Write supporting the Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act

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Proposed Legislation Would Put an End to the Slaughter of Buffalo Crossing
Yellowstone’s Borders

In a bold effort to end the senseless slaughter of America’s last wild and genetically pure buffalo, U.S. Reps. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Charles Bass (R-NH) introduced legislation on May 18th to protect the Yellowstone herd. The Yellowstone Buffalo Preservation Act (H.R. 2428) would end years of seasonal hazing, capture, and killing of buffalo in and around Yellowstone National Park by federal and state agencies until specific, common sense conditions are met.

Please write a letter to your representative, http://www.firstgov.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml, asking him or her to cosponsor H.R. 2428.

More information can be found here.

In the opening of Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man, Depp’s hellhound train passing a herd of bison, he watches in disoriented amazement as all fly to thrust rifles out the windows and gun down the bison with gluttonous, whooping glee.

It’s impossible to accurately estimate the number of buffalo populating the area west of the Mississippi at the close of the Civil War, but it’s believed there were millions and perhaps tens of millions.

In 1871, Colonel R. I. Dodge traveled along the Arkansas River through an immense herd of American bison (Bison bison). Dodge estimated that the herd was at least 25 miles across and after consulting with hunters and other travelers, concluded that it must have been at least 50 miles long.

Source: Bisoncenter.com

Frank H. Mayer, who had lived a Buffalo Runner’s life, later had recorded via Charles Roth:

I’m often asked now what my feeling is toward myself that I helped wipe out a noble American animal by being a sort of juvenile delinquent with a high-power rifle. I always am frank in answering. I always say I am neither proud nor ashamed. At the time it seemed a proper thing to do. Looked at from a distance, however, I’m not so sure. The slaughter was perhaps a shameless, needless thing. But it was also an inevitable thing, an historical necessity.

What I mean by that is this: the buffalo served his mission, fulfilled his destiny in the history of the Indian, by furnishing him everything he needed — food, clothing, a home, traditions, even a theology. But the buffalo didn’t fit in so well with the white man’s encroaching civilization — he didn’t fit at all, in fact. He could not be controlled or domesticated. He couldn’t be corralled behind wire fences. He was a misfit. So he had to go.

And there was another reason, not so commonly known. You will understand it better when I tell you that the buffalo was hunted and killed with the connivance, yes, the cooperation, of the Government itself. That this will be denied I have little doubt. As I put my words down I weigh them.

Don’t understand that any official action was taken in Washington and directives sent out to kill all the buff on the plains. Nothing like that happened. What did happen was that army officers in charge of plains operations encouraged the slaughter of buffalo in every possible way. Part of this encouragement was of a practical nature that we runners appreciated. It consisted of ammunition, free ammunition, all you could use, all you wanted, more than you needed. All you had to do to get it was apply at any frontier army post and say you were short of ammunition, and plenty would be given you. I received thousands of rounds this way. It was in .45-70 caliber, but we broke it up, remelted the lead, and some runners used government powder. I didn’t. I was a stickler for the best, and used imported English powder which I will be describing to you in a little while. I had no trouble trading my government powder for things I wanted — tobacco, bacon, flour, and other things.

Maybe you are wondering at the theory behind this. Let me tell you. I think I won’t: I will let a high ranking officer in the plains service do it for me. One afternoon I was visiting this man in his quarters. The object of my visit you have guessed: free ammunition. I got it. Afterward we smoked and talked. He said to me:

“Mayer, there’s no two ways about it: either the buffalo or the Indian must go. Only when the Indian becomes absolutely dependent on us for his every need, will we be able to handle him. He’s too independent with the buffalo. But if we kill the buffalo we conquer the Indian. It seems a more humane thing to kill the buffalo than the Indian, so the buffalo must go,” he concluded.

It wasn’t long after I got into the game that I began to realize that the end for the buffalo was in sight. I resolved to get my share. I went into the business right. I invested every cent I owned in an outfit. I have no apologies for my participation in the slaughter. I hope that answers the question.

By 1880 there were only a few hundred remaining.

In 1902 there were 50 native bison conserved at Yellowstone. Now there are about 4000.