Bringing Back the Bison

Between 350 and 500 bison roam the grasslands of the national park, a token of the herds numbering 30 to 60 million that once inhabited the prairies of North America. The American bison, commonly called buffalo, became nearly extinct as settlers and the railroads moved west across the Great Plains in the 1800s. They were hunted relentlessly for hides and tongues and to eliminate a source of food and supplies for the Plains Indians. Numbers dwindled to just a few hundred. Then conservationists and sportsmen began a campaign to restore bison to their former range. Twenty bison from the Bronx Zoo and Yellowstone National Park were brought here in the early 1900s, the ancestors of today's herd. "Great numbers of Buffalow in every direction. I think about 10,000 may be seen in a view," wrote Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

South Dakota · United States