Just don't call it hunting

Not all Indians drove herds of Bison off of cliffs. Some areas have nothing deeper than creek beds.

I read about southern plains Indians ( maybe Tonkawas , can't remember ) stalking through a herd wearing a Buff hide. Dangerous stuff.

Anyhows, with most of the bison out of the way now, theres more room for whitetails, antelope, pigs and other critters.

mc

I was born and raised in MT and lived in Bozeman during the "harvesting" of buffalo in the Gardner area. The carrying capacity of Yellowstone is around 1500 buffalo at the time of the harvest there were over 3500. From what I understand in the 50's the park rangers would shoot up to a 1000 head a year and leave them lay to keep the numbers down. Calling the shooting of buffalo a hunt was what the papers and enviromentalist called it, but it was a harvest. Current the plan for the future is to have a real hunt, with a drawing for licenses and without any guiding to buffalo. This is the way it should be since the numbers are so high.

Oz you beat me to it!!!

I was going to ask why they just don't have the "hunts" at the bottom of a buffalo run. Then they could take a few choice steaks and really be one with the land! LOL

You will notice that I was standing solemnly with a tear slowly trickling down my cheek when I said this. :haha:

Have a problem with native americans anyone???
You dont really believe that the indians used to just harvest a few choice steaks do you???
It was the white man that used to slaughter the bison from trains or in other sporting ways.
So whether it was the TV that gave you the idea or perhaps just some racist friend .......ahhhhh nevermind i have the distinct feeling that im wasting my time

No I believe a bunch of poopoo is paraded around as truth-how the Indians were the 'stewards of the land' and protected the environment and lived in harmony with nature.....

Sorry I don't find that man is a very good steward of the land at any time and I doubt that the Indians were any different.

I would like to point out that unless the indians lived in harmony with nature they sure wouldnt last very long. They would have to know a ton about animals and their habits just to keep food in their families bellies and skins on their backs, they would have to know the medicinal uses of various plants just to survive ect ect so I am sorry but I dont see where the poo-poo is in that???
BTW im a white guy just in case you wondered.

Well it seems that Indians hunted SOME animals to extinction...

''Prehistoric horses, which were much smaller than today's horses, standing about 4.5 feet (1.5 meters) high at the shoulder, became extinct about 10,000 years ago. Scientists considered it likely that hunting by humans was a factor in their extinction, but until now there was no hard proof. ''
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/05/0511_ancienthorses.html

''Woolly mammoths, giant armadillos and three species of camels were among more than 30 mammals that were hunted to extinction by North American humans 13,000 to 12,000 years ago, according to the most realistic, sophisticated computer model to date. The news is reported in the June 8 issue of the journal Science.''

Sorry i dont buy it the one theory is based on computer models and the other story admits theres no hard proof. Think about what you are saying these small tribes of nomads without the benifit (???) of gasoline vehicles and rifles managed to completely destroy several species??? Seems to me that 10-12 000 years ago the Ice Age would be a much more likely culprit.

The problem here is cattle ranchers using Government Land for grazing rights. Because of the threat of brucellious,they don't want Bison anywhere near their cattle. The bison stray onto the leased lands, looking for graze. The cattlemen want to STOP that. Who has the most Pull with the Govnt? If the bison were Harvested for their meat, I might be in favour of what happens, but it Ain't Right!

__________________
Freedom isn't Free

My point was that Indians were no different than any other tribal group of people. They hunted in the most efficient way possible. if that meant running a heard off an available cliff so be it. We have been preached to about the "one with nature" stuff for way too long. They did what any human would have done. but don't now paint it differently and claim they did something out of some perceived goodness of living with nature.

That's all. And my problem is not in any way with the Indians who did it. It is with the delusional guilt wracked Americans who preach this revisionist history.