Book Synopsis
For centuries across the Great Plains of the U.S., bison (buffalo) were central in the lives of Native Americans who depended upon the bison and its bi-products for as many as 150 vital uses. Healthy meat, tallow, tough leather for clothing, moccasins, and teepee covering, bones for tools and weapons, materials for ropes and sewing, and horns for utensils and ladles were among the uses. For Native Americans, the mass slaughter of bison in the 1870s and 1880s was a cultural disaster. The American Buffalo: Monarch of the Great PLains addresses the importance of bison to Native Americans and how the animal has rebounded from near extinction to a modern environmental success on many Indian Reservations.