What Happened To All The American Buffalo on The Frontier?

More than a million years ago, the steppe bison roamed North America long before humans set foot on the continent. Over time, this bison transformed into the massive Ice Age bison, which lived from 200,000 to 30,000 years ago. Later, it was replaced by two other types of bison: Bison occidentalis, likely originating from Eurasia, and Bison antiquus, which evolved independently. The earliest humans in North America, known as Paleo-Indians, likely hunted these latter two bison species along with other large plant-eating animals like mammoths, mastodons, camels, horses, and ground sloths. Approximately 10,000 years ago, many of these large animals disappeared, possibly due to excessive hunting or a combination of factors. Bison antiquus managed to survive, albeit with a reduction in size over time, eventually evolving into the smaller modern American bison around 5,000 years ago.
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[@crazyviking24]

Here in Thermopolis,Wyoming there is a bison pasture where you can watch the bison be fed.

[@michaelterrell]

A herd of buffalo migrated through Ft. Greely, Alaska twice a year, when I served there in the '70s. This was followed my soldiers following them with wheelbarrows and shovels. to remove their wastes.

[@houseandhobby6971]

Thankfully, opportunities exist at Yellowstone National Park for selfies with buffalo, a good goring, and possibly a ticket for disturbance of them, or a car dent.

[@crazyviking24]

It wasn't originally accurate to say that buffalo hunters only took the hides and tongues. Originally, they were often hunting for the railroad to supply meat for the workers. The extermination policies that left the carcasses to rot were implemented by the US government to deliberately weaken the various plains Indians.

[@FrontierLore]

If you find yourself in Deadwood, South Dakota, I recommend checking out Ta'Tanka: Story of the Bison. Fantastic museum. They have some awesome displays that show all the tools that were made from bison.

[@FarmerDrew]

My Great Grandpa Claudius Hart got his first car ride in Buffalo Bill's model T. This family story is told with pride and I always questioned them like 'you've seen the pyramids of Buffalo skull right?'

[@MikeHunt-fo3ow]

they went to mexico the grass has a real kick down there

[@icbm777]

Spoiler alert: Europeans

[@arleneparris3446]

The Colonist drove Buffalo off cliffs: To starve Native Americans 🦬