Buffalo

Buffalo. . When Fort Stevenson was being built in 1867, 30 million or more buffalo roamed the Great Plains. By the time the fort was decommissioned sixteen years later, it is estimated that only 2,000 were left. , , The Native American Indians used essentially every part of the buffalo for their livelihood, including the meat, horns, hooves, bones, fat, hair, teeth and even manure chips for fuel. The tribes in this area used the hides to build bull boats for travel on the Missouri River. , Buffalo meat was an important food source for the military stationed at Fort Stevenson. General De Trobriand, in referring to the native people, wrote in his journal, Military Life in Dakota, "They are starving to death because of the disappearance of the buffalo from these parts." , The decline of the buffalo began in the 1870s due primarily from the "hide hunters" who killed thousands weekly to send back east for leather and other industrial uses. The sport hunters also took their toll, often shooting them from train cars. , In 1883, Teddy Roosevelt hunted for many days in the Badlands of Dakota Territory to only find one buffalo. , Today, the herds of buffalo number in the 500,000 range, and have been saved from extinction.