Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1994
Abstract
Buffalo consists of twelve articles written by Canadian authors of diverse backgrounds. Their efforts support the editors' assertion that the bison has ceased to be a mere "artifact," but has become an integral part of today's world and an animal whose "fate may mirror our own" (p. vii). The articles examine buffalo in three primary areas. First, archeological studies reveal bison natural history. Head-Smashed..In Buffalo Jump reigns as Alberta's premier site, a project where scientists, government officials, and Native leaders have succeeded in working together. Second, history articles analyze the tie between bison and society, linking the demise of the great herds in the nineteenth century to growing industrialization and portraying the ever changing perception of the buffalo in image and word. Third, scientific investigations re.. veal the environmental issues surrounding the buffalo. Disease, predation, aboriginal uses, economic benefit, and political value figure into bison survival.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly 14:3 (Summer 1994). Copyright © 1994 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.