American Buffalo describes the fascination of author Steven Rinella with the American bison. He explores the long relationship between humans and an animal they drove to the edge of extinction. The moral complexities of his hunting and killing a buffalo are evident throughout the book.
American Buffalo Overview
Before the 18th century, the American buffalo was the largest land animal in North America . It was largely predator-free and over 40 million roamed the continent. During the next century, slaughtering of them reduced their population for a few hundred. This history became important to author Rinella when he stumbled over a buffalo skull in Yellowstone National Park. That began his search for the buffalo's past, from its migration across the Bering land bridge to its near extinction by western settlers.
Rinella's history is interwoven with his own actual buffalo hunt in Alaska's Wrangell mountains, an adventure that includes grizzly bears, raging, ice-trimmed rivers, and bouts of hypothermia and frostbite. In 2005, he was one of 24 people to win a lottery that allowed him to hunt buffalo in the foothills of the mountains.
After the hunt, the search to learn more about the bison began with the doomed model of the Buffalo Nickel, Black Diamond. It led Rinella to an exploration of "buffalo jumps" where thousand of the beasts were driven over cliffs by Native American hunters.
American Buffalo Focus
The hunting trip for buffalo in the Alaska wilderness fulfilled Rinella's lifelong ambition as a hunter. But as he pursues the buffalo herd, he also explores the long relationship between humans and the animal. As he began his trek through history of the buffalo, he portrays the fur traders, early Native Americans and epics of the slaughter that left the prairies littered with buffalo bones.
As an experienced outdoorsman and hunter, Rinella writes with authority as he covers a huge amount of historical and scientific information about the buffalo. While the details of his hunt define the story, he also relates the natural history of the buffalo.
American Buffalo Survival
In American Buffalo, Rinella writes it is ironic that it was a group of wealthy hunters that rescued the buffalo. Early in the 20th century, Frederick Remington, Andrew Carnegie and Theodore Roosevelt were among those who helped to found the American Bison Community at the Bronx Zoo. Fifteen of the buffalo were shipped to the Oklahoma plains to help resuscitate the animals. The small herd began the bison's on going recovery. The result is that there are half a million buffalo living today, however these are not pure breeds because of having been crossbred with cattle.
About the author: Steven Rinella is a correspondent for Outside magazine.
Rinella, Steven. American Buffalo. New York, NY: Spiegel & Grau, 2009
Nature and Environmental articles:
Wild Horses Saved in Last Minute Rescue
Penquins Populations Decreasing
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