Why the Buffalo?

The American Buffalo is the largest mammal in North America and is officially known as Bison Bison. Ironically, along with the Bald Eagle it is the national symbol of the USA as well as the emblem of the states of Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Kansas. It is a prehistoric animal that crossed over from Asia millions of years ago and used to dominate the central US with free roaming herds totaling 50 million animals up to the mid 1800s. The Bison was essential to the lives of indigenous populations as well as to the ecosystem of the prairie. It is a vegan and prospers by eating only naturally growing grasses, foraging continuously from 9 to 11 hours a day. Bison have a life span of 20 years, females bare one calf at a time, They mature at the age of 2. Adult males are massive, reaching up to 6 feet high and they weigh up to 2,000 lbs. They are agile, can run 35 miles an hour, jump up to 7 feet upwards and forward and are excellent swimmers. They always face the oncoming storm. They charge at it and run through it minimizing its impact. Bison mourn the dead of their heard. They surround the dead animal, preventing predators to approach the body. They stay there for hours honoring the life of the animal, then they depart releasing the body to nature. The circle of life continues as energy passes from one organism to the next. The life force of the dead Bison passes into the organisms that feed on it.

Human interference toppled the balance of the ecosystem by trying to eliminate the Buffalo. The animal was aggressively hunted down during the late 1800s. By 1900 there were only a few thousand left. The decimation of the Buffalo was the first ever conscious human effort to intentionally exterminate a species. It set the stage for the first and largest environmental crime on the planet due to the European, Christian, civilized, white man’s invasion. The wholesale slaughter of the Buffalo for profit was similar to the gold rush. Propelled by arrogance, ignorance and greed, thousands of profiteers descended on the prairie for the sole purpose of obtaining Buffalo hides for sale abandoning the bodies, skinless, to rot in the field. This assault also served to destroy the life of indigenous populations who had a symbiotic relationship with the animal, treated it with respect and depended upon it for food, clothing, tools, shelter and inspiration. Colonization and the killing of the Buffalo for profit was the first anthropogenic environmental crime on the planet and was actively encouraged by the Federal Government.

This enormous mindless intervention to the ecosystem created a chain of events that culminated in the creation of the Dust Bowl which destroyed life in the central United Stated and drove away 400,000 people in the 1930s, coinciding with the Great Depression. The Buffalo’s absence from the prairie grasslands was the cornerstone and the key to what was to follow. I am deeply moved by the fate of this animal and I see it as a symbol for the disasters that are upon us today. Civilization wreaking havoc in the land of the “savages” who were disposable because they were living “in nature.” Tribal cultures connected deeply to the Buffalo and considered it the focal point of abundance, strength and unity. The Indian tribes did not have the concept of “profit” or of private land ownership. It’s like still, in today’s world, you cannot own a piece of the ocean. // E.M.