Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Politically correct bison history

This book provides a brief, readable overview of Native Americans' efforts to restore bison to the western range.This includes historical efforts to save small herds from the slaughter of the 1880s, early tribal efforts, and the large-scale restoration supported by the Intertribal Bison Cooperative today.

The core of the narrative is infused with Zontek's ideological perspective.For example, he buys uncritically the "ecological Indian" idea though he is aware of debates over Pleistocene extinctions and knowledgeable about opposition to bison herds from Indian livestock producers.

Zontek also tries to build parallels between US Indian policies such as the Dawes Act or termination and US bison policies.Many of those are a stretch.In addition, as he admits, those parallels don't work for Canadian policy.That suggests that the parallels aren't really causal or helpful, and he should have dropped them.

Still, that perspective means that he wants to call bison slaughter a form of racism.He means this not in the sense of General Philip Sheridan, who saw bison slaughter as a tool of war (genocide) against Plains Indians by removing their food supply.No, Zontek means to classify bison slaughter as genocide, really, as equivalent to killing so many millions of people.One can be opposed to bisoncide without needing to identify it with genocide.

It's also worth noting that, for Zontek, the phrase "Buffalo Nation" in the title has at least three referents - - bison, Native American nations dependent on the bison, and the symbiotic relation of bison and Natives.This regularly creates some ambiguity throughout the text.Usually, it's easy to figure out what Zontek means, but some of that ambiguity is unnecessary.

Finally, the book has too many minor factual errors - for example, he puts Chief Mountain in Canada, not on the Glacier NP-Blackfoot IR border.He also makes minor errors of official titles and agency affiliations for some government employees.

And yet, at the heart of it all, Zontek has a readable introduction to the topic.He has visited a lot of sites and talked to a lot of people, and those interviews provide information not available elsewhere. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

NOT ANOTHER BUFFALO HUNTING NOVEL
This book is a well documented diligently researched history of the hunts that resulted in the near elimination of the buffalo. Starting with the acquisition and sale of Buffalo robes from the Indian, to the hunt for meat followed by hide hunting and finally the gathering and sale of the bones.
I found this book to be an easy and enjoyable read with copious footnotes.I was familiar with the names of some of the most prominent participants but the authors research revealed many I had not heard of.
Methods and quantities of shipment of the various parts including the hide,horns,tongues, meat and bones were almost beyond belief.
Anyone interested in our old west times should enjoy this book. ... Read more

Product Description
A vivid description of the life of the buffalo in each season of the year details its ways of courtship, birth, and winter survival. "Will make a useful addition to any library collection not only as a behavioral study of the American bison but as a success story in wildlife management and the return of an endangered species." -- School Library Journal, starred reviewSchool Library Journal Best Books of the Year
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

hi Mrs. Barg/ Ms. Collins
My teacher mrs barg recommended me to read this because she thought i loved buffalo's.It turns out after reading this book that I hate buffalos.What year did the white man first come to america.I wonder if the WHITE MAN stole indians, and fed them to buffalos. This is written by Elliot Stern.

The buffalo
Here's an excellent history of the buffalo on the North American continent, from its pre-historic migratory days (it roamed as far east as Virginia and the Carolinas) to the more recent efforts by conservationists to re-establish the herds in the Dakotas, Montana, and Canada. In short and well-focused chapters, Haines recounts the relationship between the buffalo and the Native Americans, especially the Plains Indians, who relied so much on the animal for food, shelter, and clothing. Haines explains how the Indians hunted the buffalo (methods included a circling concept where isolated animals were ganged up on by numerous members of the tribe at once and, of course, the buffalo jump, where animals were herded off steep precipices in droves to their deaths); he also shows how they prepared just about every part of the animal for either food or clothing. The overwhelmingly destructive forces of whites are also portrayed, especially where the railroads encroached on the land and towns were established. A few chapters wander off the subject a bit as Haines attempts to give a history of major western concerns - the chapters on the Santa Fe Trail, the Mountain Men, and the Oregon/California Trails have little to do with the buffalo. But all in all, this is an excellent, informative history of the buffalo and its role on the American scene. Recommended.

Concise history of the buffalo
This book provides us with a fascinating history of the rise, fall and re-emergence of the great buffalo.A must for history buffs. ... Read more

Product Description
The young campers at Big Creek Ranch hear the story of a special buffalo that saved a pioneer family to repay a kindness once shown to it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

happy customer
The book was shipped on time and the condition as described. I would gladly use this seller again in the future.

Quite Spirited and Informative.
At the time of Lewis and Clark population estimates for buffalo in North America were in excess of 50 million. At the end of the Civil War, estimates were 20 million. By the 1890s, the buffalo was all but extinct.

This is the story of the final nail in this species' coffin: The Buffalo Hunters. Sandoz weaves an interesting and interrelated story of the 4 separate herds that roamed the Plains and the different, interested parties that live off them: The Indians, the Army, the railroads and the hide men. Almost the sole source of food for the Plains Indians, elimination of the herds was viewed by the Army as a very good thing. The quicker the buffalo were eliminated, the quicker the Indian problem would be subdued. For the Indians, not only were they a source of food, they were a source of exchange as the hides could be bartered for guns, traps ammunition and supplies. To the railroad they were a source of sportsmen's dollars and food for road crews. Legends like Wild Bill Hicock and Buffalo Bill Cody killed thousands to feed railroad workers.

But by far, the most devastation was wrought in the shortest period of time by the hide men. In 1871-72, three fourths of Kansas' industry was in hides. It paid for the railroad, drove the Indians back, helped bring rapid settlement and injected money into local economies. Buffalo leather supplied most European Armies. Even after they were slaughtered to the point of extinction, the billions of bones scattered across the prairie had enough value to spark another industry. The bones were collected, transported east and ground up for fertilizer.

This is a remarkably interesting story covering many facets of the American West.It at once drives home the magnitude of this lost resource and the necessity of their passing. After their demise, prairie grasses became profuse, just in time for cattle and the cowboy.

Densely packed with a LOT of information, slow going, worth owning
I found pretty much everything a person could want about the history of Buffalo hunting in America in this book- except the author information quoted by others. I'm sure they're right about Mrs. Sandoz but I didn't find anything about her.
Her style was to write sort of as an anonymous eyewitness of those past events that occurred decades before her birth.
Some of it I've read before in other books (the Adobe Walls Indian battle is described here in great detail, just a little differently than other versions)but most of her sources listed in the bibliography you'll have a hard time finding (1890's to about 1951). Facts, figures, it's pretty much all here but very slow going.

Some Unforgettable Tales
The Buffalo Hunters is interesting enough to keep the reader engaged from beginning to end, though it does tend to get bogged down with excessive minutiae in some parts, as if the author could have used a good editor to rearrange some of the material and maybe delete some of the extraneous detail.Mari Sandoz was an authority on the white settlement of the Great Plains.As miners, farmers and other frontier types would visit her father, young Mari would listen to their stories of the olden days.Much of the material in this book is no doubt taken from those stories.In some cases they were actual eyewitness accounts, in others a story was told as passed on from another in the ancient tradition of oral history.The oral stories are of course supplemented and supported by academic research, making this book a valuable primary source of information about the Old West.

Some of these tales are unforgettable: like the washtub man, an unfortunate greenhorn who got caught in a ferocious blizzard.His rescuers found him unconscious.They took him to a doctor who promptly amputated both arms and both legs due to extreme frostbite.And the story of how Wild Bill Hickok was almost killed by a band of renegade Indians until an Indian chief came to his rescue at the last minute, ordering the would-be killers to let him go.Some years later Hickok murdered this chief for no apparent reason when the chief rode into Hickok's camp one morning for coffee.

Sandoz describes the slaughter of the buffalo in vivid detail to the point that it's almost painful to continue reading.The hunters would set fifty caliber rifles on bipods and start killing by the dozens until the barrels almost melted down.It is estimated that over fifty million buffalo roamed the Great Plains before the Civil War.By 1884 there were only a few hundred left.Just like the beaver in the early nineteenth century, the buffalo were hunted practically to extinction solely for their hides, which made huge profits for the hunters and railroads.Buffalo hides were the gold of the Great Plains.There was also a market for buffalo bones that were shipped back east to make fertilizer.The life and culture of the Plains Indians depended almost totally on the buffalo.The U.S. Army's ultimate conquest of the Plains Indians was, to a great degree, the result of the loss of the Indians' main food supply.The Indians were as much starved into submission as beaten into it by force of arms.

The life of Mari Sandoz is an interesting story in itself.Born in western Nebraska in 1896 to Swiss immigrant parents, she suffered through a harsh and cruel childhood receiving only an eighth-grade education by age seventeen, and speaking only German until adolescence.She married at eighteen and divorced five years later, the marriage apparently a loveless one.She moved to Lincoln, Nebraska where she worked at low-paying jobs while attending classes at the University of Nebraska.She could never officially enroll at the university because she never completed high school, so she was never able to earn a college degree.Her one love was reading and writing, and it was in the early Lincoln years that she taught herself the skills and technique of writing.By the time of her death from cancer in 1966 she had written twenty books and many short stories.

For every Babe Ruth there are hundreds who toil away in the minors never making it to the big leagues.Likewise for writers, for every Hemingway or Steinbeck there are many who grind out book after book but never achieve great notoriety.They are regarded as local or regional writers.Mari Sandoz devoted her entire life to the art of writing about the American West in a truthful and honest way, using the language and syntax of one who grew up in the West.She was ahead of her time; she told the history of the West from both a white and Indian perspective, without any white bias, before it became fashionably chic to do so.

History at its finest
This is quite simply one of the very best history books that I have ever read.It is detailed without being wordy, exceptionally well written, and paints a vivid picture of what is was like to make a living following the great herds.If you want to read one book about the buffalo hunters, this is it. ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Bison Hunters, Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Jerry Potts, Buckshot Roberts, Billy Dixon, Texas Jack Omohundro, Levi Richardson, William Frank Carver, William L. Brooks, Jim Mcintire, "Arizona" Charlie Meadows, J. Wright Mooar. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 93. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp (March 19, 1848 January 13, 1929) was an American officer of the law in various Western frontier towns, farmer, teamster, buffalo hunter, gambler, saloon-keeper, miner and boxing referee. He is best known for his participation in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, along with Doc Holliday, and two of his brothers, Virgil Earp and Morgan Earp. He is also noted for the Earp Vendetta. Wyatt Earp has become an iconic figure in American folk history. He is the major subject of various movies, TV shows, biographies and works of fiction. Earp's boyhood home in Pella Wyatt Earp was born in Monmouth, Illinois, on March 19, 1848, to widower Nicholas Porter Earp and Virginia Ann Cooksey (who were wed on July 30, 1840, in Hartford, Kentucky). From his father's first marriage, Wyatt had an elder half-brother, Newton, and a half-sister, who died at the age of ten months. Wyatt was named after his father's commanding officer in the MexicanAmerican War, Captain Wyatt Berry Stapp, of the Illinois Mounted Volunteers. In March 1849, the Earps left Monmouth for California but settled in Iowa. Their new farm consisted of 160 acres, seven miles (11 km) northeast of Pella, Iowa. On March 4, 1856, Nicholas sold his farm and returned to Monmouth, Illinois, but was unable to find work as a cooper or farmer. Faced with the possibility of being unable to provide for his family, Nicholas decided to run for, and was elected, municipal constable, serving at this post for about thr...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=400247 ... Read more

Product Description
In this true story, Charles Jesse "Buffalo" Jonesundertakes a treacherous 1800s Texas trail ride, risking his life torescue baby buffalo and save America's bison from extinction. Theanimals he saved are the ancestors of many of the more than 25,000buffalo living today.When Columbus discovered the New World in 1492,it is estimated that more than sixty million buffalo (technicallycalled American bison) ranged from southern Canada through centralTexas. During the 1870s, noisy black steam engines plowed through hugeherds of buffalo and many travelers shot the slow moving creatures forentertainment, leaving hundreds of buffalo carcasses rotting alongsidethe railroad tracks. Others shot buffalo for profit. Between 1871 and1873, hunters killed as many as 1,250,000 buffalo each year and soldtheir hides to leather companies on the East Coast. By 1889, fewerthan 600 buffalo remained in the wild.When Charles Jesse "Buffalo"Jones, himself a renowned buffalo hunter, realized that the greatherds were rapidly disappearing, he took action. With gumption andgood humor, Jones rescued baby buffalo and took them to his ranch inKansas. By the end of the nineteenth century, Jones owned the largestbuffalo herd in North America. Because of his efforts to prevent theextinction of the buffalo, Jones became known as the Preserver of theAmerican Bison.BUFFALO JONES, is a fun, fast-paced, well-researchedstory packed with authentic details, numerous black and whiteillustrations, a glossary and bibliography. (Ages 10-14) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A lively, action-filled true story.
Buffalo Jones had to deal with horrible weather, a pack of wolves, and other difficulties in his quest to capture buffalo calves. The clever way he outwitted the wolves adds a surprising twist to an exciting story.Especially good for readers 8 to 12 who like true adventure, but olderreaders (including adults) will enjoy it, too.

An exciting read
Fast-paced and colorful, this book describes one of Jones' expeditions in which he captured buffalo calves to create a captive herd and preserve the species. The difficulties Jones had to overcome make exciting reading,especially the ingenious way he protected the calves from wolves. Great forages 7 to 10, but older and younger folks will enjoy it, too. ... Read more

Product Description
Although the record wouldn't indicate it - four Super Bowl losses and two Stanley Cup Finals defeats for starters - the city of Buffalo and the region of Western New York has enjoyed a long and storied sporting history.

In Game Night in Buffalo, Buffalo-born author and veteran sports writer Sal Maiorana stirs those emotions and passions in chronicling some of the never-to-be-forgotten games and performances that Buffalo’s devout fans have cheered and cursed; events that have shaped Buffalo fandom and defined the parameters of bar room rants for generations to come.

There are 25 stories included in this collection, and this journey through Buffalo sports history includes: Scott Norwood and Wide Right; Brett Hull and the No Goal controversy; St. Bonaventure's run to the 1970 Final Four; O.J. Simpson's quest to become the NFL's first 2,000-yard rusher; the Bills' historic comeback victory over Houston; Bob McAdoo's 50-point night in the 1975 NBA playoffs; the return of baseball to Buffalo in 1979; and May Day, May Day!

In addition to recounting these memorable games, there are player profiles of Buffalo heroes such as Warren Spahn, Henry Nowak, Billy Shaw, Calvin Murphy, Rob Ray, Joe DeLamielleure, Tim Horton, Ernie DiGregorio, Pat LaFontaine, Danny Gare, Darryl Talley, Andre Reed and Thurman Thomas.

For anyone who has grown up a sports fan in Buffalo or Western New York, Game Night in Buffalo is a must-have for the simple reason that it will bring back to life, in vivid detail, the sporting events that no one should ever forget.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Buffalo Bisons
This is the most comprehensive history of the Buffalo Bisons that I've ever seen.Truly a great, informative, amusing and enlightening book!! ... Read more

Product Description
This comprehensive book about American bison production and marketing is packed with information for veteran farmers/ranchers and newcomers alike. More than 30 industry experts have collaborated to develop over 250 pages of useful, readable information on all aspects of bison marketing and production.Please note, this book also comes FREE with a National Bison Association Active, Allied Industry or Life membership. Please visit the National Bison Association website to join the NBA today and receive this book for FREE, in addition to the many other benefits of a NBA membership. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

bison producers handbook review
Bison Are Back!From increasing profit numbers on the balance sheet of producers, to an increasing number of new bison producers, the industry is in a resurgence mode.

This lean volume from the National Bison Association and the Canadian Bison Association captures the essence of the bison business today and provides solid information on nearly every facet of the industry. These concepts are explained clearly and concisely for the reader in 16 short chapters.The information in each chapter builds on previous ones by following a logical sequence of subjects needed to understand and create a successful bison business today.

Beginning with an outline of an historical perspective on the animal and the industry, the book puts the most important section, Creating a Successful Business Plan, right up front.The following sections of the book talk about building the business from the ground up. The underlying foundation of the successful bison producer is clearly stated as the health of the land resource being managed.In turn, managing the animals day to day in a healthy, humane and low stress manner builds on this foundation to create the basis for the production of a healthy, desirable product for the consumer, and profit for the producer.

The handbook follows with several chapters which outline the final finishing, and marketing of the product to the consumer.The full range of diversity in terms of products and their promotion is explained with real life examples and the elements needed to create a successful marketing plan.

Concluding chapters deal with the regulatory realities of the business and provide plenty of enlightenment on further sources of information for the reader.

This informative and well written handbook was enjoyable reading and well worth the investment.
... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Buffalo
The bison, once so plentiful on the North American plain, was hunted and nearly exterminated. Now the full story of this magnificent animal is place in its true perspective, with handsome illustrations on buff-colored paper. ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The American Bison (Bison bison) is a North American species of bison, also commonly known as the American Buffalo. "Buffalo" is somewhat of a misnomer for this animal, as it is only distantly related to either of the two "true buffaloes", the Asian Water Buffalo and the African Buffalo. However, "bison" is a Greek word meaning ox-like animal, while "buffalo" originated with the French fur trappers who called these massive beasts boeufs, meaning ox or bullock ? so both names, "bison" and "buffalo," have a similar meaning. In reference to this animal, the term "buffalo," which dates to 1635, has a much longer history than the term "bison," which was first recorded in 1774. The American Bison is more closely related to the Wisent or European Bison. These bison once inhabited the grasslands of North America in massive herds; their range roughly formed a triangle between the Great Bear Lake in Canada's far northwest, south to the Mexican states of Durango and Nuevo León, and east along the western boundary of the Appalachian Mountains. The two subspecies include the Plains Bison (Bison bison bison), smaller in size and with a more rounded hump, and the Wood Bison (Bison bison athabascae), which is the larger of the two and with a taller, square hump. Wood Bison is one of the largest species of cattle in the world, surpassed only by the Asian gaur and Wild Asian Water Buffalo. It is the largest extant land animal in North America. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Politically correct bison history

This book provides a brief, readable overview of Native Americans' efforts to restore bison to the western range.This includes historical efforts to save small herds from the slaughter of the 1880s, early tribal efforts, and the large-scale restoration supported by the Intertribal Bison Cooperative today.

The core of the narrative is infused with Zontek's ideological perspective.For example, he buys uncritically the "ecological Indian" idea though he is aware of debates over Pleistocene extinctions and knowledgeable about opposition to bison herds from Indian livestock producers.

Zontek also tries to build parallels between US Indian policies such as the Dawes Act or termination and US bison policies.Many of those are a stretch.In addition, as he admits, those parallels don't work for Canadian policy.That suggests that the parallels aren't really causal or helpful, and he should have dropped them.

Still, that perspective means that he wants to call bison slaughter a form of racism.He means this not in the sense of General Philip Sheridan, who saw bison slaughter as a tool of war (genocide) against Plains Indians by removing their food supply.No, Zontek means to classify bison slaughter as genocide, really, as equivalent to killing so many millions of people.One can be opposed to bisoncide without needing to identify it with genocide.

It's also worth noting that, for Zontek, the phrase "Buffalo Nation" in the title has at least three referents - - bison, Native American nations dependent on the bison, and the symbiotic relation of bison and Natives.This regularly creates some ambiguity throughout the text.Usually, it's easy to figure out what Zontek means, but some of that ambiguity is unnecessary.

Finally, the book has too many minor factual errors - for example, he puts Chief Mountain in Canada, not on the Glacier NP-Blackfoot IR border.He also makes minor errors of official titles and agency affiliations for some government employees.

And yet, at the heart of it all, Zontek has a readable introduction to the topic.He has visited a lot of sites and talked to a lot of people, and those interviews provide information not available elsewhere. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
A wildlife adventure set amid North America's last uninterrupted wolf-bison predator-prey cycle.

Carbyn's tale is an adventurous first-person narrative of a scientist in one of the most remote places on earth—Wood Buffalo National Park in northwestern Canada—studying the only remaining uninterrupted predator-prey relationship of wolves and bison. As remote as the park is, however, the long reach of human civilization is everywhere to be found. An odd collaboration of ranchers, government officials and conservation groups propose that all the bison be killed because they harbor diseases such as tuberculosis, brucellosis, and anthrax. The threat to cattle is the primary mover, but some conservationists have dreams of a "pure herd" and want to start over. Carbyn sees it differently, always basing his opinions in science, but also realizing that the bison are part of the long cultural heritage of Canada's native peoples. He expertly navigates through these emotional debates, exploring their twists and turns with insight and compassion. 17 b/w photographs, 2 maps. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Buffalo Wolf
The book arrived sooner than expected.It was advertised as "good condition"but was actually like new. I would definitely buy from them again.

A Penetrating Look into the World of Wolves and Bison
Lu Carbyn's "Buffalo Wolf" is a short, easy-to-read account of the author's own experiences living out in the field with these two majestic species. Although the accounts of wolf attacks on bison are exquisitely detailed and sensitively described, some of the most enjoyable moments of the book come in the form of Carbyn's many adventures trying to reconcile his worlds of wolves and men.
In one particularly entertaining chapter, the author explains how he mistakenly agreed to help two different film crews get footage of his study subjects during the same trip to the field. Because one crew was French and the other British, Carbyn likened the tension between the crews to an European war, as both crews trudged towards each other, laden with heavy equipment and less than happy to see the other on "their" shooting site. Of course, the wolves soon steal the show once again when a large male approaches one of the cameras to give it a good sniff, coming eye-to-eye with the camera crew.
Lu Carbyn brings his readers so close to the wolves that it feels as if the reader has been there with him, hearing the howl of the wolves and the bison's soft grunts and thundering hooves. "Buffalo Wolf" is a must-read for anyone who admires the wilderness or any of the creatures that inhabit it.

Buffalo Wolf
Powerful real life adventures of a biologist working one on one with bison and wolves in the north.If you're wondering what goes on behind the scenes of those nature documentaries this is the book.Not for the faint of heart though.Makes you feel like rooting for the beleagured bison to once, just once, get revenge on the wolf.In the end however, it turns out that humanity is more of a problem than the wolves.Big interests with agri-agendas want to destroy this particular bison herd.I liked the book's no nonsense approach to the "people problems" and behind the scenes politics.

A Sense of Place
Lu Carbyn's book presents a totally new perspective on wolves, bison, and wildlife management and research.His recounting of his time in the field, his personal observations, the politics and the bureaucracy interwoven with the science he tries to hold to is honest and revealing.His love for the land he returns to time after time shines through most of all.If you are looking for a "wolf book" that is personal and thought-provoking, Mr. Carbyn's THE BUFFALO WOLF: PREDATORS, PREY, AND THE POLITICS OF NATURE is one you will want to read.

The Buffalo Wolf
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever heard a wolf howl or to anyone who has ever dreamed of hearing a wolf howl! Lu Carbyn is a man of science who writes with a poet's skill. His knowledge paired with his compassion takes us to the mysterious and ever-changing world of the Buffalo Wolf National Park, one of our world's treasures. The predator/prey interactions, the politics of wildlife management, the basic and sometimes cruel ways of nature -- Lu presents these issues and challenges us to ask the question, "How much management is too much?" Truly a spectacular book! ... Read more

Product Description
Chapters: Al Dekdebrun, Al Wukits, Al Klug, Harry Hopp, Bob Thurbon, Lou Tomasetti, John Batorski. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 21. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Allen Edward Dekdebrun (May 11, 1921 - March 29, 2005) was an American Football quarterback in the All-America Football Conference, National Football League, ], and Ontario Rugby Football Union. He played college football at Cornell University, where he was also a member of the Quill and Dagger society. ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=3723529 ... Read more