The Buffalo of the Dakotas

Never having been to the Dakotas mysel, I rely on others experience to tell the story of the America Buffalo or Bison...

In South Dakota, there are rolling plains, knee high grasses, thick forests and the Black Hills. There is also the Buffalo.

The Sioux Nation - consisting of the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Native American tribes - thrived here for hundreds of years. The land was considered sacred and holy - it had all that they needed to survive, both physically and spiritually.

The Sioux nation also considered the bison sacred as well and co-existed with them. I is a well known fact that Native Americans never hunted for sport, using all the parts of those bison killed to sustain life.

Tatanka (the Sioux's name for the buffalo) was a necessary part of life in the Dakotas. At 20 million strong, the bison roamed the Great Plains during the early part of our Pioneer history. Then along came the settler, "the white man" who reduced the number of Tatanka to less than 1000 by the end of the 19th century. Hard to believe!

Today 400,000 buffalo live in North America, due in large part to the ranchers and government commitment to keeping the buffalo alive.

One of these places working hard to protect the Bison is Custer State Park where the Buffalo till roam on 73,000 acres of mountains and plains surrounded by natural boundries. Each year it is the site of the yearly Buffalo Round-Up. Held in early fall each year, the round-i[ is headed by three dozen professional cowboys and their horses. Since the buffalo are territorial and can gain speed of up to 30 miles an hour behind those 2000 pounds - it can be a dangerous task for those cowboy pros!

So why is the round-up so important to the Bison of North America? The purpose is to, surprisingly, thin down the herd to ensure its survival for the coming winter months, as well as keep the population explosion down in the spring.

The Lakotas over 150 years ago would drive them over a cliff - retrieving the kill to survive as a tribe for the winter. The same concept is used today, with the exception of the cliff. Those Buffalo that remain are released back into Custer Park to begin their winter survival.

So, the Buffalo, aka Tatanka, are still here today. We have learned, like the Sioux Nation, that some things are indeed sacred to preserve.