Doing Math on Plains Indian Diets, by Gene Gade

“The men’s labor was again such that each private ate as much as 9 or 10 pounds of meat per day.”

 So historian Stephen Ambrose described the food requirements and diets of the members of the Lewis and Clark expedition in April of 1805 in his prize-winning book, “Undaunted Courage.”

The men were working hard, paddling or sometimes dragging heavily-laden canoes for 20 miles or more per day up the Missouri River, against the current and prevailing wind.

When not with the boats, they were walking even greater distances over the prairie. The 30 or so members of the expedition ate a few roots and other edible plant parts (usually provided by Sacagawea), but the vast majority of their diet was meat. The famished group consumed about 300 pounds of meat every day!

It’s useful to consider this example when one thinks about the nutritional requirements and diets of the Plains Indians and their use of the Vore Buffalo Jump.

Buffalo “jumps” were usually conducted in autumn with the goal of obtaining enough meat and hides to provide for tribal needs during harsh winters. If a winter proved mild and hunting conditions were favorable, men could provide fresh meat.

However, quantities of dried meat and pemmican were needed as supplements during most winters and were an emergency meat supply when the winter was severe and hunting was difficult or impossible.

In very successful communal hunts at the Vore site, 200 to 300 bison were sometimes killed. That’s tons of meat. Could they really eat that much meat? Wasn’t there a great deal of waste?

Is it possible, or healthy, for humans to be almost totally carnivorous for their entire lives? Let’s let modern science help us find the answers to these and other questions.

How much Meat was Available from a Vore Site Hunt?

Most hunts at the Vore site occurred in the fall, after the bison breeding season. When breeding is finished in August and September, buffalo bulls often wander away, leaving herds of predominantly cows and calves. When a “jump” occurred, the herd would consist of mostly mature female bison, some yearling or 2-year-old females, calves from the previous spring and a few lingering bulls.

Bulls often weighed 1,500 to 2,000 pounds (the very biggest weigh a ton and a half!). Mature females tip the scales at 1,000 to 1,400 pounds, probably averaging about 1,200. Two-year-old bred-heifers weigh about 900. Yearling heifers are about 750 pounds. Calves in that season will weigh 450 to 575 pounds, depending on gender, say 500 pounds on average.

Let’s assume a herd of 100 animals comprised of 40% mature females, 10% two-year-old bred heifers, 15% yearling heifers, 15% calves and 10% bulls. Using average weights for those animals, its reasonable to assume that the total weight of that herd would be about 86,500 pounds or 43.5 tons as live weight.

On really successful hunts at the Vore site, the Indians may have killed two to three times that many animals.

About 60% of a carcass would be useable (recoverable muscle meat and organs) with the hide and skeleton accounting for the other 40%. Given our assumptions, that means the yield from a typical herd of 100 buffalo would be about 51,900 pounds of meat (25.95 tons) plus 3 to 4 tons each of marrow bones and hide.

The rest of the carcasses, (15-25% of the total original weight, mostly non-marrow bones) were left behind. These are the remnants archaeologists find and analyze at the Vore site.

Calories Available vs. Required

If a person doesn’t get out of bed or do any physical work, he/she will still “burn” calories as the body performs basic functions like breathing, digesting, pumping blood, thinking and maintaining normal body temperature. This is called “basal metabolism” and it varies according to the size, age and gender of the person in question.

Let’s take a 30-year-old male Indian who is 5’10” tall and weighs 166 pounds. If he did nothing at all, he would still require about 1,790 calories daily to maintain basic life functions. Likewise, a woman of the same age who was 5’5” and 125 pounds would need approximately 1,365 calories per day for maintenance.

 If you add physical activity (exercise), to the energy equation, the caloric requirement increases. Hunting, butchering and processing buffalo is hard work. Using our male Indian from the previous example, if he were completing strenuous work required during the buffalo hunt and its aftermath, his total estimated energy expenditure (TEE) would be between 3,940 to 4,725 calories. The woman in our earlier example would have a TEE value of 3,000 to 3,600 calories daily. Adolescent requirements are similar to adult women. A child (10 years old) would require up to 3,000 calories. These values are what is needed to maintain body weight.

If weight gain was desired or growth in stature was occurring, these values would need to increase by about 500 calories a day! Pregnancy, lactation and other variables can also increase caloric requirements.

So How Much Meat is Required?

The caloric content of meat varies with the tissue and fat content, but according to the US Department of Agriculture lean, raw buffalo meat provides about 496 calories per pound. Cooking lowers the nutritional content slightly, providing about 445 calories per raw pound. Assuming our hypothetical hunter only consumed cooked buffalo meat he would require up to 10.6 pounds daily to meet his TEE calorie recommendation.

A hunter probably wouldn’t carry that much meat with him and couldn’t have consumed it even if it were available. So he’d either have to consume a more calorie-rich food or he’d lose weight fairly quickly. Probably he’d do both in the days leading up to and following the “jump.”

Let’s follow one of the hunters through a hypothetical hunt at the Vore Buffalo Jump.

First, if he participated in gathering the herd, our young man would be sent out several days prior to the “jump” to find and collect a critical mass of bison. It’s likely that he’d be walking fast or running for at least 12 hours per day.

After driving the buffalo over the “jump,” another very strenuous phase would begin immediately. The Indians butchered the bison which involved skinning and cutting them into transportable chunks that were easy to move quickly before the meat spoiled.

They had, perhaps, a 3 to 5 day period to butcher 60 to 300 buffalo. They undoubtedly worked in teams from dawn to dark (at least 9 to 10 hours) per day in late-autumn.

They’d pull a carcass out of the pile, skin it, remove the entrails and internal organs and chop the skeleton and associated muscles apart at the joints.

If they trapped 200 bison in a communal hunt, they’d have to butcher an average of 40 carcasses daily for five days. Perhaps 100 people would be involved in the butchering and they probably worked in teams of four to six persons per carcass at a given time. If they had five people on a team, then each team would need to completely butcher at least two bison a day.

Transporting the tons of meat, bone and hide from the Vore site to a processing camp may well have been the job of adolescents, using dogs with drags (travois) to help. This task would have involved numerous trips into and out of the sinkhole carrying heavy loads and probably many round trips from the jump site to the main camp each day. The camp was probably one to three miles away over broken terrain. This too used a lot of energy by both youth and dogs, with the primary fuel being meat.

Finally, there was the enormous task of processing all of the meat into products that concentrated the nutrients and that would last for at least a few months without refrigeration.

The hides were tanned via an arduous multistep process involving scraping, soaking and stretching of the hide, removal of the hair in most cases, and a treatment with brain tissue to keep the leather soft and pliable. These tasks probably required every able-bodied woman working full time for a couple of weeks.

From the time the small, scattered hunting groups came together for the communal hunt through the jump, butchering and processing phases, it is likely 300 Indians would have been working hard on the endeavor for two to three weeks.

Assuming this group is divided roughly in thirds…1/3 men, 1/3 women and 1/3 children…there would be approximately 100 in each group. Using the TEE values discussed earlier, the communal hunt itself possibly required up to 1.1 million calories daily for the group to maintain its current body weight.

This would amount to nearly 20 million total calories if they were working together for 18 days at this high intensity level. Just that effort would require the equivalent of about 45,000 pounds of cooked buffalo meat. That’s just priming the pump. The meat supply from this and other jumps may have been needed to keep these three hundred folks alive for four months or more in a bad winter.

Activity may not have been so intense and strenuous on a daily basis during the routine of a winter camp, but men may still have walked many miles a day to hunt. If successful, they had to partially butcher the carcass and carry the game home. Women and children still had heavy duty with camp chores.

Also, the environment in which they were living (including extremes of temperature) increased physical stress that could lead to a higher energy requirement.

Let’s not forget the dogs. They were working animals and probably needed several pounds of meat per animal daily as well.

All totaled, it would be surprising if the group and dogs involved in the hunt didn’t require a minimum of 875,000 calories per day (about 1,965 pounds of cooked buffalo meat).

If a hard winter came, as it inevitably would, and the Indians needed to stay close to camp for four months with minimal supplemental hunting, the group and their dogs would have used over 100 million calories (equal to about 240,000 pounds of cooked lean meat or 100 tons!). Recall our estimate that if they killed 100 bison in a hunt at the Vore site, the yield would be about 26 tons of raw meat providing up to 23 million calories!

We’ve answered the first two questions. How much meat was required? Some winters the requirement was 4 to 6 times more than a successful buffalo jump would likely produce. Would there have been a lot of waste? No, the Plains tribes needed large quantities of meat and used what they ac[1]quired as efficiently as possible.

A Nutritional Puzzle

A final interesting question remains: Is an almost totally carnivorous diet healthy and sustainable?

Any one of the three major energy nutrients of our food: carbohydrates, fats and proteins, can be broken down to produce the energy required by our bodies. Fat offers the most energy (9 calories per gram) while carbohydrates and proteins are equal (4 calories per gram).

Carbohydrates are the body’s preferred source of energy. Once carbohydrate stores are depleted the body starts to breakdown stored fat into a usable form of energy. As fat stores become depleted the body begins to breakdown stored protein. The protein is often taken from the muscles where it is stored. When stored protein is used for energy the body begins to make higher levels of ketones and ammonia, which can become toxic.

Proteins are large molecules composed of smaller sub-units called amino acids. The “amine” groups that give these compounds their name contain nitrogen (as –NH2). To use protein for energy, it must first be reduced to amino acids and the amine groups have to be removed. The amines are filtered from the blood via the kidneys and excreted in the form of urea.

Research has shown that low carbohydrate diets supplemented with high fat and protein may lead to reduced vitamin and mineral intakes, increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, fatty liver and bone loss.

Current nutrition recommendations encourage 45-50% of calories from carbohydrates, 15-20% from protein and 20-25% from fat. This diet composition has been shown to reduce risk of heart disease.

It is clear that Plains Indians could not have functioned as they did exclusively on the lean muscle meat from buffalo. It would not have provided them with adequate carbohydrates, vitamins or minerals. The high protein content would have likely led to intestinal complaints and gout as well.

The tribes did consume some carbohydrates in the form of tubers and roots, and fruit such as berries. These foods provide about 15 grams of carbohydrate (60 calories) per serving. Also, some tribes, like those that lived in earthlodge villages along the Missouri River grew corn, beans, squash, sunflowers, amaranth and other crops, but hunted buffalo and other wild animals as well. Many of the more nomadic Plains tribes are known to have traded with their farming neighbors or relatives, exchanging meat and hides for corn, among other items.

In any case, the over-all diet of the Plains hunters was very low in carbohydrate and fat was used as the primary source of calories. Excavation at the Vore site as well as abundant evidence from other sources support this observation.

Nearly all of the bison bones were broken open so the marrow could be used. The marrow pulp is rich in fat, proteins and calories that could be extracted or rendered from the bones.

The pemmican “sausage” that was used by the Indians as a high-energy food concentrate was a combination of pounded dry muscle meat mixed with a high quantity of fat from the marrow or from around the buffalo organs and, sometimes, dried berries added for flavor, texture, sugar

The Perfect Atkins Diet?

The late Dr. Robert Atkins gained fame for his promotion of a diet that emphasized very low carbohydrate intake and essentially unlimited protein and fat from meat.

Atkins claimed that sugars and starches (the two most common forms of carbohydrate in the American diet) are the primary cause of problems such as obesity and diabetes. Atkin’s theory was that carbohydrates should be minimized, forcing the body to meet its energy requirement from metabolism of fats and proteins.

Historical evidence indicates that many, primarily carnivorous, Indians functioned well and lived relatively long lives. Its interesting to compare a Plains Indian traditional diet that was high in fat and protein and low in carbohydrate to that of current diet recommendations which emphasize low fat and moderate intakes of lean protein and complex carbohydrates.

Today’s dietary recommendations are directed towards preventing chronic disease and achieving longevity while the Plains Indian diet was likely designed for day-to-day survival. Today, food is readily available in most developed countries, reducing the need to store excess energy as fat.

In comparison, the fat consumed by the Plains tribes was able to sustain them during inevitable times of famine. Additionally, energy needs in our current society are likely lower due to reduced physical activity levels.

The traditional high calorie, high fat diets of Plains Indians likely worked because of their high activity level which is an effective means of keeping blood vessels healthy and maintaining a balance between energy intake and expenditure.

Questions remain as to how the traditional Plains Indian diet affected general long-term health and longevity. The answers to these and similar questions are not completely known and need to be researched. Archaeological evidence from the Vore site can contribute to our understanding of such questions.

Related Buffalo Hunting Information from the Author

Plant Foods in Plains Indian Diets

Although Plains Indians ate primarily lean meat, they did supplement their diet with portions of many plant species. Some plant materials were consumed seasonally, others were dried, stored and used year-round. Here’s a partial list:

Tubers and Roots—Arrowhead, yampa, balsam root, scurfpea, wild onion, mariposa/sego Lily, evening primrose;

Stems– some thistles, cattails;

Leaves– Fireweed and many other plants used as “salad”;

Seeds-Sunflower, amaranth, Indian ricegrass;

Fruits-Cactus fruits, strawberries, Oregon grape, buffaloberry, huckleberry, currants, gooseberry, acorns, serviceberry, wild plum, sand cherry, chokecherry, wild rosehips, raspberry, thimbleberry and river grape.

Hundreds of other plant products were used as medicines.

Today’s Buffalo Meat

The nutrient analysis for cooked buffalo meat from one pound raw is: 445 Calories

97.6 grams of protein (87.7% of total calories)

8 grams of fat (16.2% of total calories)

0 grams of carbohydrate

Note: one pound = 454 grams. The unaccounted for mass is primarily water and minerals.

What’s the 2008 market value of a Vore site hunt?

Some representative prices found on the Internet:

Buffalo Meat—Hamburger, one pound = $4.50 to $6.50; Steaks, one pound = $9 to $25 depending on cut; Brats (similar to pemmican), $15 per pound; Buffalo jerky, one pound =$40.

Buffalo Hide Products—Buffalo robes commonly sell now for $900 to $1,500 each, depending on size. Heavy, decorated buffalo hide coats sell for up to $3,500. Fancy gloves = $75 to $150.

 Skulls—Decorated skulls go for $500 to $1,000 each. Mounted trophy bull heads sell for about $2,000 to $2,500 each.

100 buffalo = 26 tons of meat. Assuming an average price of $9 per pound. Total value = $468,000;
100 robes at $1,000 each = $100,000. Decorated skulls and/or mounted heads, 25 at $1,500 each = $37,500.

Very conservatively, products from a moderately successful hunt at the Vore site = $700,000!

Sources:

(italic) Frary, C.D. & Johnson, R.K. (2004). Energy. In Mahan, L.K., Escott-Stump, S. (Eds.), Krause’s Food, Nutrition and Diet Therapy (11th ed.). WB Saunders Company. Philadelphia, PA. pp. 21-36
Harris J, Benedict F.1918. “A Biometric Study of Human Basal Metabolism”. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 4 (12): 370-3.

National Nutrient Data Base for Standard Reference. USDA. Ag. Research Service. http://www.ars.usda/ nutrientdata

Grateful acknowledgement is due several people who reviewed this article and provided specific editorial suggestions. These individuals included Jacqueline Wyatt, Jan Truchot, Muriel and Caitlin Gade and, especially, Sarah L. Francis PhD, MHS, RD.

Gene Gade, the author of many well-researched articles in the Vore Buffalo Jump newsletter took the job as County Extension Agent in Sundance Wyoming many years ago. When the Vore sinkhole literally “fell in their laps” he must have thought to himself from his County Agent vantage position, “‘I know how to do this; I need to help.” And he put in over 20 years as president of the non-profit VBJ Foundation. From his extensive USDA Extension connections he helped to develop and guide the research, education and economic potentials of the Vore site for all those years.

We thank the non-profit Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation for generously allowing us to reprint these educational articles about Buffalo hunting and the Vore site in Wyoming. Donations and comments may be sent to: Vore Buffalo Jump Foundation; 369 Old U.S. 14; Sundance, WY 82729; Tel: (307) 266-9530; Email: info@vorebuffalojump.org

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

Rapid City Journal Shalom Baer Gee , May 20, 2022 Updated Jun 25, 2022

About 100 people gathered on Friday for the grand opening of Custer State Park’s Bison Center, located near the bison corral complex off Wildlife Loop Road.

The barn-style building tells the story of the park’s bison herd through a mixture of interactive and educational exhibits, including samples of an American Bison’s summer coat beside a winter coat.

A timeline of the history of bison, specifically the herd of nearly 1,400 that now live in the park, spans the three walls. The herd started at a mere 36. 

A computer screen features footage of the annual Buffalo Roundup and Auction where the bison are given health checks, vaccinations and some of the herd is auctioned off to maintain a sustainable population at the park. Several full-body bison mounts also adorn the building.

The center was made possible by a $4 million grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, $500,000 allocated from the South Dakota Legislature, and an additional $500,000 in private donations raised by the South Dakota Parks and Wildlife Foundation, according to a Custer State Park press release.

Speakers at the event included Lt. Gov. Larry Rhoden; Walter Panzirer, a Trustee for the Helmsley Charitable Trust; Cabinet Secretary of Game, Fish & Parks Kevin Robling; and Custer State Park Superintendent Matt Snyder.

“I love this park,” said Kevin Robling, Cabinet Secretary of Game, Fish & Parks. “For more than a century, Custer State Park has been known as the state’s crown jewel.

“Today that jewel just got a little bit brighter. We strive to serve and connect people and families to the outdoors, and our vision is to enhance the quality of life for current and future generations, and this facility will do just that.”

Snyder thanked the staff at Game, Fish & Parks in Custer State Park, the state engineer’s office staff, Perspective, Inc. and architectural design studio, Brett Olson and his staff at Mac Construction, Betty Brennan and her staff at Taylor Studios, who designed the interior of the building, and “so many subcontractors who put forth a tremendous effort to see this (happen) quickly.”

“For those who may have been with us last year at the roundup at the end of September (2021), we had a little bit of concrete coming out of the ground, and just a few short months later, look at where we’re standing today. It’s amazing,” Snyder said.

The park’s interpretive programs manager, Lydia Austin, said she and her team worked with the Helmsley Foundation for the building itself, and her team worked together on designing the displays, writing text and photo selection. In the early planning, meetings centered around what type of bison story the new center would tell.

“The bison story is such a huge part of North America. It was hard to take it and reduce it down to our building,” Austin said. “In the end of the conversations, we decided we wanted to tell the story of the Custer State Park herd, how we became a conservation herd, how we still manage our animals. We still protect them for future generations, and we said that was the story we wanted to stick to.”

For many Native American cultures, the bison is a significant cultural and spiritual animal. Austin said the park recognizes this, but chose to focus primarily on Custer State Park’s herd. There is a small section on a poster recognizing the significance of bison to Native Americans, but the center doesn’t include materials elaborating on that. 

“Buffalo are attached to so many stories. Whose story do we tell? Is it our story to tell? In the end, we really decided we’re going to tell Custer State Park’s story. That’s the one we’re comfortable with, and we know we’re telling the correct story,” Austin said. 

Rhoden spoke at the ribbon cutting. He told the Journal afterwards the center will enhance visitors’ experiences at the buffalo roundup.

A computer screen features footage of the annual Buffalo Roundup and Auction where the bison are given health checks, vaccinations and some of the herd is auctioned off to maintain a sustainable population at the park.

“I think it’s really special because we have tens of thousands of people that come to the roundup. They see the roundup, but they don’t know what’s going on. They don’t know the history behind the buffalo, so this gives them an idea of what it’s all about,” Rhoden said. “The buffalo is such a big part of our culture and heritage in South Dakota that sometimes we tend to forget about it.”

Reprinted with permission from the Rapid City Journal, as reported by Shalom Baer Gee. Photos by Matt Gade, Rapid City Journal.

For the many hundreds of visitors who come for the Bison Roundup in September and stay for a buffalo dinner and working the smaller herd of bison it may be a long walk to the working chutes. Or if you can easily find your car where you parked on the hills behind where you settled in your lawn chairs, you can drive over to the corrals.

The smaller herd is rounded up and brought in a few days early to familiarize them with the new pasture, which eases them for the stress of being worked and perhaps held too long in the chutes. The larger herd brought in that day on the run needs to calm down a few days before being worked, according to the handlers.

Upcoming events in Custer State Park

• April 18 – May 18, 2023  Knee High Naturalist: Weather
• June 3, 2023 
• June 3, 2023  National Trails Day Hike – Climbing Through Geological Time
• June 3, 2023  National Trails Day Hike – Ember History at Sunset

More Comments on Opening Day

“I think some of the unique features of the Bison Center are, one in particular, is just the timeline of how we got bison in the park, you know from 1913 into the current day. That’s always a neat, unique feature,” said Matt Snyder, Custer State Park Superintendent.

“And then we also have a map here in the park that ever since we started the auction back in the early seventies, of where have all the bison gone that have left Custer State Park to start other herds or to supplement other herds. That’s quite an interesting thing too that people like to see.”

“The Bison Center will be a landmark destination for visitors from across South Dakota and around the world to understand the North American bison’s rich history and learn about Custer State Park’s role in preserving this magnificent animal,” said Walter Panzirer, a Trustee for the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “It has been exciting to be part of the project since inception, and I am honored to see it come to fruition with the ribbon cutting and grand opening.”

Lieutenant Governor Larry Rhoden, spoke at the event announcing that he will introduce legislation next year to make bison, the iconic symbol of the American West the official South Dakota state animal.

Snyder said that the center will add to the annual Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup.“Now, after the Roundup, a lot of people leave. Some will come down and see the crowds and watch the bison get work(ed), but now they have another opportunity to come and stay a little bit longer and see the center,” said Snyder. “I think it’s going to aid in educating the public as to what we are really doing and why are we doing what we’re doing,” he said.

Governor Kristi Noem announced the fund raising campaign during the 2020 Custer Bison Roundup.. She said the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust had awarded a $4 million grant to SDPWF to construct the Bison Center.

“Achieving this campaign goal”—(of 5 million dollars)—”will require support from private and public partners who share the dream and vision of the Bison Center. Custer State Park has played a key role in bison conservation for over a century,” she said.

“This one-of-a-kind center will allow the park to tell its story and educate future generations on the importance of the bison. I urge you to support the South Dakota Parks and Wildlife Foundation’s 2020-2021 Custer State Park Bison Center fundraising campaign.”

History of Custer State Park

A timeline of history:

Custer State Park is South Dakota’s first and largest state park. Its history dates back to 1897.

Just 8 years after South Dakota joined the union, Congress granted to the state, sections 16 and 36 in every township as school lands. South Dakota had difficulties attempting to administer the scattered blocks of state school lands within the Black Hills timberland.

In 1906, negotiations opened to exchange the scattered lands for a solid block. In 1910, South Dakota relinquished all rights to 60,000+ acres of timberland within the Black Hills Forest Reserve in exchange for nearly 50,000 acres of forest in Custer County and about 12,000 acres in Harding County.

Together, these two parcels were designated Custer State Forest in 1912. After action by the State Legislature, having been prompted by the urgings of “prairie statesman” Governor Peter Norbeck, Custer State Forest became Custer State Park. 

• 1914: 36 Bison purchased from the Scotty Philip’s herd near Pierre
• 1916: 12 pronghorn antelope added
• 1919: On July 1, Custer State Park officially became a state park
• 1921: C.C. Gideon opened the Game Lodge on August 8, it burned on October 19 and was reopened on June 15
• 1922: Needles Highway was completed and 8 Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep were introduced
• 1924: Bison herd totaled 100 animals
• 1925: Badger Clark completed his cabin “Badger Hole”
• 1927: President Calvin Coolidge and Mrs. Coolidge spent three months at the Game Lodge, “Summer White House”
• 1932: The Civilian Conservation Corps completed Iron Mountain Road, connecting State Game Lodge and Mount Rushmore National Monument. The Civilian Conservation Corps completed multiple projects within the park
• 1941: Construction completed on Mount Rushmore. It began in 1927
• 1946: Black Hills Playhouse productions began in a tent near Legion Lake
• 1951: 60 bison purchased from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation herd
• 1953: President Eisenhower visited State Game Lodge
• 1961: Visitation reached 1,000,000 people
• 1966: In February, first live buffalo auction held with 100 animals
• 1979: The park museum and welcome center, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, dedicated as Peter Norbeck Visitor Center
• 1988: Galena Fire, started by lightning, burned 16,002 acres; 1990: Cicero Peak Fire, spark from logging equipment, burned 4,510 acres inside park, 14,203 acres total; 2017: Legion Lake Fire one of the largest wildfires in SD history.
• 2016: New Visitor Center unveiled
• 2022: Bison Center Opens near the buffalo working chutes and corral complex

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NEXT: Blog 83-How much meat could a Buffalo hunter eat?

Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog

One day a group of Mexican dignitaries from Juarez, visiting in Pierre, SD, came up the Missouri River on a tourist boat to have a look at Scotty Philip’s famous buffalo herd. With great interest and disdain, they eyed the shaggy beasts grazing up the draws and steep bluffs on the west side of the river.

 As the tour boat came to a stop along the river’s west bank, they pointed out to each other the big buffalo bulls and mocked their apparent lethargic demeanor.

 Contrasting these with their own flashy fighting bulls, they boasted to the tour guide and other passengers, with a trifle too much exuberance, that their feisty Mexican bulls would make short work of these lazy, slow-moving buffalo bulls.

 In the frontier town of Fort Pierre, miffed locals took offense. Scotty Philip’s sporting friends made their own boasts and persuaded him to challenge the visitors to a contest.

 One thing led to another and the two factions agreed to meet that winter in the Juarez bull-fighting ring. A bet was rumored at $10,000 for the winner.

Scotty Philip and his crew selected two bulls—a mature eight-year-old herd bull in his prime and an energetic four-year-old—and named them Pierre and Pierre Junior.

In early January 1907 the two bulls and three South Dakota men shipped out in a railroad car bound for El Paso and Juarez, just across the Mexican border. The rail car was fitted with heavy planking and penned off for each bull.

At the last minute, a severe January blizzard cut short Scotty Philip’s plans and he had to stay home with cattle emergencies. Instead, he recruited his nephew George, to represent his interests at the Mexican Bullfight in Mexico.

A lawyer just starting his law practice in Fort Pierre, George Philip had learned the cowboy life as a young Scottish immigrant on his uncle’s ranch. He travelled with two local experts, Bob Yokum, an enthusiastic promoter and friend, and Eb Jones, cowman and buffalo handler.

The first Sunday in January opened the Mexican bull-fighting season with a large and enthusiastic bull-fighting crowd in the stands.

The two buffalo bulls arrived just in time that Sunday morning. After 7 days of delays in shunting the boxcar from one railway line to another, they finally made it across the border and into an unloading chute.

The entertainment began that day with a parade of matadors, banderilleros and picadors dressed in red, blue and silver finery, dazzling with tinsel and sequins.

Next came four regular bullfights. By the time the fourth bull was stabbed to death in the arena, the crowd was shouting for the Buffalo to come out.

The main event featured what the Mexican audience fully expected to be a humiliation for the big, slow-moving buffalo. Pierre walked slowly into the ring, favoring his left hind leg, and stood quietly. Perhaps he was stunned by the hot southern sunshine in the middle of winter.

The crowd taunted him and jeered loudly.

Seated in the governor’s box as guests, Pierre’s three anxious South Dakota handlers murmured to each other their concerns. They worried that Pierre was exhausted from his 7 straight days cooped up in one end of a boxcar and was now suddenly prodded and pushed into the middle of a bull-fighting arena, in unfamiliar surroundings, filled with shouting people and strange smells.

The hot climate was an abrupt change from the extreme cold that his heavy winter hair coat had prepared him for.

On top of all this, he suffered a dislocated left fetlock, apparently from kicking the sides of the boxcar.

Cheering swelled from the stands as another gate opened.

Into the ring pranced a handsome red Mexican bull with sharp, treacherous horns, head up, two colorful darts flying from his withers. He stopped at a little distance and took the measure of his opponent, shaking his head fiercely and pawing the ground.

Pierre turned to confront him with massive head and shoulders, three-quartering his flank away.

Seeking an easier target, the Mexican bull circled. Suddenly he charged at full speed, intent on slashing Pierre’s flank with his long sharp horns, in what seemed certain to lead to a bloody goring.

The fighting bull staggered back and tried again—fighting bulls pivot on their powerful back legs, while buffalo do the opposite, keeping their massive head and shoulders out front, protecting their backsides 

Pierre stood his ground as the Mexican bull charged to meet him. Again, they whacked heads

The Mexican bull backed off in confusion, evidently surprised at how powerfully Pierre’s huge, hard head smashed into the center of his smaller head, while escaping the twist of his own sharp, treacherous horns.

He maneuvered a better angle of attack. Again, he charged. Again, Pierre pivoted swiftly on his front legs, swinging his rear out of range.

Again, Pierre met the Mexican bull head on, this time with extra force that knocked the feisty fighter to his knees.

Not lacking in courage, the gutsy red bull charged a third time, against another powerful slash of Pierre’s huge head and horns, which knocked him flat.

Pierre simply stood his ground. He met every charge but didn’t follow up his advantage. After knocking the bull down, he ignored him, allowing him to rise and fight again.

The bull tried one last time and was again knocked flat, this time with an angry shake of Pierre’s head.

The courageous Mexican fighting bull had had enough. He circled the arena looking in vain for an escape gate.

The spectators roared their disappointment and disapproval.

The ring manager asked the South Dakotans if they’d be willing to let their buffalo fight another bull.

“The red bull is not feeling well today,” he said. “Another will surely put up a better fight.”

The three men agreed to allow it. They’d come a long way to see Pierre fight as they knew he could. A buffalo bull does not remain top herd bull without fighting continual fierce battles!

A second Mexican bull entered the ring with fire and fury. He eyed the strange shaggy beast quartering his flank away from him and charged—only to smash unexpectedly into that massive, well-armed head.

Three times Pierre knocked him flat. Twice he rose to attack again. The last time he ran for the gate and could not be persuaded to fight either buffalo or matador.

A third bull entered the ring, with the same results.

The three panicked fighting bulls now circled the ring looking for escape. Three bull fighters waved red capes and pricked their hides with silver swords, trying desperately to get them to fight. All the bulls refused.

Pierre regarded the smaller, cowering bulls with disinterest. He lay down, nonchalantly resting, chewing his cud, secure in the knowledge that—of course—he was the top bull.

 At last, the crowd stood up and cheered him.

“Now I know this isn’t very sporting, but the bulls have disappointed me.” The ring master called to the visitors again. “I would like it if you’ll agree that I may turn in one more bull.”

“Turn in all the bulls you want, just make sure you give that buffalo room to turn around,” shouted one of the South Dakotans.

By the fourth fighting bull, Pierre was getting irritated. He rose to his feet and for the first time, pawed the dirt, warning the other bull away.

He charged. Crash! The Mexican bull flew backward and landed in a heap. He didn’t try again, and Pierre disdained following up on his victory.

The Mexican promoters called for a fight the next Sunday between Pierre Junior, the lively four-year-old buffalo, and a Matador with sword and cape in hand.

Pierre Junior

That day arrived with an exceptionally large and enthusiastic crowd on hand to watch the contest, advertised as four bull fights with matadors, followed by the buffalo and matador fight.

All were sorely disappointed.

The first bull let into the ring was the same handsome red bull of Pierre’s first fight from the Sunday before. Reputed to be one of the most splendid fighting bulls in the Juarez bull ring, the red bull shook his head, refused to fight the matador and ran for an escape opening.

Upon coming into the ring, the next three bulls repeated that same dismal performance.

Finally, an aggressive Pierre Junior charged into the ring looking for trouble. But the governor called off the match almost as it began, unwilling for their best fighters to suffer more humiliation.

He promised the crowd to refund their tickets.

As it turned out Scotty Philip was right. The Mexican fighting bulls—although gallant, fiery, highly-trained and said to be the finest in Mexico—were no match for a top buffalo herd bull.

Pierre Junior, his dignity intact, stood alone in the middle of the ring while the crowd cheered the magnificent stranger from South Dakota—mighty monarch of the plains and prairies

Epilogue: In another version of the “Mexican vs Buffalo Bulls” fight in Juarez, George Philip added that one of the men heard from a woman who saw these two Buffalo fights. She told him that several Sundays later, after Pierre’s leg had fully healed, he was advertised to fight again in Juarez.

Since they were not allowed to bring the bulls back into the U.S. after crossing into Mexico, the South Dakotans had sold them for $200 each to the ring master and a butcher.

Pierre’s promoters had built a pen of four-by-four timbers in the middle of the ring, the woman explained, with a chute leading into it.

Pierre ran down the chute, and a Mexican fighting bull followed.

The bull could not escape and Pierre fought with him and killed him.

A second and then a third fighting bull followed down the chute and Pierre killed them both. A fourth bull was run in and when the buffalo bull killed him he shoved the slain opponent through the side of the pen.

The woman said she heard that the buffalo bull then went on to fight in Chihuahua, Mexico City and Madrid.

George Philip ended his story with the question, “Maybe the lady had the story straight. Who knows?”

Source: George Philip, “Buffaloes versus Mexican Bulls.” Note that George Philip was one of the six cowboys delegated to round up and bring in the original Dupree buffalo herd 100 miles to their new home with the Scotty Philips, after Pete Dupree died. Fortunately for us and the buffalo’s loyal fans, many years later George described in detail the Mexican Bull Fight through a newspaper article, and then in SD Historical Review II, Jan 1937, and SD Historical Collections XX, 1940.

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Francie M Berg

Author of the Buffalo Tales &Trails blog