Montana Bison Hunt

There is an article in today's Wall Street Journal by Brendan Miniter about a plan by the State of Montana to allow limited hunting of bison who have wandered out of Yellowstone National Park. The bison carry brucellosis, a disease that kills domestic cattle, and they can't be allowed to mingle with cattle herds in the area. Montana has issued hunting licenses and tags for its first bison hunt in 15 years.

Some opponents of the hunt say that the bison have no fear of humans and hunters will be able to approach too close to kill the animals and that it is not sporting. Anti-hunting groups have ran ads and say that it is as sporting as "... shooting a parked truck." So far this has not deterred the State that is concerned for its cattle industry.

Miniter points out that the anti-hunters paint an edenic picture of Indians on horseback with bows, killing bison in a "sporting" hunt - an image that he identifies as a myth. Miniter uses the example of an archaeological site, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in Canada, where "sporting" Indians regularly stampeded bison over a cliff as their mode of hunting.

Miniter has a point. Bison jumps are a common type of archaeological site on the Plains.

This "river of bone" is from the Olsen-Chubbuck site in Eastern Colorado. Evidence here shows that in a single episode on a day 10,150 years ago, a herd of an extinct form of bison, Bison occidentalis, was stampeded by Indians across an arroyo, killing 193 of them. The Indians obviously had good feasting for a time after that, but about 40 of the carcasses were never touched, left to rot. "Sporting" doesn't always mean much to hunters with primitive technology and families to feed.

UPDATE

I wish to revise and extend my remarks based on Larissa and Mary's comments. I believe that the State of Montana is doing the right thing under the circumstances. The only other rational alternative is to have Montana officials shoot them. The State should spare the expense and gain the revenue by allowing the hunt. I believe that the assertion that the hunt should be stopped because it is not sporting is an ahistorical canard brought to you by the crowd that says, "Hunting won't be sporting until the animals are armed."

In prehistory, Native Americans killed bison any way that they could, with drives, jumps, traps, corrals, just as they did with pronghorn and deer. Renowned archaeologist George Frison gives you a good rundown here and here of the techniques, their history, and their effectiveness. After the reintroduction of the horse to North America by Europeans, there was a brief period of time, perhaps 200 years out of the 14,000 or so they have been here, when mounted Native Americans could actually pursue bison in an effective manner. They could run bison in a "sporting" manner if they chose. Usually they didn't when they got firearms. This manifestation of what we think of as typical Plains Indian culture is anything but typical when viewed in context of their entire occupation of North America.

Mary is exactly right about the hide hunters of the 1870s and 1880s. Francis Haines has a good rundown of their technique here. The bison had such strong herd instinct and were so near-sighted that hunters could easily approach within 40 to 50 yards of them. They soon learned that shooting from that range was a mistake because the sound of the gunshot would scare the other animals away. The hide hunter set up a stand 300 yards or so away where he could pick off several animals who would be oblivious to the sound of the gun. In this manner they annihilated millions of animals.

Frankly, the description of how contemporary hunters will hunt bison sounds pretty much like the Nineteenth century version to me. And what are you going to do unless you want to have say, mounted bow-hunting of bison (I bet there'd be lots of takers!) and then the objectors would just object on other grounds.

Mary is also right about the logistics of bison butchering - it's a big chore. Haines talks about that as well. A vivid and accurate description of how the hunters and skinners worked is in Michael Gear's novel Long Ride Home. Mike does a good job telling you things that wouldn't have occurred to you: like how the skinners were perpetually plagued with fleas, ticks, and other vermin that came out of the bison hair.