The Extermination Of The American Bison By William Hornaday

The huge creatures known as Bison, play a surprisingly big role in the history of America, despite being almost extinct for a good period of time in American history. Long before English people settled in the New World, there was estimated to be about thirty to two-hundred million prairie bison alone. (2) Many things occurred all at once that all but wiped out this important part of America. The slaughter of the Bison was devastating for the Native Americans of the West especially, who depended on the roaming Bison as a source of food and clothing. The things that brought about the downfall of the Bison are neatly laid out in an account by zoologist William T. Hornaday called “The Extermination of the American Bison”.

William T. Hornaday established the American

He traveled to retrieve American Bison specimens for the National Museum and was appalled to find the huge herds of Bison he remembered, gone, and only a few stragglers left. His paper “The Extermination of the American Bison” did exactly what he had hoped, and raised awareness and sympathy towards the Bison’s cause. (3)

In the beginning paragraph of the article, there is a statement that is meant to wake up the readers to the seriousness of the Bison’s plight. He writes: “Even in South Central Africa, which has always been exceedingly prolific in great herds of game, it is probable that all its quadrupeds taken together on an equal area would never have more than equaled the total number of buffalo in this country forty years ago.” (1) Later on, he says, “And yet, in four short years the southern herd is almost