Bison skull pile - photo

[WmRMeyers]

Actually, Native Americans, before gaining access to repeating rifles, would drive entire herds of Bison over cliffs, killing massive quantities at one time, which was far more efficient for them than hunting with bow & arrow and knife.

I don't know if those folks count as American Indians. Some of those mass buffalo kill sites have Clovis points embedded in some of the buffalo bones. Those are 10-13,000 years old. Paleo-Indians they were called, and I don't know that any of their descendants are still around. Never mind that. There's apparently a Clovis burial that does link them to modern American Indians: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clovis_culture It's been a little while since I last took a class or read a book on the subject.

[BuffaloJohn]

I don't know if those folks count as American Indians.

Yes they did, well documented up to the time of horses, they could could best use buffalo jumps to kill the animals.

[BuffaloJohn]

There is this idylic view of the native americans, but they practiced slavery, warred with their neighbors, burned the prairies to drive animals and people away, and on and on...

My favorite story to tell is that some tribes believed that if they came across a herd, that they would have to kill all the animals so that a herd would return to the area the next year. Why kill them all? Because if they left survivors, those would tell the others not to come that way in the future, so all must die.

I raised bison for over 2 decades, did quite a bit of reading up on history, lore, stories, etc...

[imohtep56]

There is this idylic view of the native americans, but they practiced slavery, warred with their neighbors, burned the prairies to drive animals and people away, and on and on...

My favorite story to tell is that some tribes believed that if they came across a herd, that they would have to kill all the animals so that a herd would return to the area the next year. Why kill them all? Because if they left survivors, those would tell the others not to come that way in the future, so all must die.

I raised bison for over 2 decades, did quite a bit of reading up on history, lore, stories, etc...

Username checks out...

[BuffaloJohn]

Another thing to learn is that the herds, which at one time many have numbered from 45 to 60 million animals in the first half of the 1800's, were decimated by the blizzards in the 1830s. Imagine that there were tens of thousands of animals on a trail looking for a better feeding ground, crossing an ice bridge over a river and the bridge breaks. The lead animals can't stop, the herd pushes them into the river and they drown, kept in the frozen river until it thaws. Ever wonder why some places are called Red River? Imagine the smell once that thaws...

It is estimated that around 25-40 million bison died from the blizzards of the 1830's.

I'm not saying that the US didn't try to control the population of Indians by killing the bison, but there were other factors. Did you know that the teepee only lasted about a year and you had to have hides for a new one? A typical teepee required 8-12 hides and only female hides were used -why - well two reasons, first the males had permanent hair for a great portion of their hide where the females did not, and secondly, the female hide was not as thick and tought as the male hide so it was easier to tan. As the Indian population grew with the advent of horses, that meant more shelter was needed and that meant more females were killed and that meant fewer calves were born, including fewer females...