American Bison - Buffalo Field Campaign

Charles Alloway (Manitoba), Charles Goodnight (Texas), Walking
Coyote (Montana), Frederick Dupree (South Dakota), Charles J.
Jones (Kansas), and Michel Pablo and Charles Allard (Montana)
(Coder 1975; Danz 1997; Dary 1989; Geist 1996). Their efforts
to establish herds from the few remaining bison secured the
foundation stock for most contemporary public and private
plains bison herds. Formed in 1905, the American Bison
Society (ABS) pressed Congress to establish several public
bison herds at Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge, the
National Bison Range (NBR), Sully’s Hill National Game Preserve
(SHNGP), and Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge (Coder
1975; Danz 1997). National parks in both the U.S. and Canada
also figured prominently in bison recovery efforts (Danz 1997;
Ogilvie 1979).
Once plains bison were protected from hunting (beginning in the
1870s), their numbers increased considerably, doubling between
1888 and 1902. By 1909, the subspecies was considered safe
from extinction (Coder 1975). Initially sparked by nostalgia and
reverence for the animal, motivations for bison recovery became
increasingly driven by their commercial value (Yorks and Capels
1998). By 1970, there were 30,000 plains bison in North America,
with approximately half in public herds located in national parks,
wildlife refuges, and state wildlife areas, and half in private herds
(Shaw and Meagher 2000). As reviewed in chapter 7, the number
of plains bison currently is more than 20,500 in 62 conservation
herds, while the number under commercial propagation is about
400,000.
The wood bison population fell to a low of 250 animals at the
close of the 19th Century, then slowly grew to 1,500-2,000 by
1922 owing to the enforcement of Canadian laws enacted to
protect the animal (Gates et al. 2001c; Soper 1941). In 2008,
there were about 10,870 wood bison in 11 conservation herds
(Chapter 7).
2.6 Cultural Significance
Few species enjoy a history as rich in archaeology,
palaeontology, story and legend, oral and documentary history
as the American bison. Nor is there another North American
species for which the cultural and political significance of an
animal is so great. For thousands of years various forms and
populations of bison have coexisted with humans in North
America, providing sustenance and shaping human social
and economic patterns, and influencing national history and
international political relationships. Although a comprehensive
review of human-bison interactions from the colonisation of
North America to recent times is encyclopaedic in scope, a brief
summary and discussion is provided here.
Bison were important in the subsistence economies of the
first Beringian colonisers of the western hemisphere, and later
figured prominently, but differentially, in Palaeo-Indian, Archaic,
Palaeo-Indian: (12,000-6,000 B.P.) A group of Late
Pleistocene–Early Holocene cultures associated
with the colonisation of central North America.
While their subsistence economies are debated,
many archaeologists consider them to be big game
hunting specialists (including mammoth).
Folsom: (11,000-10,200 B.P.) A Palaeoindian
culture, characterised by very high mobility and
specialised bison hunting.
Archaic: (6,000-2,300 B.P.) A group of Middle
Holocene cultures characterised by broad spectrum
foraging (i.e., subsisting on a wide variety of big and
small game, fish, shellfish, and plant foods). They do
not have permanent villages or agriculture.
Plains Woodland: (2,300-1,000 B.P.) A group of
Late Holocene cultures characterised by semi-
permanent villages, horticulture (maize and beans)
in addition to hunting and gathering.
Altithermal: also the Holocene Climate Optimum.
A warm period during the interval 9,000 to 5,000
years B.P. This event is also known by other
names, including: Hypsithermal, Climatic Optimum,
Holocene Optimum, Holocene Thermal Maximum,
and Holocene Megathermal.
and subsequent North American cultural horizons and traditions.
Bison were economically and culturally important throughout
most of North America, including interior Alaska, Yukon and
Northwest Territories, but they were particularly significant for
groups living in the Great Plains, from north-central Texas to
southern Alberta. Various forms of bison have been identified as
key subsistence resources in the Palaeolithic of north-eastern
Asia, forming part of a megafaunal complex adapted to the
steppe-tundra of Late Pleistocene northern Eurasia and Beringia,
along with mammoths and horses (Guthrie 1990). While bison
remains are commonly found in Siberian archaeological sites,
standard zooarchaeological methods (Ermolova 1978) indicate
they do not appear to have contributed greatly to subsistence.
By comparison, reindeer, mammoths, and horses are relatively
abundant in Siberian archaeological sites. Bison seem to have
played a more important role in North American archaeological
complexes. In Alaska, there is empirical evidence from numerous
archaeological complexes spanning 12,000 to 1,000 years
B.P. that links bison with cultural traditions using conservative,
American Bison: Status Survey and Conservation Guidelines 2010 9