the main herd, a half mile away.

Then to his very great astonishment, the surgeon saw what the bulls were protecting—a newborn calf on wobbly legs in their center.

The calf stumbled 50 paces or so, then fell down.

The bulls again formed their protective circle around the calf, shaking their heads fiercely. The hungry wolves sat back down and licked their chops.

After watching this drama play out a few times—the calf struggling ahead, falling, the bulls tightening their circle, pawing dust and shoving—the surgeon rode on.

While the Army surgeon watched, the buffalo bulls protected one small newborn calf until he was strong though to catch up with the herd. Courtesy of National Park Service.

Telling the story later, he said, “I have no doubt the noble fathers did their whole duty by their offspring and carried it safely to the herd.”

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

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