The Near-Extinction of the Buffalo During Westward Expansion

The “Slaughter on the Plains”

Pile of buffalo skulls to be ground for fertilizer in Detroit, 1892. Source: National Park Service

The American Plains Bison, colloquially known as the buffalo, is a native animal in North America that moved freely throughout the Great Plains in population sizes of tens of millions. Since the end of the Last Glacial Period, around 10,000 years ago, buffalo lived without consequence across the Plains and…