Look out on the prairie!  As far as your eyes can see, the prairie is dark, rolling toward you like a black wave.  You  hear what sounds like thunder or waves pounding on the shore, but there is no seashore!  The loud, dark wave is made up of buffalo--millions and millions and millions of them, 60 million in all.  It is 1860, and the buffalo roam freely wherever they please on the Great Plains. George Catlin, an American artist, traveled in the West.  He lived an exciting life, painting pictures of the buffalo and how they lived their lives.

George Catlin, American, 1796 - 1872; A Buffalo Wallow, 1861/1869 (oil on card mounted on paperboard, .467 x .625 m (20 x 26 1/4 in.)  Provenance: National Gallery of Art, Paul Mellon Collection, 1965.16.178)

George Catlin, American, 1796 - 1872 Catlin and Indian At tacking Buffalo, 1861/1869 oil on card mounted on paperboard,  .465 x .629 m (18 5/16 x 24 13/16 in.)  (Provenance: National Gallery of Art, Paul Mellon Collection, 1965.16.177)

Indians hunted the buffalo, too.   Their families needed food and shelter to live.  The Indians used the buffalo for at least 53 things.  For example, they used the buffalo to make teepees and clothes, water cups and spoons, and even fishing line. Then the railroads came. The buffalo herds were so big that trains had to come to a dead stop right in the middle of the prairie.  Sometimes they had to stop for a whole day to let the buffalo pass.  This made the railroad men angry.  They hired commercial buffalo hunters to kill as many buffalo as they could.

Josiah Wright Mooar was 19.  He needed a job, so he became a buffalo hunter.  His first contract was for 500 buffalo hides. Josiah would be paid $2.25 for each hide.  When he loaded the hides onto the train, Josiah realized he had killed 57 more buffalo than he had contracted for.  He knew he could make more money by killing more buffalo.   It was an easy way to make a living back then.

In 1867, General Philip H. Sheridan took command of U.S. troops in the West.  He swore to bring peace to the plains.  He planned to kill all of the buffalo.  The buffalo were sacred to the Indians.  The Indians lived off of the buffalo.  "Kill the buffalo, and you kill the Indians," the general said.  Many people wanted buffalo hides, too. It was the end for the buffalo. Hundreds of hunters came to the prairie to kill buffalo for their hides.  They used a destructive type of hunting.  It was called the “still hunt” or “stand.”  The hunters hid in the bushes or behind rocks.  Each hunter had two rifles.  When one got hot, they could use the other.  The hunters killed the oldest buffalo first.  He was the leader.  When the leader fell dead, the other buffalo would just stand there.  Then the hunter would kill them all.  The hunters killed 50 buffalo a day with the still hunt.  One buffalo hunter, George Reighard, claimed he killed 79 buffaloes in 90 minutes.  Buffalo were easy to kill.

General Philip H. Sheridan

When the railroad came through the West, the great buffalo herd was split in half.  The two herds were called the northern herd and the southern herd.  The hunters focused on the southern herd.  Within 10 years, the entire southern herd was slaughtered.  The hunters moved on to the northern herd and did the same thing. 

Three events helped cause the destruction of the buffalo. The railroad men wanted trains to run on time. General Sheridan wanted to end Indian fighting on the Plains.  Buffalo hides were worth a lot of money.  So more hunters came west to kill the animals.  The invention of breech loading rifles made it easier for the hunters to kill the buffalo from a distance.  Entire herds of buffalo were killed every day. 

The Indians decided to fight back.  White men destroyed their buffalo and their way of life.  Hunters broke the law.  They began hunting on Indian territory.  The Indians would not allow this to happen.  On June 27, 1874, more than 500 Cheyenne warriors attacked Adobe Walls.  The attack started a yearlong war.  The Indians and buffalo lost in the end. 

By 1889, only 1,091 buffalo were left alive in North America.  Could the buffalo come back?  Who would help the buffalo return to their home on the prairie?