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overkill, etc.
Thomas Kavanagh, Curator (TKAVANAG@UCS.INDIANA.EDU)
Wed, 3 May 1995 09:08:47 EWT
re decline of buffalo:
re decline of buffalo:
basic problem with Dan Flores and others who argue size of bison herds on the
Southern Plains is that there is no good evidence for a "base point". In anotherarticle, Flores used climatological data from the 1890s to estimate a
cattle 'carrying ca[a[city
[sorry, 'capacity'] from which he extrapolated
to a bison population level. I'm not sure any of those assumptions are
valid.
At the same time, we must consider the effects of the end of the 'little
ice age' ca 1850 on overall herd size.
AND, before we put blame on 'white' hide hunters, we should also consider
the New Mexican Ciboleros-buffalo hunters-who were the subject of much
complaint by Kiowas and Cheyennes at the 1853 Fort Atkinson Treaty council.
[The Ciboleros were not Pueblos].
tk
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