Bison skull pile - photo

[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...