Montana Medicine Show: Buffalo Slaughter

Welcome to the Montana Medicine Show. I'm Derrick strong. The final chapter in the American bison slaughter took place on Montana's plains in the early 1880s. Historian Dave Walter called it the most incredible example in all frontier history of devastating the environment. The upper Missouri River Valley was filled with 5000 hunters and hides skinners working constantly. Lieutenant JM Tea Party Hello reported their camps completely blocked the Great Buffalo ranges of the Yellowstone River the Musselshell the milk and the Mariah's rendering it impossible for scarcely a single bison to escape. Buffalo hunter Frank Meyer remembered they didn't belong to anybody. If you could kill them what they brought was yours. They were walking gold pieces and a fellow who had guts and gumption could make his fortune. Sharpshooters decimated roughly eight million bison in just four years. Vic Smith singlehandedly killed about 5000 bison in the winter of 1882. Hunter ship tides East by 1880 for only a few small

bands of bison remained touring Montana and 1886 William Hornaday of the Smithsonian Institution described the carnage over many portions of the Northern range. The traveler may ride for days without once being out of sight of Buffalo carcasses or bones go wherever we might. We always found the omnipresent ghastly skeleton with hairy head half skinned legs stretched helplessly upon the great turf and bones bleach white as chalk. From K. GLT studios. I'm Derek strong. Montana medicine show is supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A private corporation funded by the American people.