Spirits of the Plains: American Buffalo

If the Great Plains had a mascot, it would be the American Buffalo. These enormous shaggy beasts walk the grasslands as a reminder of a world now gone. Icons of a hard land; revenants back from the dead. Incredibly, the gigantic animals we see today are the smaller descendants of behemoths that once thrived here.

Despite their moniker, there are no true buffalo native to North America – the American Buffalo is a different sub-tribe than the buffalo of Asia and Africa. The hairy mammals we all know as buffalo fall instead in the genus of Bison. The modern bison is the species Bison bison. Its most common subspecies, the Plains bison, has the scientific name Bison bison bison. The intense academic rigor and debate that led to such a name must have been fascinating. Still, the term “buffalo” is so deeply entrenched in American culture that even scientists tend to accept it in casual use.

Today’s bison are smaller than their Ice Age ancestors, but still formidable. A full-grown bull can weigh over a ton and stand more than six feet tall at the shoulder. These modern animals evolved from larger Pleistocene species that once thundered across the continent.

Bison first arrived in North America via the Bering Land Bridge several hundred thousand years ago. The first distinctly North American species was the largest of them all – a monster called Bison latifrons. Nicknamed the Giant Bison or Long-Horned Bison, they wielded horn cores that spanned over seven feet, several times the size of modern bison. Scientists and scholars estimate that latifrons was 25 to 50 percent larger than our American Buffalo. This Ice Age giant was the inspiration for the Ghost Coast Surf Company logo. Many think it is a modern longhorn, but it is not. It’s latifrons.

Smilodons v Bison latifrons, by Steve White

After latifrons came Bison antiquus, a slightly smaller but still massive species that roamed the continent until about 10,000 years ago. That timeline means people lived alongside, and hunted, those ancient beasts. Over time, each new subspecies of bison trended smaller than its predecessors.

In the nineteenth century, market hunters pursued the American Buffalo to the brink of extinction. Only a few hundred remained in scattered pockets on the Plains. Late conservation efforts managed to preserve the species, but only just. Today close to half a million buffalo live in North America, mainly in commercial herds. A far cry from the millions that once blanketed the landscape like a dark, living sea.

In the 1980s, two academics from New York proposed turning large chunks of the Plains into a “Buffalo Commons” because the apocalyptic wasteland was unfit for anything else. Their paper and position are a case study in East Coast condescension. Despite the snobbery and miscalculations of the authors, they tapped into a concept that resonated with plenty of people. Many current and planned projects on the Plains center around the idea of putting more bison back on the landscape.

The American Buffalo possesses a powerful draw that ensures its continued use as a symbol for a wide variety of people and organizations. Plains tribes, states, ranchers, and conservationists alike all find meaning in its past, present, and future. These giants of the grasslands grip the imagination with a force that transcends cultures, races, nationalities, and ideologies. They are inextricably linked to this land – the Spirits of the Plains.