No Fur, No Fort

No Fur, No Fort. Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site. , The land surrounding the Arkansas River teemed with wildlife. Most numerous were the bison or buffalo. They were the dominant species of the high plains, the emblem of the prairie. The fortunes of Bent's Fort and the neighboring tribes were tied to the rise and fall of these vast herds., A Hedge Against Hunger , After a successful hunt, while butchering the bison, William Bent may have enjoyed shocking the novices by gulping down raw liver sopped in bile. Buffalo innards quenched thirst and staved off dehydration. Matthew Field reminds us that the buffalo carcass served as a nutritious, if monotonous, food supply…,

Buffalo fresh, buffalo dried, , Roasted, boiled, stewed or fried, , Buffalo serves in every stead , For poultry and pastry, , for meat and for bread.

, Buffalo meat may have provided sustenance, but buffalo robes provided wealth. In the end, buffalo numbers dwindled. Though Bent, St. Vrain and Company intended no doom, their fort may have signaled the beginning of the end of a cherished way of life for Native Americans. The fort's menace was unrecognized because from it flowed momentary abundance., Kid's Corner , Brains tanning Hides , It takes my mom ten days to make one robe! Inch by inch, she scrapes the meat off the hide. Then she mixes together buffalo brains, liver and soap weed and rubs it into the hide. It's a smelly job but the robes do keep us warm in winter. When I get bigger I will hunt buffalo to support our tribe.