Decimation of the American Buffalo Selection of Primary Resources
Original Range 1889 2003
Mid 1870s
Rath & Wright's buffalo hide yard with some 40,000 hides Dodge City, KS 1878
Inverse model of nickel
$10 United States bill, 1901
YELLOWSTONE GAME PROTECTION ACT, 1894 AN ACT TO PROTECT THE BIRDS AND ANIMALS IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, AND TO PUNISH CRIMES IN SAID PARK, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, Approved May 7, 1894 (28 Stat.73) Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Yellowstone National Park, as its boundaries are now defined, or as they may be hereafter defined or extended, shall be under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States; and that all the laws applicable to places under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States shall have force and effect in said park: Provided, however, That nothing in this act shall be construed to forbid the service in the park of any civil or criminal process of any court having jurisdiction in the States of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. All fugitives from justice taking refuge in said park shall be subject to the same laws as refugees from justice found in the State of Wyoming. (U.S.C., title 16, sec. 24.) SEC. 4. That all hunting, or the killing, wounding, or capturing at any time of any bird or wild animal, except dangerous animals, when it is necessary to prevent them from destroying human life or inflicting an injury, is prohibited within the limits of said park.
The killing of ten buffalo in the National Park by a skin hunter from Cooke City is announced The capture is unquestionably the most important that has ever been made in the National Park. The occurrence calls public attention again and most forcibly to the criminal negligence of which Congress has been guilty for all these years in failing to provide any form of government for the Park, or to establish any process of law by which crimes against the public committed within its borders can be punished Such a condition is not only an anomaly under our form of government, but a disgrace to every American citizen In the Yellowstone park the buffalo remnant of a continent have increased year by year, until now they number perhaps 500 But Congress, by its continued neglect, encourages the evil-minded to believe that they may penetrate even here and destroy this last remnant of a race long nearly extinct. It puts a premium on this crime At this rate it will not be long before the last shall have been shot down. It is for the people to say whether or not they desire this. A Premium on Crime Forest and Stream Magazine, March 24, 1894
The [Edgar] Howell [a known poacher] buffalo slaughter marks an epoch, the turning point, let us hope, in the long course of a cruelly wasteful indifference on the part of the United States Government in the matter of one of the most valuable possessions of the American people a possession growing yearly less and less through this indifference, and which as it has grown less has increased in value, since when once destroyed, it can never by any human power be replaced. Yellowstone Park Game Exploration: The Account of Howell s Capture Forest and Stream Magazine, May 5, 1894
These men [buffalo hunters] have done more in the last two years, and will do more in the next year, to settle the vexed Indian question, than the entire regular army has done in the last forty years. They are destroying the Indians' commissary. And it is a well known fact that an army losing its base of supplies is placed at a great disadvantage. Send them powder and lead, if you will; but for a lasting peace, let them kill, skin, and sell until the buffaloes are exterminated. Then your prairies can be covered with speckled cattle. -General Sheridan, 1874
Two years ago, I came upon this road, following the buffalo, that my wives and children might have their cheeks plump and their bodies warm. But the soldiers fired on us, and since that time there has been a noise like that of a thunderstorm, and we have not known which way to go. -Parra-wa-samen (Ten Bears) of the Yamparika Comanches, 1874
These soldiers cut down my timber; they kill my buffalo; and when I see that, my heart feels like bursting; I feel sorry Has the white man become a child that he should recklessly kill and not eat? When the red man slay game, they do so that they may live and not starve. -Satanta, Chief of the Kiowas, 1874
[D]uring the time I was hunting for the Kansas Pacific, I always brought into camp the best buffalo heads, and turned them over to the company, who found a very good use for them. They had them mounted in the best possible manner, and sent them to all the principal cities and railroad centers in the country, having them placed in prominent positions at the leading hotels, depots, and other public buildings, as a sort of trade-mark, or advertisement, of the Kansas Pacific railroad; and to-day they attract the attention of the traveler almost everywhere. Whenever I am traveling over the country and see one of these trade-marks, I feel pretty certain that I was the cause of the death of the old fellow whose body it once ornamented, and many a wild and exciting hunt is thus called to mind. - The Life and Adventures of Buffalo Bill, 1917
Nearly every railroad train which leaves or arrives at Fort Hays on the Kansas Pacific Railroad has its race with these herds of buffalo; and a most interesting and exciting scene is the result. The train is slowed to a rate of speed about equal to that of the herd; the passengers get out fire-arms which are provided for the defense of the train against the Indians, and open from the windows and platforms of the cars a fire that resembles a brisk skirmish. Frequently a young bull will turn at bay for a moment. His exhibition of courage is generally his death-warrant, for the whole fire of the train is turned upon him, either killing him or some member of the herd in his immediate vicinity. Buffalo Hunting: Shooting Buffalo From the Trains of the Kansas Pacific Railroad Harper s Weekly, December 14, 1867