Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1995
Abstract
On 6 February 1833, William Laidlow, the American Fur Company's leading official at Fort Pierre wrote that Brule (Sicangu) and Yankton (Ihanktonwan ) camps "have been in a state of starvation all winter, and have suffered most dreadfully." The entire winter of 1832-33 was a "starving time" on the middle Missouri River in present day south-central South Dakota because these skilled tribal hunters found no bison in a land where the herds were frequently described as "immense." Why knowledgeable and efficient professional tribal hunters, as well as post employees, were hungry that winter, in this apparent land of abundance, presents an important environmental historical question.
Comments
Published in Great Plains Quarterly 15:4 (Fall 1995). Copyright © 1995 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.