Buffalo: Past and Present
Before engaging with this exhibition, please be advised that some images may be distressing or difficult to view.
Icons of the plains, and our national mammal. Few animals are as deeply intertwined with the history of the United States as the American Bison. Inspired by Stephen Graham Jones' Buffalo Hunter Hunter, I was compelled to dive deeply into this topic. The materials assembled here offer a reflection on the complex history of the bison - a reflection inevitably shaped by my own position as a 21st-century, non-Indigenous researcher.
This exhibition seeks not only to share historical and visual records, but also to stoke the flame of remembrance and reverence for the bison and all that its story represents. The story of the buffalo is inseparable from that of the First Nations peoples, whose lives, traditions, and survival have long been connected to this animal. It is a meaningful coincidence that this exhibition coincides with Native American Heritage Month.
Many of these images are difficult and painful to confront, but that difficulty reinforced the necessity of my doing so. Through this work, I hope to invite viewers into the same process of reflection and appreciation.
The materials I use are open access, and all images contain links to original sources.
The Last of the Buffalo, Albert Bierstadt
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What Once Was
It is said that buffalo herds of the western United States were once so abundant that their movements shook the ground and sounded like thunder rolling in from the distance. The American bison population in the early 19th century was estimated between 30 to 60 million. For generations, Plains nations relied on the bison for food, shelter, tools, and tradition - the animal was central to their cultural practices.
Buffalo Herd Near Fort Yellowstone, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, 1898
Detroit Publishing Company
New York Public Library
Distant Thunder, 2019
Michael Coleman (American, b. 1946)
Bronze
Created to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railroad, Distant Thunder honors both the bison's near-extinction and their incredible resurgence. As railroads spread across the country, the bison population faced decline. Coleman's sculpture captures their iconic strength, reflecting on the intertwined histories of progress, loss, and renewal in the American West.
National Park Service
By the end of the 19th century, relentless hunting and calculated U.S. policies reduced buffalo herds from millions to just a few hundred, profoundly impacting the species and the communities that depended on them.
The Bison and First Nations
Child's Moccasins
Comanche
Buffalo hide, sewn
These moccasins were crafted by Maud Chi'-ya-kwi', a Comanche woman, and collected in 1909 by anthropologist Mark Raymond Harrington during fieldwork. Buffalo hide provided durable and warm footwear.
National Museum of the American Indian
The Oath - Apsaroke, ca. 1908
Edward S. Curtis (American, 1868-1952)
Photograph
Three Apsaroke (Crow) men perform a ceremonial oath, with rifles and an arrow raised skyward, and a bison skull at their feet.
Library of Congress
The Offering - Hu Kalowa Pi Ceremony, ca. 1907
Edward S. Curtis (American, 1868-1952)
Photograph
A Teton (Lakota) man kneels over a buffalo skull during the Hu Kalowa Pi ("Buffalo Sweat") ceremony, underscoring the bison's sacred role in Indigenous ritual and life.
Library of Congress
Saliva, Slow Bull (in background), Picket Pin's Arm, ca. 1907
Edward S. Curtis (American, 1868-1952)
Photograph
Three Dakota men are seated in a moment of ceremony, one attending to a bison skull.
Library of Congress
Untitled, from the portfolio Indian Self-Rule, 1983
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (Confederated Salish and Kootenai, 1940-2025)
Lithograph on paper
This lithograph is part of Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's Indian Self-Rule portfolio, which explores Indigenous sovereignty, identity, and cultural resilience through contemporary art.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Ankle Band (ornament)
Crow
Buffalo hooves
This ankle band, made from painted buffalo hooves, was formerly in the collection of Emil W. Lenders, a Western genre painter. Objects like this served as personal adornment and reflect the Crow people's artistry and use of buffalo material in ceremonial and decorative items.
National Museum of the American Indian
Winter Count Recording Events from 1800 to 1870, ca. 1870-1885
Yanktonai Nakota (Sioux)
Buffalo hide and paint
Winter counts are pictorial calendars that record significant events in tribal history, with one image representing each year. Traditionally created with buffalo hide, they served as visual guides to oral histories and were maintained by a designated keeper who consulted elders and chose each year's symbol. Typically referred to as Lone Dog's winter count, as he was its last known keeper, it chronicles seventy years of Nakota history, depicting war, disease, and first contact with outsiders.
National Museum of the American Indian
Buffalo Hunter, ca. 1920-1925
Julian Martinez
Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paperboard
Julian Martinez, best known for his painted designed on the internationally acclaimed pottery created with his wife, Maria Martinez, also produced works on paper that capture Native life and symbolism. This work depicts a Native hunter on horseback pursuing a buffalo with spear in hand.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
East and West Shaking Hands, 1869
Andrew J. Russell (American, 1829-1902)
Photograph
This iconic image captures the meeting of the Union and Central Pacific trains at Promontory Point, Utah, marking the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Executives and crew from both lines are pictured shaking hands over the "last rail," symbolizing the union of the eastern and western rail networks.
Oakland Museum of California
The Railroad
The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad opened the Great Plains to more settlers, traders, and hunters, bringing devastating consequences for the American bison. Trains provided easy access to remote herds and rapid transport for hides, fueling an industrial-scale slaughter. Passengers even shot buffalo for sport from moving cars.
The U.S. government viewed the destruction as a strategy to subjugate Plains Indigenous peoples, whose communities depended greatly on the buffalo. Within decades, herds once numbering in the tens of millions were reduced to near extinction - a symbol of both expansion and irreversible loss.
Map of the United States and Territories, 1873
United States General Land Office
Printed map
This detailed 1873 map illustrates the vast network of completed and proposed railroads stretching across the United States, along with Indian reservations, military posts, and land grant territories. Created by the U.S. General Land Office, it reflects the rapid westward expansion that transformed the Plains.
Library of Congress
First Page of the Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1868
Indian Treaties Series, 1789-1869
This treaty, negotiated at Fort Laramie in Dakota Territory, guaranteed the Sioux Nation undisturbed use of the Great Sioux Reservation, including the Black Hills, and the right to hunt buffalo in surrounding territories while game was available. This treaty was later violated by the U.S. government after gold was discovered in the Black Hills.
National Archives
"The agreement an Indian makes to a United States treaty is like the agreement a buffalo makes with his hunters when pierced with arrows. All he can do is lie down and give in."
-Ouray, Ute chief, quoted in The Ute Campaign of 1879, 1955, Russell D. Santala
Slaughtered for the Hide, 1874
Harper's Weekly
Wood engraving
This engraving shows men skinning buffalo on the Plains, illustrating the mass slaughter that nearly drove the species to extinction.
Library of Congress
Broken Promises
American Progress, 1872
John Gast (American, 1842-1896)
Oil on canvas
This iconic allegorical painting depicts "Manifest Destiny" and westward expansion. A female figure (representing progress) advances, carrying telegraph lines, while settlers and wagons move in alongside her. Indigenous people, buffalo, and other animals flee toward the edges of the frame, symbolizing displacement as the frontier expands.
Library of Congress
Military Strategies and the
"Indian Problem"
As settlers pushed westward, broken treaties and lost land were only part of the threat to Native nations. Military commanders encouraged troops to hunt buffalo, understanding that the decimation of the animal would help to address the "Indian problem." Lieutenant General John M. Schofield, commander of the Department of the Missouri in 1869-1870, wrote in his memoirs that he intended "to ward off the savage and kill off his food until there should no longer be an Indian frontier in our beautiful country." General Sherman likewise suggested slaughtering buffalo as a way to impact Plains tribes: On June 26, 1869, the Army Navy Journal reported Sherman's statement: the quickest way to force Indigenous people to assimilate was "to send ten regiments of the soldiers to the plains, with orders to shoot buffaloes until they became too scarce to support the redskins."
David D. Smits, The Frontier Army and the Destruction of the Buffalo: 1865–1883, The Western Historical Quarterly, 1994, pp. 316–317.
Relics of the Past: The Buffalo Head, 1903
A.D.M. Cooper (American, active late 19th-early 20th century)
Oil on canvas
This painting depicts a mounted buffalo head surrounded by photographs and artifacts, reflecting the cultural and ecological loss of the buffalo and the transformative impact of westward expansion.
Buffalo Bill Center of the West
Dying Buffalo, Shot with an Arrow, ca. 1832-1833
George Catlin (American, 1796-1872)
Oil on canvas
This painting depicts a buffalo collapsing after being struck by an arrow, emphasizing both the animal's massive size and its vulnerability. Catlin described the bison as the largest ruminant in America, with a long, shaggy mane and short, curved horns, while noting its central role in Plains Indian life.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Men Standing with Pile of Buffalo Skulls, 1892
Photographer unknown
Albumen print
This chilling photograph shows two men posing with an immense pile of buffalo skulls at the Michigan Carbon Works, where the remains were processed for products like fertilizer and glue. Far from depicting a simple byproduct of hunting, the image reflects a deliberate campaign to eradicate bison.
Detroit Public Library
Trail of the Hide Hunters, 1872
Photographer unknown
Photograph
Buffalo lie dead in the snow in the aftermath of a hunt on the Plains. Hide hunters would soon skin the carcasses, taking only the hides and leaving the rest to decay.
National Archives
Rath & Wright's Buffalo Hide Yard, 1878
Photographer unknown
Photograph
Depicts approximately 40,000 buffalo hides stacked for trade and shipment at one of the largest hide yards in the American West.
National Archives
The Last of the Buffalo, ca. 1888-1889
Albert Bierstadt (American, 1830-1902)
Oil on canvas
Albert Bierstadt's The Last of the Buffalo is a sweeping, imagined vision of the Great Plains that captures the end of an era. A hunter battles a charging buffalo amid a landscape scattered with bones and fading herds - a symbolic reflection on the destruction of the American frontier. Romantic yet mournful, the painting is a lament and tribute to a vanishing world.
National Gallery of Art
Clippings, "American Bison: Congressman Lacey Seeks Their Preservation"
The Oskaloosa Herald, April 26, 1900
These newspaper clippings report on Congressman John F. Lacey's 1900 proposal to establish a 20,000-acre federal reserve for American bison. The article reflects growing concern for the species' near-extinction, quoting conservationists like Charles Mair, who condemned the "reckless and almost total destruction of the bison."
Click on images to view full screen.
Buffalo at Water, ca. 1905
Detroit Publishing Company
Photograph
This early 20th-century photograph captures a herd of bison gathered at a lake in Yellowstone National Park. By the time this image was made, the species had narrowly escaped destruction and Yellowstone had become a crucial refuge.
Library of Congress
The Vanishing Race-Navaho, ca. 1904
Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952)
Photographic print
This photograph depicts Navajo individuals on horseback riding away from the photographer. Curtis's title reflects a common early 20th-century perception of Indigenous peoples as a "vanishing race," a view mirrored in the near-extinction of the American bison.
Library of Congress
As the United States barreled westward, Indigenous people were forced from their territories and denied access to traditional resources. Alongside the near-extinction of the buffalo, federal policies confined communities to reservations and suppressed their cultures.
Children were made to attend Indian boarding schools, forbidden to speak their languages or practice traditions, while tribal governance and spiritual life were disrupted. These measures sought to impose assimilation and force dependence on the federal government.
From the Brink
Efforts by governments, organizations, and private individuals saved small groups of bison, including those in Yellowstone, which became the foundation for modern herds. Hardy and resilient, bison can withstand harsh weather, predators, and other challenges. Today, bison thrive on nearly 2,000 ranches and farms across the U.S., though limited space and strong, herd-driven instincts prevent them from reaching their former numbers. There are an estimated 500,000 American bison alive today.
Moving with the Herd, Lamar Valley, 2015
Neal Herbert
Digital photograph
Bison and calves move together in Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, highlighting the familial and protective structure of bison herds.
National Park Service
American Bison in Winter, Yellowstone National Park, 2016
Carol M. Highsmith
Digital photograph
Bison in Yellowstone withstand harsh winters by using their heads and horns to sweep away snow and forage beneath. Their muscular humps and strong vertebrae allow them to move vast amounts of snow while grazing.
Library of Congress
Bison in Hayden Valley, 2014
Herbert Neal
Digital photograph
Bison cross a foggy road in Hayden Valley, Yellowstone National Park.
National Park Service
The American Buffalo (film poster), 2023
John Isaiah Pepion (Blackfoot Confederacy)
Digital illustration
This poster artwork for Ken Burns' documentary The American Buffalo was created by Plains Indian graphic artist John Isaiah Pepion. Drawing on the ledger art tradition of his Piikani band, Pepion honors the buffalo as a central figure in Plains life, symbolizing sustenance, ceremony, and resilience. The design reflects the buffalo's power and sacrifice, with the arrow representing the lifeline, or sacred breath, of this iconic animal.
PBS
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The Buffalo Hunter Hunter
Stephen Graham Jones (Blackfeet)
2025
A chilling historical horror novel tracing the life of a Blackfeet vampire who haunts the plains after a massacre of 217 Blackfeet in the snow. Told through a discovered 1912 diary of a Lutheran pastor and transcribed interviews with a Blackfeet man named Good Stab, the book weaves together horror, historical events, and Indigenous storytelling. Stephen Graham Jones, a New York Times bestselling author, is acclaimed for works including The Only Good Indians and My Heart Is a Chainsaw, and has received numerous awards including the Bram Stoker Award and Shirley Jackson award.
Simon & Schuster
InterTribal Buffalo Council (ITBC), Facebook
InterTribal Buffalo Council
The ITBC is a federally chartered Indian organization dedicated to restoring buffalo to tribal lands and preserving the historical, cultural, and spiritual relationship between Native peoples and the bison. Representing 58 tribes across 19 states, the Council manages a collective herd of over 15,000 animals and supports Native communities in revitalizing tradition, strengthening economies, and protecting bison for future generations.
Decorated Buffalo Sculpture, Custer, South Dakota, 2021
Carol M. Highsmith
Digital photograph
A colorfully painted buffalo sculpture on a street in Custer, South Dakota. It is one of many sculptures throughout the town, created by different artists as part of a public art initiative celebrating the American bison.
Library of Congress
Buffalo Return Home
Coming up the street eyes made out huge
lumbering shadows from some distant lands where
earth opened a space for buffalo needing to run, run
into a place where a dreaming one welcomed these
kind of spirits, where remembering ancient ritual
opened my mind. Their breath like river fog floated
over pacing shoulders, hooves a drum of their own.
This memory recognized their spirit voices coming
from a thousand years. Concrete and streets begin to
slowly crumble, houses and cars were pushed into the distance, light poles fell away as buffalo pulsed from one time into this age.
Feeling my tongue go silent,
their deep voices echoed off the trees, “We are coming,
We are coming.”
Excerpt from Dreaming Buffalo, poem by Lois Red Elk