ABSTRACT
Before white Americans settled the Great Plains bison were free to roam and proliferate. The bearded wild cattle provided American Indians with food, fuel, clothing, shelter, tools, and glue, so that nothing was left to waste. Herds of bison had become so numerous that hunting them was a misnomer, a cross-eyed fool could kill one. By nature bison are gregarious animals which played right into the hands of prodigal hunters. When the Union Pacific and Kansas Pacific railways opened around 1865, bison hunting began in earnest. It was great sport to kill the lumbering beasts from a moving train; or the train might stop to let the curious bison congregate, and then shooting at closer range commenced. By 1900, estimates place the number of bison slaughtered at 50 million, or close to extinction. How and why this slaughter took place is a regrettable chapter of American history.
