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Bison Mystery Box
Summary: ■ tassel (beard) Background Students will investigate the many ■ water bottle (bladder uses of bison in Native American water container) The American bison (Bison culture. bison) is the largest land ■ small knife (awl used for Grade levels: making marks and holes mammal on this continent. Its 4-8; K-3 for sewing) appearance is distinctive — dark brown fur, massive head, Time: ■ paintbrush (paintbrush) 3-4 class periods horns, large hump (due to ■ sawdust or talcum powder elongated vertebrae) over Subject: (bison chips used for fuel) science, social studies, literature shoulders, and shaggy hair ■ small bells (bison dew covering the head, shoulders, Skills: claws, used as decoration) analysis, application, comparison, and front legs. Bison are ungu- ■ toy horses (bison foot description lates, hoofed animals that bones, used as toys) primarily feed on grasses and Learning Objectives ■ cotton balls (buffalo hair, Students will be able to: sedges. As herbivores, bison ✓ used to stuff pillows, or have sharp incisor teeth for Explain the cultural and spun into rope) sacred significance of the sniping plants and broad and bison to many Native Amer- ■ spoon or bowl (bison flat molars for grinding plant ican nations. horn, used to make dishes material. In the wild, bison ✓ Explain the role of bison in and utensils) may live up to 15 years, while prairie ecosystems. ■ shirt (hide used to bison in a wildlife management ✓ Identify some of the many ways make clothing) situation may live to 20 years. Native Americans used the ■ shoe sole (bison bison in their everyday lives. rawhide, used for The average herd size is 60-100 Materials: moccasins, teepees, etc.) individuals, although bison ✓ Bison Parts Cards ■ ice skate (bison rib, herds sometimes gather to ✓ Bison Uses Teacher used to make sleds) form bands of several thousand individuals. Cows, calves, and Reference Sheet ■ soap (bison fat, used to ✓ Bison Illustration make soap and wash subadults live in herds all year. Worksheet rawhides) Bison bulls live apart from the ✓ paper ■ herd ten months out of the ✓ pot (bison stomach, used pencils to store water or as a year and rejoin during the ✓ Suggested books: Grasslands, cooking pot) mating season. Group living Lauren Brown; Bison for Kids, provides individuals protection ■ flyswatter (bison tail, To dd Wilkinson against predators, such as ✓ Bison magazine articles used as hair ornament grizzly bears and wolves, since or flyswatter) there are many eyes watching ✓ Objects for Bison Mystery ■ beads (bison teeth, used simultaneously. Bison often Box, to represent items made as necklace) give signals of alarm, such as from bison parts: grunts or tail position, when a
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NORTH AMERICA’S LARGEST LAND MAMMAL
HEIGHT FT (M) LENGTH FT (M) WEIGHT LBS (KG) (nose to tail)
Bulls (males) 6 (1.8) at hump 10 (3) 1500-1200 (675-900)
Cows (females) 5 (1.5) at hump 4.5-5.5 (1.4 - 1.7) 900-1200 (405-541)
Calves (newborn 1.5 (.5) at shoulder 3 (1) 50 (23)
predator is heard or smelled. As to the hunting grounds. After a after the park was established a result, the herd may come successful hunt, additional reli- in 1872, after word got out together and move, perhaps gious ceremonies, prayers of that poachers were killing stampede. thanksgiving, and a period of bison. Park officials soon initi- singing, dancing, and feasting ated stronger measures to As a dominant feature on the followed. None of the bison protect the bison. North American landscape, was wasted; the people used the bison were important to Native Today, nearly 350,000 bison skins for clothing and teepees, American tribes throughout the are found in the United States, bones for tools and utensils, animal’s range. Considered a in legally protected herds in meat for food, and countless sacred animal by many tribes, Yellowstone and the National other items. the bison was a primary source Bison Refuge in Montana, and of food and supplied the raw More than 50 million bison on privately owned lands, materials for clothing, teepee once roamed throughout where many of the animals are covers, weapons, tools, utensils, North America’s grasslands, being raised for a growing, and toys. meadows, and sparsely forested $500-million-a-year market in areas in herds. However, buffalo meat and hides. For many tribes, bison hunts commercial slaughter for meat were major events that involved There is also a growing move- and hides, which the U.S. mili- most members of the band or ment to restore the bison to its tary encouraged to destroy the tribe. Medicine men and rightful place at the center of Indians’ food supplies and dancers performed ceremonial Native American culture. More hasten their conquest, left rituals praising the bison and than 50 tribes that have joined fewer than 1,000 bison in the giving thanks for the lives of the InterTribal Bison Coopera- United States by the end of the the bison that they were about tive (ITBC), an organization nineteenth century, most of to take. Respected leaders care- founded by Native Americans those in captivity. The only fully planned the logistics of the in 1990 to assist and coordi- free-ranging herd of bison hunt, and marshals enforced nate efforts to bring bison south of Canada was deep the rules throughout the entire back to Indian lands. within America’s first national process. Nomadic tribes typi- Members’ herds already add up park, Yellowstone, where a cally moved their entire camp to nearly 9,000 head. And public furor erupted not long
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with more than 13 million materials list above. Place all of bison questions. Some acres under tribal ownership items in a large box or bag. examples are: nationwide, the potential is ✔ Gather books or magazine ✔ What types of habitat do enormous—not only for the articles on bison for student bison prefer? bison but for fritillary butter- research materials. flies, prairie fringed orchids, ✔ What do bison eat? vanishing swift foxes, and ✔ Cut apart Bison Parts Cards. ✔ What kinds of groups do other species that rely on the bison live in? same kinds of habitat. This is Procedure what Indians really mean ✔ At what time of day are when they speak of the 1. Ask students, Have you ever bison most active? Buffalo Nation: the whole, seen bison? If so, what was ✔ How often do bison wonderfully diverse array of most striking about the bison reproduce? flora and fauna that revolves you saw? Explain that bison around grazing, trampling, were at the center of Native ✔ What is the history of the wallowing, dustbathing and American culture. bison in the United States? migration of the herds. 2. Help your students identify How many bison once roamed the Great Plains? Why did they NWF is a part of the effort to the American bison by disappear? restore buffalo to America’s sharing with them the illus- prairies by focusing on tration of the bison ✔ Why were they so important conserving two of the largest provided. to Native Americans? remaining buffalo popula- 3. Divide your students into ✔ What is the role of the bison tions, the Yellowstone small groups and have them in the prairie ecosystem? National Park and Jackson, read Bison for Kids, one of Wyoming herds. Managing the other suggested books 5. Have each group create a these herds and their habitat (see Resources section), or bison poster, writing short in a balanced way that works one of the articles provided articles and including draw- for people and wildlife is an to help students gain a ings and diagrams to show important step in restoring better understanding of what they have learned in this species and all of bison natural history and the their reading about this America’s grasslands. role of bison in Native important grasslands animal. (You may also want to American cultures. 6. When the groups are done reserve NWF’s Bison Box. To do 4. Assign, or have students with their research and have so, call 800-822-9919). select, one student from completed their posters, each group to record the have each group share their group’s research findings on posters with the rest of the Preparation paper. As they read or class. Ask each group to be research, suggest that the brief, only adding any new ✔ Assemble a Bison Mystery groups come up with a list information that has not Box from the items in the been previously mentioned
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by groups that presented for the rest of the class to before them. Display ask each group questions. the posters around the 12. When all the groups have classroom. presented, return the 7. At this point, explain to Mystery Box items to the students that they will box. Ask the students explore the many uses of what they learned. Were the bison by Native Ameri- they amazed by the variety cans, to gain a better of uses Native Americans understanding of their had for the bison? Why do great dependence on this you think many Native animal. American cultures consider the bison to be a sacred 8. There are 21 Bison Parts animal? Stress that the Cards. Distribute these to near disappearance of the student groups, giving bison was not a result of several to each group. did the Native Americans Native American hunting, Have the groups brain- make out of that same part but rather a policy of the storm lists of everyday of the bison? Ask students U.S. government to exter- items they think Native to find pictures or draw- minate the bison and Americans could have ings of the actual items in disrupt Native American made from these materials. their research to share with cultures. Can you think of the class. 9. Take out your Bison any animals we depend on Mystery Box and walk from 11. After all groups have in all or some of these ways group to group, having completed their research, today? groups take turns pulling have them take turns out items until they are all presenting their findings to Modifications for distributed (so each group the group, sharing what Younger Students will have 3-4 items). Ask their original hypothesis (K-3) students to hypothesize what was, what they found, Read one of the children’s function this item represents showing their Mystery Box books on bison to the students. and what part of the buffalo items and pictures of the Ask them to name different the Plains Indians might actual bison objects if they characteristics of bison and have used to make this item. were able to locate them. ways Native Americans used As student groups present, 10. Have students conduct the bison. Point out the have one student write up research, using books, different parts of the bison and the items and uses on the magazines, and the ask them to think of ways board, having each group internet to investigate their Native Americans might have add to the growing class hypotheses. Were they right used those parts (i.e., skin for list. Be sure to leave time or wrong? What other items clothes, horn for dishes). Pull
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individual items out of the changed their hunting methods Assessment Bison Mystery Box and discuss and cultures. Have students write a journal what each one represents and ✔ Have students investigate entry, a newspaper article, or a how the Plains Indians used the role of the bison in current story describing what might the bison for this purpose. tribal life. Research may be have happened after a bison necessary. Contact: hunt and how several everyday Extensions items were made from the InterTribal Bison Cooperative, bison that were caught. ✔ Have students research and P. O. Box 8105 compare various hunting Rapid City, SD 57709 methods used by Plains tribes (605) 394-9730 to hunt bison and how horses
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WORKSHEET Bison Parts Cards ✃ HORNS SKULL BRAINS
MUSCLES HAIR HOOFS
RAWHIDE BUCKSKIN BONES
STOMACH RAWHIDE TAIL
FAT TEETH CHIPS (dung)
MEAT BLOOD BLADDER
TENDONS BEARD TONGUE
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R ebirth o n t he G reat P l ains
In bringing back bison to their tribal lands, Native Americans are also restoring their own cultural health
Excerpted from National Wildlife, April/May 1998
13-year-old Winnebago Indian boy—call him Eddy— A is winding wire from an A electric fence onto a spool, using a big handle for leverage. He is not the most enthusiastic of winders and when he does put out some effort, he causes a tangle.
“You’re messing it up,” says another boy, hauling in the wire by hand to help, “But then, you can’t even break into a house right.”
Eddy got busted for a minor burglary here on the Winnebago Reservation in northeastern Nebraska, and a tribal court sentenced him to perform several weeks of labor on this Winnebago bison refuge. The remainder of the work crew is a mix of court-case kids and boys earning wages in a summer youth job program. Today, the group also includes me, though as the July afternoon swelters toward 95 degrees I’m
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having second thoughts about buffalo inhabited eastern wood- extra meaning these days the wisdom of volunteering. I lands and portions of Canada’s because they are part of a am a wildlife biologist. What am subarctic as well. However, growing movement to restore I doing at the edge of a cornfield commercial slaughter for meat bison to tribal lands across the pulling out fence posts and wire and hides, which the U.S. military country. Besides improving the with teenage delinquents? encouraged to destroy the animals’ future, such projects Indians’ food supplies and hasten are designed to help heal and As if to remind me, a burly bull their conquest, left fewer than strengthen Indian cultures for bison, or American buffalo as the 1,000 bison in the United States which the shaggy herds were creature is often called, appears by the end of the nineteenth long a mainstay. with several smaller companions century. “The bison always took care of on a small rise behind us. “That’s Many of those surviving us,” says Louis LaRose, a former the biggest, baddest guy in the animals were living in captivity. member of the Winnebago Tribal herd,” the boys tell me, edging The only free-ranging herd of Council and interim president of away toward some trees. The bison south of Canada was holed the reservation’s community Winnebagos call him Mike Bison, up deep within America’s first college. “Now it is our turn to after the notoriously short- national park, Yellowstone. take care of them. They are a tempered boxer, Mike Tyson. But There, a public furor erupted not symbol of our strength and the bull proves to be only long after the park was estab- unity. As we restore them to curious. All the bison are. lished in 1872, after word got health, we restore a healthy Removing the old fence will out that poachers were killing culture for ourselves. I see the expand the pasture for this herd bison. Park officials soon initi- rebirth of the buffalo and the of 50 animals to some 200 acres. ated stronger measures to rebirth of Indian people taking The animals look eager to protect the creatures. place together.” explore the new, ungrazed Today, nearly 350,000 bison are Each day on the job at the section of tallgrass and prairie found in the United States, Winnebago pasture begins with a coneflowers. I’m here exploring, mostly on privately owned lands prayer, usually led by LaRose, too, traveling cross-country to where many of the animals are who helped establish this bison learn more about some important being raised for a growing, $500- herd in 1994. He lowers his eyes modern developments in the million-a-year market toward the ancient relationship between in buffalo meat and rich, loamy earth Indians and bison. hides. and intones: Numbering 50 million or more, For many Native “Grandfather Bison bison once thronged across Americans, efforts [Great Spirit, the whole of North America’s such as the Creator], we ask Great Plains. A slightly larger Winnebago Reserva- you to help these subspecies known as wood tion project take on young men National Wildlife
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Rebirth on the Great Plains
understand their role in bringing of which will be culled for meat around grazing, trampling, back the buffalo. Grant that they following a ceremony of thanks- wallowing, dustbathing, and may see the lessons of the herd— giving, to teach awareness of the constantly moving herds. how the buffalo take care of value of a healthful diet. A prime example of bison themselves and help each other.” Despite its relatively small size ecosystem restoration is LaRose makes sure the group of about 120 square miles, the underway on the lands of spends time simply observing Winnebago Reservation has another ITBC member, the Fort the small herd. I hear him already set aside several small Belknap Reservation of the pointing out aspects of bison wildlife reserves where deer and Assiniboine and Gros Ventre maternal care and other social game birds prosper. LaRose tribes in northcentral Montana. relationships, hoping his hopes to one day link those areas Frontiersmen once described a listeners will begin to ponder the together with an expanded bison single mass of bison milling from value of being part of a larger, range. How large might the herd this terrain to a point 150 miles functioning society. LaRose also become? “As large as I can get it,” east. They were a portion of the passes along a bit of wildflower he replies. great northern herd, the last to identification and other natural The Winnebago Nation is one be extinguished. The end came of 45 tribes that have joined the during the 1870s. Less than a InterTribal Bison Cooperative decade later, half the Assiniboine (ITBC), an organization founded people had starved to death. by Native Americans in 1990 to “No man living here today has assist and coordinate efforts to the wealth we had before the bring bison back to Indian lands. destruction of the buffalo,” says Members’ herds already add up Charlie Ereaux, who teaches to nearly 9,000 head. And with cultural values at the Fort more than 13 million acres Belknap Reservation. “They were under tribal ownership nation- our food, our house, our tools, wide, the potential is enor- our pharmacy, our spiritual mous—not only for the bison dignity. They were our freedom.” but for fritillary butterflies, In 1974, reservation leaders prairie fringed orchids, vanishing reestablished a small bison herd swift foxes and other species that has since grown to more that rely on the same kinds of than 250 animals. Roaming history lessons. As he puts habitat. This is what Indians 10,000 acres, the herd produces it, “I try to get these little really mean when they speak of nearly 100 calves per year. ‘coyotes’ excited about education the Buffalo Nation: the whole, Fort Belknap is northern plains without scaring the hell out of wonderfully diverse array of country—high, wide and windy them.” He uses the bison, a few flora and fauna that revolves shortgrass prairie, dominated by
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blue grama grass and buffalo grass, with snowcapped peaks on the distant horizon. The heart of the current buffalo range is Snake Butte, a prow of dark, volcanic rock where prairie falcons nest and pronghorn seem to soar just as effortlessly across the ground. It is a favorite site for vision quests, in which tribal members seek a spiritual mentor from among the wild creatures. According to tradi- tional Native American beliefs, animals are not lower life forms than humans but rather other colonies, and burrowing owls, “people” with different kinds of natural resources as part of an which rear their young right in powers than ours—equals in the environmental studies program the prairie dogs’ holes. Both great circle of life. recently established through the species have become Not far from one edge of the Fort Belknap community college. disturbingly rare in parts of the butte, I find most of the bison. In From time to time, the Assinibone West as prairie dogs continue to their midst is a pickup truck and Gros Ventre conduct buffalo undergo drastic declines due to containing Roberta Johnson, who tours for the public. Hopes to poisoning programs and other is leaning out the window with expand ecotourism go hand in problems. binoculars and taking notes on hand with an ambitious plan to Later, we are joined by Mike the animals’ behavior. Over a revitalize the wild prairie commu- Fox, the head tribal biologist at background of grunts, rumbling nity. In autumn of 1997, Fort Fort Belknap, who notes that his growls and the thud of heavy Belknap became the first reserva- vision of restoration extends far hooves, I hear her say, “The herd tion to reintroduce the most beyond the current bison is heading into the wind, prob- endangered mammal of the Amer- pasture. “I hope we can add at ably to keep the bugs off. As ican plains, the black-footed ferret. least another 40,000 acres,” he usual, the leader is one of the With Tim Vosburgh, a biologist says, “most of it from a tribal cows. I notice more of the bulls employed by the tribes, I look ranch now being used for cattle. sniffing around the females over prairie dog towns at the Beyond that, well, we’ve got lately. You can tell that the ferret release site. He shows me 400,000 acres here.” The reserva- mating season isn’t far off.” mountain plovers, which prefer tion is connected to U.S. Bureau Johnson is one of 13 tribal to nest in the open, insect-rich of Land Management property members investigating various habitat created by the rodent and that leads into the Charles
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M. Russell National Wildlife produce everything from meat machines pack down hard Refuge along the Missouri River. and clothing to glue and toys for routes across the snow, allowing “Who knows?” adds Fox. “We their children. Through special bison to cover long distances might have a real, migratory pacts, many tribes allowed more readily than in the past. bison range going one day.” Indians living west of the Great The NWF scientist considers Back at tribal offices in the Divide, such as the Nez Perce, to the Indian view of nature “an town of Harlem, Poncho Bigby, journey over the mountains each antidote to rhetoric that says the the director of natural resources, year to hunt the herds. needs of wildlife conflict with tells me, “I have a stressful job Nearly wiped out along with those of people.” I recall my dealing with tribal, state, and the bison, the Indians, too, conversation with Charlie Ereaux federal agencies. Sometimes, ended up confined to little at the Fort Belknap Reservation, when I get overwhelmed, I go islands of their former territory. “You will not be healed until you out to be with the buffalo. They At one time, Indians that left come back in harmony with all take the burden from me. I can’t their reservation were captured of life,” he told me. “Our medi- explain it. When whites extermi- and jailed or even killed. cine people say this and I’ve nated the herds, they didn’t just Yellowstone bison have a come to realize that it is true.” take away our grocery store. special place in the heritage of That notion is at the core of They annihilated our church.” all Americans, for those animals the current efforts by the In the past, spirituality represent the only continuously Winnebago and other tribes to pervaded almost every aspect of surviving wild herd of the restore their cultural ties with Native American life and of all animals left in the nation. A bison. “As we try to solve the the animals in their domain on century ago, they numbered just controversy in Yellowstone,” the Great Plains, bison probably twenty-five. In recent decades, says Torbit, “perhaps the time received the most prayers. The the Yellowstone herd increased has come for all Americans to hefty, hoofed creatures were to nearly 4,000. But as the learn a few things from the orig- never viewed by the Indians as a animals roamed in search of inal buffalo experts—the commodity, but rather as a more winter food, some Indians—about where animals powerful race of beings that inevitably moved beyond park belong in our lives.” ■ chose of its own accord to boundaries. Their dispersal was provide the things people need speeded along by the thousands to live. Traditionally, Native of snowmobiles permitted to use Americans used bison to park roads in winter; the
April/May 1998
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Here’s some of the coolest stuff about what happened when buffalo ruled the continent. WHEN BUFFALO RULED
BY CAROLYN DUCKWORTH buffalo would close up HOW TO HUNT deep snowdrifts. Ranger Rick, July 1998 and become one solid BUFFALO • wear wolf skins, so mass of moving animals. Indians lived among the they could crawl close The noise resembled low buffalo for thousands of and then stab the buffalo HOW MANY? rumbling thunder and years. To hunt them with spears A man traveling the earth trembled under they would: • chase buffalo over through Kansas in the their pounding hooves.” • wear snowshoes and cliffs. These places were 1800s wrote about the chase the animals into called “buffalo jumps.“ buffalo he saw there: “ … the country was black or rather brown with them as far as one could see… . It was impossible to estimate the number, but there were many, many thou- sands of them…” Yes, and there were many millions of them all across the country. Buffalo roamed in nearly every state from the Rockies to the Appalachian Mountains.
RUNNING WITH THE BUFFALO Here's what an army man once said: “… it was very dangerous to be caught in and mixed up with the stampede. The
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WORKSHEET
Hundreds of buffalo were killed at a time. After Europeans brought horses to North America, Indians learned to ride the horses to hunt buffalo.
ALMOST GONE At the start of the 1800s, millions of buffalo roamed the middle of America. In the mid-1800s, though, the climate got warmer and drier, and the grasslands changed. During those years, many buffalo died. At the same time, the U.S. a few hundred buffalo on other public lands in American bison. But in government needed were left. Most of these North America. America, it's OK to call more land for settlers animals were protected Many more buffalo are bison “buffalo.” and went to war with on ranches and farms. being raised on ranches TRIBAL ANIMAL the Indian nations. and Indian lands for For many Indian Some people in the BIG BUFFALO food. Are there buffalo people, the buffalo is government thought COMEBACK burgers for sale near you? still a sacred and they could defeat the At the start of the important animal. Indian people by 1900s, fewer than 50 BISON OR Their religions and starving them. So they wild buffalo survived in BUFFALO? stories revolve around hired men to kill thou- Yellowstone National The scientific name for the buffalo. Buffalo sands of buffalo just for Park.Other buffalo, the buffalo is Bison symbols decorate their hides and some of protected on farms and bison, and most scien- shields, teepees, and their meat. The rest of ranches, were added to tists call the animal many other belong- the meat was left to the Yellowstone herd. “bison.” That's because ings. And many tribes rot. Many other people The herd grew. Today, other animals in Asia hold ceremonies to also killed buffalo. about 2000 wild buffalo and Africa are called honor the buffalo. live in Yellowstone. buffalo. Those buffalo Almost 50 tribes By the late 1800s, only About 10,000 more live are different from North have gotten together
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to help one another one on page 65? Can walk these roads too. roaming buffalo. So raise healthy buffalo you find any other It's easier to walk the the state hires people on their lands. Their buffalo around your roads than to plow to shoot any of the group is called the house, school or neigh- through deep snow. buffalo that leave the InterTribal Bison borhood? And the buffalo can park. Cooperative. travel farther to find Many people are food. That's great upset about this. The MORE BUFFALO TROUBLE AGAIN news, right? Not really. InterTribal Bison Buffalo designs show In Yellowstone, winter The snow-packed Cooperative is up in lots of places. Do visitors drive snowmo- roads may make it working to solve the you recognize the one biles along roads of easier for buffalo to problem along with on the right? It's the hard-packed snow. wander closer to the the National Wildlife symbol of the Buffalo Buffalo park boundaries. And Federation. Together Bills football team. that can be bad they're trying to find You'll also find buffalo news. Why? a way to protect both cookie cutters, stuffed Because some the buffalo and the animals, lamps, blan- ranchers in cattle. ■ kets, posters, jewelry, Montana are and even money. afraid that their Have you ever seen a cattle will catch a buffalo nickel like the disease from the
JULY 1998 - 29
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WORKSHEET American Bison
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TEACHER REFERENCE SHEET Bison Parts and Uses comb Choice meat T /decoration ornaments Teeth ongue Decoration Beard Medication Toys Headdresses Ladles Spoons Po Fire carrier Cups Arrow points Horns f or clothes wder horn P Puddings Soups Blood aints Other rituals Sun dance Skull Bowstrings Sinews-sewing T endons F skins Preparing Brains ood f or clothing dishes basins cups buckets Stomach Cinches Arrow ties Thread Bows Glue preparation Muscles Jerky Sausages f Immediate Meat ood cosmetics hair grease soaps Fat Doll stuffing Moccasin lining Bracelets Ornaments Ropes Pillows P Headdresses Hair adding Medicine P Bladder ouches bags whips decorations fly brush T Snowshoes Caps Straps Masks Stirrups Saddles Ropes Drums Moccasin soles Buckets Shields Containers Rawhide ail fuel Chips (dung) Mittens Dolls Tipi covers Bags Dresses Leggings Belts Shirts Bedding Winter robes Moccasin tops Cradles Buckskin Jewelry Toys Dice P Scrapers Clubs Sleds Shovels Arrowheads Knives Pipes T Bones ools aintbrushes
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