1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:02,840 Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to our latest bonus drop of the 2 00:00:02,880 --> 00:00:05,920 Speaker 1: Meat Eater podcast. What you're about to hear is a 3 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:11,559 Speaker 1: chapter from our new audio original, Meat Eater's American History, 4 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:16,319 Speaker 1: The Hide Hunters eighteen sixty five to eighteen eighty three. 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,040 Speaker 1: If you like what you're hearing, you can go find 6 00:00:20,079 --> 00:00:24,320 Speaker 1: the complete work anywhere that you get your audio books. Again, 7 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:29,120 Speaker 1: Meat Eater's American History, The Hide Hunters eighteen sixty five 8 00:00:29,680 --> 00:00:31,000 Speaker 1: to eighteen eighty three. 9 00:00:31,520 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 2: And here's a little taste called Ghosts. Chapter one. Ghosts. 10 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:46,520 Speaker 2: Let's get something cleared up right away before we even 11 00:00:46,600 --> 00:00:50,680 Speaker 2: begin this story. There is no difference between the animal 12 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 2: known as the American buffalo and the animal known as 13 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:59,560 Speaker 2: a bison. Both names refer to the creature whose scientific 14 00:00:59,640 --> 00:01:04,440 Speaker 2: name is bison bison. The confusion about this meaning, the 15 00:01:04,480 --> 00:01:07,880 Speaker 2: confusion about whether you call them buffalo or bison, stems 16 00:01:07,920 --> 00:01:10,840 Speaker 2: from the fact that Europeans who arrived in what is 17 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:14,160 Speaker 2: now America didn't know what to make of these one 18 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:19,160 Speaker 2: thousand pound or even two thousand pound catile like creatures 19 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:25,759 Speaker 2: with sharply curved horns, hugely humped backs, wooly textured hides, 20 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:32,039 Speaker 2: and delicious meat at various times, various people called them cows, 21 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 2: crook backed oxen, and leboeuf sauvage, which translates to wild beeves, 22 00:01:40,040 --> 00:01:43,479 Speaker 2: but eventually they settled on buffalo because the animal did 23 00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:46,319 Speaker 2: look a hell of a lot like its distant relatives, 24 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:51,800 Speaker 2: the cape buffalo of Africa and the water buffalo of Asia. Eventually, though, 25 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:55,800 Speaker 2: it began occurring to folks that similarities be damned, the 26 00:01:55,920 --> 00:02:01,920 Speaker 2: animal wasn't technically a buffalo. Species began to gradually shift 27 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:05,720 Speaker 2: to bison, and the bison adopters started to correct the 28 00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:09,839 Speaker 2: buffalo users in classic no ith All fashion, usually by 29 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:12,760 Speaker 2: saying something like did you know that it's actually called 30 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:15,960 Speaker 2: a bison. So if you are one of these folks 31 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:19,640 Speaker 2: who has to roll their eyes or feign confusion whenever 32 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:23,760 Speaker 2: you hear them called the buffalo, I'm sorry you are 33 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:26,760 Speaker 2: in for a rough ride on this story, because this 34 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:31,640 Speaker 2: is a story about buffalo American buffalo. If you know 35 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:36,040 Speaker 2: only one thing about these animals, it's probably this. There 36 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:38,160 Speaker 2: used to be a hell of a lot of them, 37 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:42,720 Speaker 2: and now there aren't that many. For most Americans, the 38 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:46,680 Speaker 2: buffalo doesn't symbolize wild nature in the way that a 39 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:50,079 Speaker 2: wole for an elk or a mountain goat does. Instead, 40 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 2: these massive creatures call to mind a lost world. When 41 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:57,520 Speaker 2: we look at the animals and the few places where 42 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,720 Speaker 2: they still exist as a wild creature, they bring to 43 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:04,280 Speaker 2: mind a sort of sadness or a sense of regret 44 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:07,680 Speaker 2: that things hadn't gone differently for the species, and in 45 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:11,800 Speaker 2: a way differently for us as Americans who love wildlife 46 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:16,160 Speaker 2: as well. This here is the story of the men 47 00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:21,320 Speaker 2: who brought that unfortunate reality into existence. They refer to 48 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:24,960 Speaker 2: themselves as buffalo hunters, but we know of them today 49 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:28,760 Speaker 2: as the hide hunters. In little more than a decade 50 00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:31,520 Speaker 2: after the end of the Civil War, they wiped the 51 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:35,840 Speaker 2: Great Planes clear of their most stunning, most visible, and 52 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:41,440 Speaker 2: most important wildlife species, the American buffalo. In the eighteen 53 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:46,080 Speaker 2: seventies and early eighteen eighties, commercial demand for leather made 54 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:48,840 Speaker 2: from the skin of these animals allowed the hide hunters 55 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:51,920 Speaker 2: to make a living shooting and skinning them by the 56 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:58,320 Speaker 2: thousands individually and by the millions collectively. At the most 57 00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:02,560 Speaker 2: basic level, hide hunters were market hunters, a term that 58 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 2: refers to individuals who kill wild animals to sell their meat, skin, feathers, horns, 59 00:04:08,640 --> 00:04:12,880 Speaker 2: or any other part of their bodies that has commercial value. 60 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:15,840 Speaker 2: Over the course of American history, there have been a 61 00:04:15,920 --> 00:04:20,320 Speaker 2: number of market hunting booms, and it's no coincidence that 62 00:04:20,360 --> 00:04:23,560 Speaker 2: these eras have left us with some of our wildest 63 00:04:23,600 --> 00:04:28,600 Speaker 2: tales of wilderness adventure. Daniel Boone was a market hunter 64 00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:32,000 Speaker 2: who trafficked in white tailed deer skins in the mid 65 00:04:32,040 --> 00:04:36,400 Speaker 2: to late seventeen hundreds. Davy Crockett was a market hunter 66 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:39,680 Speaker 2: who trafficked in bear meat and bear grease in the 67 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:44,240 Speaker 2: early eighteen hundreds. Jim Bridger and John Colter were market 68 00:04:44,279 --> 00:04:48,560 Speaker 2: hunters who trafficked in beaver skins for a handful of decades, 69 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:53,680 Speaker 2: ending at around eighteen forty each of these generations. In 70 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:58,000 Speaker 2: each of these individuals pursued this unique existence for a 71 00:04:58,120 --> 00:05:03,480 Speaker 2: variety of different reasons, but above all else, their primary 72 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:09,920 Speaker 2: motivation was financial. Whitetail hunting for Boone, beaver trapping for Bridger. 73 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:13,960 Speaker 2: Buffalo hunting for the hide hunters was a lifestyle, sure, 74 00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:19,000 Speaker 2: but most importantly we need to understand it as a livelihood. 75 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:24,960 Speaker 2: These buffalo hide hunters did their work with ruthless efficiency, 76 00:05:25,360 --> 00:05:28,600 Speaker 2: from the sweltering plains of Texas to the frozen planes 77 00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:32,040 Speaker 2: of the Canadian border, armed with what we might call 78 00:05:32,200 --> 00:05:37,120 Speaker 2: the next generation weapons of their day, high powered breech 79 00:05:37,200 --> 00:05:41,200 Speaker 2: loading rifles, some with telescopic sights that could drop a 80 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:45,520 Speaker 2: two thousand pound bull buffalo at distances that most shooters 81 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:49,960 Speaker 2: today would have a hard time matching. Despite how foreign 82 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:52,839 Speaker 2: the actions of these men might seem to us in 83 00:05:52,880 --> 00:05:58,360 Speaker 2: the twenty first century, this tragic, stunning, jaw dropping, awe 84 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:02,560 Speaker 2: inspiring saga took place in a world that is not 85 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:06,599 Speaker 2: so terribly distant from the one we live in now. 86 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:12,320 Speaker 2: In addition to shooting guns that fired brass casings, they 87 00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:16,520 Speaker 2: read newspapers. They traveled by train, and they ordered some 88 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:20,760 Speaker 2: of the things they wanted, including sometimes their rifles, through 89 00:06:20,800 --> 00:06:24,640 Speaker 2: the mail. Many of them, years after the slaughter, would 90 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:29,320 Speaker 2: flip light switches. Some would even drive cars. And yet 91 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:34,359 Speaker 2: they carried out a campaign of unintentional eradication that is 92 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:39,000 Speaker 2: unthinkable to us today. The hide hunters didn't arrive in 93 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:43,560 Speaker 2: ships from across the ocean. They weren't exploring places that 94 00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:47,239 Speaker 2: had never been seen by a white man. They didn't 95 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:51,240 Speaker 2: rack up a list of crazy firsts. The first person 96 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:54,839 Speaker 2: of European descent to reach the Texas Panhandle where a 97 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:58,479 Speaker 2: good hunk of this story takes place, got there three 98 00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:03,160 Speaker 2: hundred and twenty four years before the start of this story. 99 00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:08,680 Speaker 2: It was the Spanish Conquisodor Coronado, the first non indigenous 100 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:12,280 Speaker 2: people to cross the continent. The Lewis and Clark expedition 101 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:16,480 Speaker 2: had done so sixty years before the start of this story. 102 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:21,000 Speaker 2: There are no frontier luminaries in here. There are no 103 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:25,480 Speaker 2: Daniel Boons or Jim Bridges among the hide hunters. We've 104 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:31,000 Speaker 2: mythologized those hunters and trappers into honorary founding fathers. They 105 00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:34,440 Speaker 2: star in countless films and TV shows and songs and 106 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:38,600 Speaker 2: campfire tales. But the hide hunters. They don't make movies 107 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:43,680 Speaker 2: about them. Children don't play games pretending to be them. Sure, 108 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:46,240 Speaker 2: a few of the hide hunters became well known for 109 00:07:46,320 --> 00:07:50,600 Speaker 2: doing other stuff later on, like being gunfighters and ranchers 110 00:07:50,640 --> 00:07:55,720 Speaker 2: and entertainers and conservationists, but their names as hide hunters 111 00:07:56,200 --> 00:08:00,840 Speaker 2: are largely absent from the annals of history. There were 112 00:08:00,840 --> 00:08:05,000 Speaker 2: maybe about five thousand of them in total, who worked 113 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:09,160 Speaker 2: as either a shooter, a skinner, or simply a hired hand. 114 00:08:09,960 --> 00:08:14,440 Speaker 2: There were many colorful characters, some with quite descriptive nicknames. 115 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:20,800 Speaker 2: You had Charles, squirrel Eye, Emery soor Toed Joe, Limpy, 116 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:26,320 Speaker 2: Jim Smith. You had Snuffer, Soda water Jack, three Finger Foley, 117 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:30,560 Speaker 2: and Buffalo Jones. Dirty Face Jones got his name when 118 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:34,000 Speaker 2: a bullet intended to kill him missed his head, but 119 00:08:34,040 --> 00:08:36,679 Speaker 2: his would be killer was so close that the burning 120 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:41,440 Speaker 2: flash of powder seared his cheeks and nose. You could 121 00:08:41,440 --> 00:08:46,760 Speaker 2: be forgiven for confusing dirty Face Jones with powder Face Hudson, 122 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:51,840 Speaker 2: but his two different fellas Wrongwheeled Jones committed an innocent 123 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:54,960 Speaker 2: act of stupidity that he'd never lived down when he 124 00:08:55,040 --> 00:08:57,960 Speaker 2: insisted to a group of his fellow hunters that it 125 00:08:58,040 --> 00:09:01,679 Speaker 2: was impossible to replace a broken wheel on the right 126 00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:06,240 Speaker 2: side of a wagon with a wheel from the left side. 127 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:10,560 Speaker 2: To illustrate the fraught nature of their work, considered us 128 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:15,200 Speaker 2: a few short things about skunks. The hide hunter Skunk 129 00:09:15,440 --> 00:09:18,680 Speaker 2: Johnson is largely remembered for an episode when he was 130 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:21,960 Speaker 2: trapped inside his cave like shelter known as a dugout 131 00:09:22,480 --> 00:09:27,440 Speaker 2: by a party of hostile Indians. The siege lasted fifteen days, 132 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:32,320 Speaker 2: during which time he only ate skunks. Another hunter, known 133 00:09:32,320 --> 00:09:36,120 Speaker 2: as Kentuck, was bitten by a rabbit skunk, causing him 134 00:09:36,160 --> 00:09:40,160 Speaker 2: to crawl underneath a railroad water tank in a delusional fit, 135 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:44,040 Speaker 2: where he died. A third hide hunter, whose name is 136 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:47,600 Speaker 2: lost to history, also suffered a bite from a rabbit skunk. 137 00:09:48,080 --> 00:09:51,520 Speaker 2: When he felt the beginning of a spasm of hydrophobia, 138 00:09:51,679 --> 00:09:54,400 Speaker 2: as the condition was known, he walked out behind a 139 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:58,160 Speaker 2: building and swallowed a gulp of strychnine, which the hide 140 00:09:58,200 --> 00:10:02,720 Speaker 2: hunters used to protect their stack of buffalo skins from bugs, vermin, 141 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:07,120 Speaker 2: and other prairie scavengers, and also on occasion to poison 142 00:10:07,200 --> 00:10:10,160 Speaker 2: wolves for a little side money that could be made 143 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:15,280 Speaker 2: from selling their hides. These were not wealthy or well 144 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:19,320 Speaker 2: connected men. They were as blue collar, working class as 145 00:10:19,320 --> 00:10:23,040 Speaker 2: it gets. They were poor guys born in places like 146 00:10:23,080 --> 00:10:28,320 Speaker 2: Pennsylvania and Georgia and Illinois to farmers and blacksmiths and 147 00:10:28,440 --> 00:10:31,800 Speaker 2: barrel makers. A great many of the hide hunters had 148 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:34,680 Speaker 2: been tangled up in the horrors of the Civil War 149 00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:40,080 Speaker 2: on both sides of that conflict. As fighting men, killing 150 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:43,520 Speaker 2: buffalo by the dozens and sometimes upwards of one hundred 151 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:46,760 Speaker 2: in a day per man, the hide hunters wrought perhaps 152 00:10:46,800 --> 00:10:51,400 Speaker 2: the most egregious episode of natural resource over exploitation in 153 00:10:51,440 --> 00:10:54,680 Speaker 2: the history of the United States, if not the world. 154 00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:58,840 Speaker 2: We simply don't have any other examples, at least in 155 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:04,520 Speaker 2: the historical era of a comparable, widely distributed wildlife species 156 00:11:04,559 --> 00:11:07,720 Speaker 2: pushed to the brink of collapse so quickly by the 157 00:11:07,800 --> 00:11:12,040 Speaker 2: hands of man. Whatever one thinks about the outcome of 158 00:11:12,080 --> 00:11:15,040 Speaker 2: all that killing, and there's really only one thing to think, 159 00:11:15,080 --> 00:11:19,480 Speaker 2: which is what an incredible waste? You can't escape from 160 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:24,640 Speaker 2: the reality that these guys were absolute masters of their craft. 161 00:11:25,440 --> 00:11:30,120 Speaker 2: They were tough, They craved adventure, They had incredible endurance, 162 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:34,040 Speaker 2: They could think fast, they could shoot, they could fight. 163 00:11:34,440 --> 00:11:36,880 Speaker 2: They were brave to the point that it resembles a 164 00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:42,160 Speaker 2: suicidal recklessness. And man, they could work, like work harder 165 00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:46,080 Speaker 2: than anyone you're ever likely to encounter in your own 166 00:11:46,120 --> 00:11:50,040 Speaker 2: life today. What made the era of the hide hunters 167 00:11:50,120 --> 00:11:54,720 Speaker 2: possible was a combination of factors too big and complex 168 00:11:55,040 --> 00:11:59,280 Speaker 2: for most of them to have fully comprehended. In hindsight, 169 00:11:59,720 --> 00:12:03,880 Speaker 2: it look like a perfect storm. For one, consider the 170 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:08,560 Speaker 2: impact of the railroads. Long hunters like Daniel Boone and 171 00:12:08,679 --> 00:12:14,120 Speaker 2: mountain men like Jim Bridger were distinctly pre industrial. They 172 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:19,000 Speaker 2: operated within the natural constraints of muscle and bone. The 173 00:12:19,080 --> 00:12:23,600 Speaker 2: Great Bottleneck and their operations was the cold reality of 174 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:27,880 Speaker 2: needing to move goods deer skins and beaver pelts, respectively, 175 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:33,600 Speaker 2: to market on the backs of horses and mules. For Boone, 176 00:12:33,600 --> 00:12:36,600 Speaker 2: this meant leading a small string of horses over rough 177 00:12:36,679 --> 00:12:40,440 Speaker 2: trails through the Cumberland Gap and across the Appalachian Mountains. 178 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:44,080 Speaker 2: The mountain men who plied the streams of the Rockies 179 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:47,400 Speaker 2: in the eighteen twenties and eighteen thirties moved their furs 180 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:51,240 Speaker 2: via an annual pack train that took several weeks to 181 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:55,559 Speaker 2: cross the plains even in good weather. Their operations were 182 00:12:55,679 --> 00:13:01,920 Speaker 2: fueled and limited in scale by equine conveys. For the 183 00:13:02,040 --> 00:13:08,400 Speaker 2: hide hunters, the railroads transformed everything. The heavy, cumbersome, quite 184 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:12,199 Speaker 2: rigid hides of buffalo were shipped back to the tanneries 185 00:13:12,240 --> 00:13:15,280 Speaker 2: of the East in such quantities that they could not 186 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:20,640 Speaker 2: possibly have been moved by wagon, train or horseback. The 187 00:13:20,679 --> 00:13:25,720 Speaker 2: timeline alone reveals the connection with stunning clarity. It is 188 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:29,760 Speaker 2: no coincidence that the hunt in Kansas erupted in eighteen 189 00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 2: seventy two, the same year that the Topeka and Santa 190 00:13:33,520 --> 00:13:38,120 Speaker 2: Fe Railroad arrived in Dodge City. It is no coincidence 191 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:40,920 Speaker 2: that the height of the killing in Texas followed the 192 00:13:41,040 --> 00:13:44,640 Speaker 2: arrival of the railroad in Fort Worth on July fourth, 193 00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:49,600 Speaker 2: eighteen seventy six. And once again it is no coincidence 194 00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:53,600 Speaker 2: that the Northern herd was quickly wiped out following the 195 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:58,280 Speaker 2: extension of the Northern Pacific Railroad to Miles City in 196 00:13:58,360 --> 00:14:03,280 Speaker 2: eighteen eighty one. At the same time, the proliferation of 197 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:08,640 Speaker 2: factory machines and the accelerating industrialization of the American economy 198 00:14:09,040 --> 00:14:14,040 Speaker 2: created an insatiable demand for tough, elastic leather that could 199 00:14:14,040 --> 00:14:19,720 Speaker 2: be used as drive belts as in factory belting. Picture 200 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:22,760 Speaker 2: for a moment. The timing belt in your car are 201 00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:27,800 Speaker 2: in your snowmobile. It's essentially a strap running around two wheels, 202 00:14:28,120 --> 00:14:31,720 Speaker 2: so that when one wheel turns, typically powered by a motor, 203 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:36,000 Speaker 2: the wheel on the other end turns as well. Simply put, 204 00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:40,280 Speaker 2: a belt transmits power from one place to another, and 205 00:14:40,400 --> 00:14:44,760 Speaker 2: in the ever expanding industrial economy of the late eighteen hundreds, 206 00:14:45,360 --> 00:14:49,920 Speaker 2: miles of belting were needed to apply power generated by 207 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:55,400 Speaker 2: steam or water wheels to looms, saws, lathes, and any 208 00:14:55,520 --> 00:14:59,360 Speaker 2: number of applications where machines were doing work that was 209 00:14:59,400 --> 00:15:04,400 Speaker 2: once done by hand. Buffalo leather, which compared to cattle leather, 210 00:15:04,600 --> 00:15:09,040 Speaker 2: was more elastic, while also incredibly tough, served as an 211 00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:15,440 Speaker 2: ideal material for machine belting, and at the very moment 212 00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:19,920 Speaker 2: that transportation networks were able to deliver buffalo hides by 213 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:24,240 Speaker 2: the millions to eastern tanneries, and those eastern tanneries were 214 00:15:24,280 --> 00:15:29,560 Speaker 2: able to sell unlimited quantities of those process hides. Advances 215 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:34,240 Speaker 2: and firearms technology accelerated by the Civil War made the 216 00:15:34,280 --> 00:15:40,000 Speaker 2: American riflemen exponentially more effective than his predecessors of only 217 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:44,680 Speaker 2: a few decades before. Earlier breech loading rifles, to say 218 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:49,280 Speaker 2: nothing of the muzzleloaders that came before them, were too underpowered, 219 00:15:49,640 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 2: too inaccurate, and too clumsy to reload to have been 220 00:15:53,600 --> 00:15:57,720 Speaker 2: capable of the buffalo killing that the hide hunters unleashed 221 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:01,240 Speaker 2: on the planes. We'll get into the specifics of those 222 00:16:01,320 --> 00:16:04,760 Speaker 2: rifles later on, But just as our story would have 223 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:08,800 Speaker 2: been impossible without the railroad, it would have been impossible 224 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:13,120 Speaker 2: without the cutting edge firearms of the post Civil War era. 225 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:18,240 Speaker 2: The Civil War lurks in the background of this story 226 00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:22,120 Speaker 2: as a sort of dark prequel in the title of 227 00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:25,800 Speaker 2: this work, you'll notice the date range eighteen sixty five 228 00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:30,200 Speaker 2: to eighteen eighty three. Well, eighteen sixty five is the 229 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:34,680 Speaker 2: year the Civil War ended. The aftermath of that bloody 230 00:16:34,720 --> 00:16:39,040 Speaker 2: war between the states pushed out westward a restless generation 231 00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:42,920 Speaker 2: of men in search of work and opportunity. It pushed 232 00:16:42,920 --> 00:16:46,840 Speaker 2: them away from the war ravaged cities and agricultural communities 233 00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:51,880 Speaker 2: of southern reconstruction, away from the strictured discipline and meager 234 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:57,880 Speaker 2: rations of military service, away from the insecurity and claustrophobia 235 00:16:58,120 --> 00:17:02,680 Speaker 2: of the family farm, way from the starvation wages of 236 00:17:02,760 --> 00:17:06,639 Speaker 2: the northern factory floor. On the distant plains of the 237 00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:11,520 Speaker 2: American West, they saw a new life of promise, adventure, 238 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:17,520 Speaker 2: and cash. A couple of years ago, I sat for 239 00:17:17,560 --> 00:17:21,160 Speaker 2: a lengthy interview for a Ken Burns documentary on the 240 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,880 Speaker 2: history of the American buffalo, and during the editing process, 241 00:17:24,920 --> 00:17:29,399 Speaker 2: I was invited to offer feedback. My primary concern with 242 00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:32,560 Speaker 2: an early version of the series was that its short 243 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:37,160 Speaker 2: treatment of the subject of the hide hunters dehumanized them. 244 00:17:37,560 --> 00:17:40,080 Speaker 2: It made it seem as though they were motivated by 245 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:46,280 Speaker 2: some sadistic desire to destroy American wildlife. It's understandable how 246 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:50,400 Speaker 2: people would get that idea, but it's naive. Rather than 247 00:17:50,440 --> 00:17:54,360 Speaker 2: imagining the hide Hunters as soul as hell billies, it's 248 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:58,760 Speaker 2: better to see them as the vanguard of industrial capitalism 249 00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:04,160 Speaker 2: on the western planes. In today's world, serious thinkers don't 250 00:18:04,200 --> 00:18:08,639 Speaker 2: personally blame an Appalachian born coal miner for air pollution. 251 00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:13,240 Speaker 2: We don't blame frontline soldiers for the conflicts they fight in, 252 00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:16,919 Speaker 2: and we don't blame the guys driving concrete trucks and 253 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:23,120 Speaker 2: hanging drywall for suburban sprawl. Now to that, you might say, well, 254 00:18:23,160 --> 00:18:25,919 Speaker 2: the Buffalo Hunters knew what they were doing, and the 255 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:31,760 Speaker 2: collective consequences of their individual actions were incredibly costly. Well, 256 00:18:31,880 --> 00:18:35,720 Speaker 2: if in fifty years all of the most apocalyptic predictions 257 00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:39,320 Speaker 2: about global warming have come true, I'm not going to 258 00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:41,800 Speaker 2: say that a guy making a living in a North 259 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:45,399 Speaker 2: Dakota oil field was a bad guy. And I'm not 260 00:18:45,480 --> 00:18:48,359 Speaker 2: going to cite all of the times you turned on 261 00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:52,479 Speaker 2: your air conditioner or failed to organize car pools instead 262 00:18:52,480 --> 00:18:57,720 Speaker 2: of driving alone. I'd instead point my finger at political inertia, 263 00:18:57,920 --> 00:19:05,119 Speaker 2: societal indifference, imperative of economic growth, and the human tendency 264 00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:09,840 Speaker 2: to endure changes for the worse, rather than trying to 265 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:14,520 Speaker 2: remedy them. Not that these guys were saints, they most 266 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:18,320 Speaker 2: certainly were not. It's fair to say that most held 267 00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:21,720 Speaker 2: the same prejudice views of Native people that were common 268 00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:24,560 Speaker 2: at the time, and they did not keep those prejudice 269 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:30,000 Speaker 2: views to themselves either. Some of them were objectively villainous figures, 270 00:19:30,280 --> 00:19:33,840 Speaker 2: and many had a real pensiant for violence. And I 271 00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:37,480 Speaker 2: hope it's clear by now that I mourned the consequences 272 00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:41,240 Speaker 2: of their actions. At the same time, to understand them 273 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:46,760 Speaker 2: as real people requires recognizing the larger systems and structures 274 00:19:46,800 --> 00:19:50,720 Speaker 2: of which they were just one small part, and acknowledging 275 00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:56,120 Speaker 2: that everyone has limited choices from which to choose. As 276 00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:59,080 Speaker 2: the hide hunter, Frank Mayer said of his time shooting 277 00:19:59,119 --> 00:20:02,840 Speaker 2: buffalo on the pl planes, he had a hide, the 278 00:20:02,960 --> 00:20:06,080 Speaker 2: hide was worth money. I was young, twenty two. I 279 00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:09,320 Speaker 2: could shoot. I'd like to hunt. Wouldn't you have done 280 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:13,640 Speaker 2: the same thing? If I'm answering that question honestly as 281 00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:16,720 Speaker 2: your author sitting at a microphone, as a guy who 282 00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:20,240 Speaker 2: lives for hunting and fishing, and I put myself back 283 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:25,119 Speaker 2: in Frank Mayer's shoes, I think the answer would be Yeah, 284 00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:29,280 Speaker 2: I would have done the same damn thing. If you've 285 00:20:29,359 --> 00:20:33,280 Speaker 2: never heard of Frank Mayor, you could forgive yourself to 286 00:20:33,359 --> 00:20:36,240 Speaker 2: put a human face on old Frank. Here's a bit 287 00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:40,440 Speaker 2: about him. Born in eighteen fifty, he was a thirteen 288 00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:44,120 Speaker 2: year old drummer boy for his father's artillery unit when 289 00:20:44,119 --> 00:20:48,480 Speaker 2: he witnessed the Battle of Gettysburg firsthand, where one man 290 00:20:48,640 --> 00:20:53,720 Speaker 2: died for about every ten seconds of fighting. From age 291 00:20:53,760 --> 00:20:57,000 Speaker 2: twenty two to twenty eight, Mayor hunted buffalo on the 292 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:02,400 Speaker 2: plains of Kansas and Texas, killing thousands. By the time 293 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:06,840 Speaker 2: the old hide Hunter died on February twelve, nineteen fifty four, 294 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:12,280 Speaker 2: my own father was thirty years old, Hugh Hefner was 295 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:18,280 Speaker 2: publishing Playboy magazine, and the Korean War was over. Mayor 296 00:21:18,359 --> 00:21:21,480 Speaker 2: had survived some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil 297 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:26,480 Speaker 2: War and lived into the age of nuclear submarines, Burger 298 00:21:26,560 --> 00:21:31,480 Speaker 2: king and corvettes. Mayor is one of those hide hunters 299 00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:35,080 Speaker 2: we know a lot about. There are some others, such 300 00:21:35,119 --> 00:21:39,440 Speaker 2: as Charles Wrath and Jay Wright Moore. These guys were 301 00:21:39,560 --> 00:21:45,359 Speaker 2: pioneers of the trade, recognized by their contemporaries as influential characters. 302 00:21:45,840 --> 00:21:49,200 Speaker 2: If you read anything about this era, you'll run into 303 00:21:49,240 --> 00:21:53,399 Speaker 2: their names again and again. They appear throughout the historical 304 00:21:53,480 --> 00:22:00,120 Speaker 2: record in ledgers, diaries, receipts, newspaper articles, and legal documents 305 00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:05,320 Speaker 2: related to their careers as hide hunters. Other hide hunters 306 00:22:05,359 --> 00:22:09,200 Speaker 2: recorded their experiences in great detail later on in life, 307 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:12,960 Speaker 2: either for posterity's sake or to make a little money. 308 00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:17,239 Speaker 2: Among those is John Cook, who published a memoir, The 309 00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:21,359 Speaker 2: Border and the Buffalo in nineteen oh seven. During the 310 00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:25,080 Speaker 2: Civil War, Cook fought for the Union along the bloody 311 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:29,679 Speaker 2: boundary between Missouri and Kansas, where gorilla forces committed some 312 00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:34,679 Speaker 2: of the most gruesome atrocities of that conflict. Afterward, like 313 00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:38,679 Speaker 2: many of his fellow veterans, he drifted westward. From the 314 00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:41,920 Speaker 2: fall of eighteen seventy four until the spring of eighteen 315 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:47,040 Speaker 2: seventy eight, Cook hunted the Panhandle of Texas. His descriptions 316 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:50,080 Speaker 2: of the day to day business of hunting and skinning 317 00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:55,840 Speaker 2: are vividly detailed. Many hide hunters, like George Reigard, were 318 00:22:55,880 --> 00:23:00,240 Speaker 2: interviewed later in life by local reporters writing for readership's 319 00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:03,960 Speaker 2: hungry for stories from the so called Old West. Re 320 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,760 Speaker 2: Reguard was born in Pennsylvania in eighteen forty seven and 321 00:23:07,920 --> 00:23:11,879 Speaker 2: enlisted in the twenty second Cavalry one month after the 322 00:23:11,920 --> 00:23:16,520 Speaker 2: Battle of Gettysburg at sixteen years of age. After being 323 00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:19,679 Speaker 2: wounded and discharged from the army, he set out for 324 00:23:19,760 --> 00:23:23,720 Speaker 2: western Kansas, where he drove freight wagons and marveled at 325 00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:28,280 Speaker 2: his strange new surroundings before adopting the occupation of a 326 00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:32,440 Speaker 2: hide hunter. Between eighteen seventy one and eighteen seventy three, 327 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:37,960 Speaker 2: Reguard killed more than five thousand animals. It was he 328 00:23:38,080 --> 00:23:46,200 Speaker 2: recalled buffalo butchery by wholesale. What makes the story you're 329 00:23:46,240 --> 00:23:51,560 Speaker 2: about to hear so historically significant and so viscerally tragic 330 00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:54,960 Speaker 2: is that the hide hunters came at the end, or 331 00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:59,240 Speaker 2: rather caused the end, of a long procession of buffalo 332 00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:02,680 Speaker 2: hunters who'd been chasing the animals for more than ten 333 00:24:02,800 --> 00:24:06,639 Speaker 2: thousand years across the landscapes that we now call the 334 00:24:06,760 --> 00:24:11,280 Speaker 2: United States. Their actions closed out one of the longest 335 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:15,920 Speaker 2: running cultural and economic life ways that this planet has 336 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:20,200 Speaker 2: ever seen since the arrival of the very first humans 337 00:24:20,200 --> 00:24:24,320 Speaker 2: in North America. Indigenous people nurtured a relationship with these 338 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:28,359 Speaker 2: animals that, while it took on different forms at different times. 339 00:24:28,880 --> 00:24:34,880 Speaker 2: Is most remarkable for its sustainability. The first American buffalo 340 00:24:34,960 --> 00:24:39,240 Speaker 2: hunters were ice age immigrants from Siberia who killed a 341 00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:43,760 Speaker 2: somewhat longer horned variety on the grasslands of northern Alaska 342 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:48,840 Speaker 2: using adladdles. Later on, there were buffalo hunters who killed 343 00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:52,400 Speaker 2: great quantities of the animals by driving them over cliffs 344 00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:56,760 Speaker 2: and Alberta and Montana and even down into Texas. There 345 00:24:56,760 --> 00:25:00,199 Speaker 2: were buffalo hunters in the Dakotas who crept up on 346 00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:05,560 Speaker 2: the animals camouflaged beneath the skins of freshly killed buffalo calves, 347 00:25:05,960 --> 00:25:10,159 Speaker 2: close enough to sink a carefully placed arrow into their 348 00:25:10,280 --> 00:25:14,840 Speaker 2: rib cage. And with the spread of equestrian culture among 349 00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:19,520 Speaker 2: the Planes tribes after the Spanish introduced horses into North America, 350 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:24,600 Speaker 2: we had buffalo hunters in western Kansas who chased buffalo 351 00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:28,080 Speaker 2: down on horseback and got so close they could have 352 00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:32,680 Speaker 2: jumped onto the buffalo's back, but instead held a smooth 353 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:35,600 Speaker 2: bore musket barrel right up to the crease behind the 354 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:40,600 Speaker 2: buffalo's shoulder in order to deliver a lead ball into 355 00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:45,119 Speaker 2: the heart. Without a doubt, the story of each of 356 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:49,400 Speaker 2: those buffalo hunting cultures is worthy of a project like this. 357 00:25:50,160 --> 00:25:53,800 Speaker 2: But this here is not a holistic analysis of the 358 00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:58,560 Speaker 2: different ways that different people hunted buffalo, nor is this 359 00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:03,720 Speaker 2: a comprehensive history of the destruction of the buffalo. That 360 00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:08,720 Speaker 2: tale of shrinking range and collapsing numbers actually spans hundreds 361 00:26:08,760 --> 00:26:12,879 Speaker 2: of years in a huge swath of the continent. For 362 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,720 Speaker 2: our journey ahead, though a quick overview of that will 363 00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:20,760 Speaker 2: be helpful to you. When Europeans started penetrating into the 364 00:26:20,840 --> 00:26:24,320 Speaker 2: various corners of North America over the sixteen hundreds and 365 00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:28,360 Speaker 2: seventeen hundreds, they found scattered groups of buffalo and sometimes 366 00:26:28,400 --> 00:26:33,159 Speaker 2: impressive herds in the woods of Pennsylvania and stands of 367 00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:37,399 Speaker 2: cain along the Ohio River, along streams in what is 368 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:41,919 Speaker 2: now Nashville, Tennessee, on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, and 369 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:45,480 Speaker 2: in the rolling hills and tall grass prairies of Wisconsin 370 00:26:45,800 --> 00:26:51,480 Speaker 2: and western Minnesota and Iowa. Daniel Boone frequently targeted them 371 00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:56,640 Speaker 2: for meat in Kentucky. As Boone and his contemporaries spread 372 00:26:56,680 --> 00:27:00,760 Speaker 2: out and pushed ever westward, those eastern buffalo herds were 373 00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:03,760 Speaker 2: killed off one by one by pot hunters feeding their 374 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:08,040 Speaker 2: families and small scale market hunters looking to make a buck. 375 00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:13,280 Speaker 2: The various states buffalo populations fell like European nations in 376 00:27:13,320 --> 00:27:17,560 Speaker 2: the wake of the German Blitzkreek. Boone's own son, Nathan, 377 00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:22,240 Speaker 2: killed the last buffalo in Virginia in seventeen ninety seven. 378 00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:27,119 Speaker 2: North Carolina wiped out theirs in seventeen ninety nine, and 379 00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:32,200 Speaker 2: Kentucky did the same one year later, Pennsylvania the year 380 00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:36,960 Speaker 2: after that. Louisiana killed its last buffalo in eighteen oh three, 381 00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:41,280 Speaker 2: and the last in Illinois and Ohio died in eighteen 382 00:27:41,320 --> 00:27:47,200 Speaker 2: oh eight, Tennessee eighteen twenty three, West Virginia eighteen twenty five, 383 00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:52,080 Speaker 2: Wisconsin eighteen thirty two. By the close of the Civil 384 00:27:52,119 --> 00:27:55,879 Speaker 2: War in eighteen sixty five, which again begins the story 385 00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:57,720 Speaker 2: of the hide hunters that I'm going to tell here, 386 00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:03,119 Speaker 2: the animals were still mind blowingly abundant and what you 387 00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:06,520 Speaker 2: might think of as the core of their historic range 388 00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:10,679 Speaker 2: the American Great Plains and the inner mountain valleys of 389 00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:15,600 Speaker 2: the Rockies. Buffalo were still in the Panhandle of North Texas. 390 00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:21,400 Speaker 2: They were still in western Oklahoma, Western Kansas, western Nebraska. 391 00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:26,440 Speaker 2: They were still in North and South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, 392 00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:31,000 Speaker 2: and Colorado were loaded, there were still buffalo in northern 393 00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:36,320 Speaker 2: New Mexico. Admittedly, the best research out there today indicates 394 00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:39,240 Speaker 2: that the herds wiped out by the hide hunters were 395 00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:44,440 Speaker 2: already diminished by a host of factors. Besides bullets, a 396 00:28:44,480 --> 00:28:48,720 Speaker 2: record drought between eighteen fifty six and eighteen sixty four 397 00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:54,440 Speaker 2: helped the diminishment. Competition for grass from wild horses helped. 398 00:28:55,040 --> 00:29:00,520 Speaker 2: Diseases like anthrax and bovine tuberculosis introduced by European cattle 399 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:05,920 Speaker 2: perhaps helped some. Added to that. Indigenous hunting pressure and 400 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:12,000 Speaker 2: harvest numbers certainly increased after the ascendancy of equestrian hunting culture, 401 00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:16,239 Speaker 2: which inspired many tribes to move onto the plains in 402 00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:20,040 Speaker 2: pursuit of meat for their families and buffalo robes to 403 00:29:20,120 --> 00:29:24,640 Speaker 2: be sold to American traders. So, in terms of what 404 00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:28,640 Speaker 2: the hide hunters destroyed after the Civil War, how many 405 00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:34,200 Speaker 2: buffalo exactly are we talking about? Historians and ecologists are 406 00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:38,800 Speaker 2: still fighting about that today. A total population of around 407 00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:44,960 Speaker 2: fifteen million is a safe, currently fashionable number. Compare that 408 00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:49,960 Speaker 2: to the estimated population size in the year eighteen eighty three, 409 00:29:50,040 --> 00:29:53,000 Speaker 2: the end date used in the title of this work. 410 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:57,640 Speaker 2: At that point eighteen eighty three, the number of buffalo 411 00:29:57,760 --> 00:30:00,760 Speaker 2: that were still left alive in the unit United States 412 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:05,760 Speaker 2: was less than one thousand, Or put another way, it 413 00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:09,840 Speaker 2: was ninety nine zero point nine to nine percent fewer 414 00:30:09,880 --> 00:30:13,480 Speaker 2: than at the close of the Civil War. Here's a 415 00:30:13,520 --> 00:30:15,880 Speaker 2: thing we ought to clear up before we get too 416 00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:20,880 Speaker 2: far along. Common American history lessons about the destruction of 417 00:30:20,920 --> 00:30:25,280 Speaker 2: the herds like to include sordid details about the gross 418 00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:30,280 Speaker 2: excesses of Western travelers and tourists gunning down buffalo from 419 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:34,000 Speaker 2: moving trains or shooting them simply to see how many 420 00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:38,840 Speaker 2: they could get. Sir George Gore, an Irish nobleman, famously 421 00:30:38,920 --> 00:30:43,200 Speaker 2: took a multi year safari in Wyoming's Powder River country 422 00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:47,720 Speaker 2: in the mid eighteen fifties. Accompanied by a small army 423 00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:51,440 Speaker 2: of servants, a selection of fine wines, and a French 424 00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:54,840 Speaker 2: carpet for the floor of his tent. Gore killed some 425 00:30:55,080 --> 00:31:00,000 Speaker 2: two thousand bison using seventy five different rifles he brought along. 426 00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:04,360 Speaker 2: He's one of the most obnoxious, reviled characters of the 427 00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:07,680 Speaker 2: American West, and there's no doubt there were a lot 428 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:10,800 Speaker 2: of buffalo killed just for the sport of it. But 429 00:31:11,040 --> 00:31:13,440 Speaker 2: was it enough to wipe them off the face of 430 00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:19,560 Speaker 2: the continent hardly. Another frequently repeated claim is that the 431 00:31:19,720 --> 00:31:24,240 Speaker 2: US Army deliberately exterminated the buffalo in order to starve 432 00:31:24,320 --> 00:31:27,840 Speaker 2: the tribes of the plans and force them onto reservations. 433 00:31:28,560 --> 00:31:32,800 Speaker 2: To be fair, there is some anecdotal evidence of individual 434 00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:37,880 Speaker 2: officers and units targeting local buffalo herds in a scorched 435 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:42,400 Speaker 2: Earth style tactic, and some hide hunters fought side by 436 00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:46,760 Speaker 2: side with army units, including African American units known as 437 00:31:46,800 --> 00:31:52,600 Speaker 2: Buffalo Soldiers, during periods of hostility, especially on the southern plains. 438 00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:57,040 Speaker 2: But was there an actual policy or a broader military 439 00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:01,959 Speaker 2: strategy targeting the buffalo. The most frequently cited evidence of 440 00:32:02,000 --> 00:32:06,760 Speaker 2: anything resembling that General Phillip Sheridan's address to the Texas 441 00:32:06,880 --> 00:32:11,560 Speaker 2: Legislature in eighteen seventy five has been thoroughly debunked as 442 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,840 Speaker 2: a hoax invented later in life by a hide hunter 443 00:32:15,200 --> 00:32:18,120 Speaker 2: who wanted to drape the shame of his younger years 444 00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:22,400 Speaker 2: in the flag of patriotic duty. If you start reading 445 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:25,480 Speaker 2: a lot about the history of the buffalo, you'll encounter 446 00:32:25,600 --> 00:32:30,680 Speaker 2: that mention of Sheridan's speech again and again. It's bs 447 00:32:30,720 --> 00:32:34,680 Speaker 2: and In truth, all the train shooting and army shooting 448 00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:43,200 Speaker 2: didn't even matter biologically. It was inconsequential. Today, driving across 449 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:47,360 Speaker 2: certain stretches of the Great Plains, say Interstate ninety between 450 00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:52,600 Speaker 2: Billings and Miles City, Montana, Interstate seventy from Abilene, Kansas, 451 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:56,600 Speaker 2: all the way to Colorado, or Interstate forty from Oklahoma 452 00:32:56,680 --> 00:33:01,800 Speaker 2: City across the Texas Panhandle, will feel the hide Hunter's 453 00:33:01,880 --> 00:33:07,000 Speaker 2: legacy in your bones, that haunting emptiness where millions of 454 00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:11,600 Speaker 2: Buffalo should be grazing. This story is an effort to 455 00:33:11,760 --> 00:33:16,040 Speaker 2: resurrect those men who last experienced the Great Herds, those 456 00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:20,600 Speaker 2: men who lived and hunted among them and who destroyed them. 457 00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:23,920 Speaker 2: It's an effort to bring them forward, to summon them 458 00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:27,560 Speaker 2: so we can ask them some questions. Where did you 459 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:31,720 Speaker 2: come from, How exactly did you do what you did, 460 00:33:32,960 --> 00:33:37,080 Speaker 2: what did it cost you, what did you gain in return? 461 00:33:37,920 --> 00:33:42,160 Speaker 2: And why did you do it? We will ask those 462 00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:46,800 Speaker 2: questions and seek their answers in the coming chapters. Here's 463 00:33:46,840 --> 00:33:50,320 Speaker 2: a rough idea of how it will go. We'll begin 464 00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:54,640 Speaker 2: by establishing some essential context for the Hide Hunter story, 465 00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:58,320 Speaker 2: a deep time history of people in Buffalo on the 466 00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:01,800 Speaker 2: Great Plains, in the emergence of the first market for 467 00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:06,760 Speaker 2: buffalo skins in the form of the robe trade. Here 468 00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:09,640 Speaker 2: you'll get a sense of the significance of the animal 469 00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:13,759 Speaker 2: to the original inhabitants of the American West and the 470 00:34:13,800 --> 00:34:19,680 Speaker 2: pre industrial constraints on its commodification. From there, we'll jump 471 00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:22,759 Speaker 2: to the aftermath of the Civil War, in which a 472 00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:27,719 Speaker 2: generation of displaced veterans looked westward for new opportunities at 473 00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:32,000 Speaker 2: the same time that the transcontinental railroads connected the resources 474 00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:37,240 Speaker 2: of the Great Plains with the industrial East. Ground zero 475 00:34:37,520 --> 00:34:42,239 Speaker 2: for this explosive new economy was Dodge City, Kansas, the 476 00:34:42,280 --> 00:34:46,840 Speaker 2: subject of chapter four. It was in this upstart railroad 477 00:34:46,880 --> 00:34:49,360 Speaker 2: town where the business of the hide hunt took on 478 00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:53,680 Speaker 2: its characteristic form and its impact on the resource was 479 00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:58,520 Speaker 2: almost immediately made clear. From there will follow the hide 480 00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:02,400 Speaker 2: hunters as they push into bloody Texas and violation of 481 00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:06,960 Speaker 2: treaties signed between native tribes and the US government. The 482 00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:11,400 Speaker 2: second phase showcases the speed and thoroughness of the slaughter, 483 00:35:11,880 --> 00:35:15,200 Speaker 2: as well as the dangers faced by hide hunters as 484 00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:21,080 Speaker 2: they endured unforgiving landscapes and the ever present potential for hostility. 485 00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:25,759 Speaker 2: Then finally, we'll head north to the plains and bad 486 00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:30,640 Speaker 2: lands of eastern Montana, northern Wyoming, and the western Dakotas, 487 00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:35,120 Speaker 2: where the Hide Hunters endured brutal cold as they finished 488 00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:40,000 Speaker 2: off the last remaining herds of the Great Plains. Along 489 00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,600 Speaker 2: the way, we'll discuss the weapons and tactics that made 490 00:35:43,680 --> 00:35:47,840 Speaker 2: the hide Hunters such effective killers. We'll explore how a 491 00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:51,320 Speaker 2: camp full of these rugged characters undertook their day to 492 00:35:51,400 --> 00:35:54,239 Speaker 2: day work, and how they passed a little bit of 493 00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:58,200 Speaker 2: free time when they weren't engaged in shooting and skinning. 494 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:01,919 Speaker 2: Will also give you an in depth examination of how 495 00:36:01,960 --> 00:36:05,520 Speaker 2: they processed buffalo for the market and what happened to 496 00:36:05,600 --> 00:36:10,600 Speaker 2: those hides once they were loaded onto eastbound trains. And lastly, 497 00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:13,840 Speaker 2: we'll dive into the scene that faced the hide Hunters 498 00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:16,960 Speaker 2: when their grizzly work was done and the planes had 499 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:20,560 Speaker 2: been emptied of herds that once numbered in the tens 500 00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:24,200 Speaker 2: of millions. Throughout this story, you'll come to see the 501 00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:29,040 Speaker 2: Hide Hunters not as larger than life characters or storybook villains, 502 00:36:29,480 --> 00:36:33,920 Speaker 2: but as historical actors faced with a certain set of choices, 503 00:36:34,560 --> 00:36:39,280 Speaker 2: and you'll see how their story shaped our contemporary understandings 504 00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:45,840 Speaker 2: of environmental degradation, commercial exploitation, and the mythology of the 505 00:36:45,840 --> 00:36:51,040 Speaker 2: American West. Throughout, we'll point to the facts of how 506 00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:54,560 Speaker 2: we know what we know, so you understand the sources 507 00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:57,480 Speaker 2: and research that went into this in case you want 508 00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:00,960 Speaker 2: to do some follow up reading on your own. As 509 00:37:01,000 --> 00:37:03,920 Speaker 2: for the sources, it would be a sin if I 510 00:37:04,000 --> 00:37:08,640 Speaker 2: did not acknowledge the work of three historians, Miles Gilbert, 511 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:14,040 Speaker 2: Leo Ramager, and Sharon Cunningham, who have published two initial 512 00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:18,440 Speaker 2: volumes A through D and E through K of an 513 00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:24,560 Speaker 2: ambitious encyclopedia of Buffalo hunters and skinners. It's the most 514 00:37:24,560 --> 00:37:28,800 Speaker 2: comprehensive resource out there for researchers who want to track 515 00:37:28,880 --> 00:37:32,040 Speaker 2: down the names of hide hunters and figure out what 516 00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:36,720 Speaker 2: published and archival materials might exist in order to better 517 00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:40,000 Speaker 2: tell their story. Trust me when I say that our 518 00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:42,719 Speaker 2: telling of the hide hunter story would be missing some 519 00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:47,200 Speaker 2: choice details and incredible anecdotes if it weren't for these 520 00:37:47,320 --> 00:38:00,520 Speaker 2: unique works. Now, let's get on with our story.