The American West – Ep. 16: A Dream of Bison

Host: Dan Flores (with Steve, co-narrator/expert)
Date: December 2, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Dan Flores explores the sweeping, deep-time story of bison in the American West, examining their ecological and cultural significance, the intricacies of their relationship with Native peoples, and the tragic near-extinction of this iconic species. The episode moves from ancient evolutionary history and indigenous economies to the dramatic collapse of bison herds in the late 19th century and the complex ceremonial and spiritual contexts that surrounded the bison’s presence—and disappearance—from the plains.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Bison’s Plunge Toward Extinction

• Opening narrative (02:37–07:30): Flores recounts the 1886 journey of William T. Hornaday to Montana, seeking bison specimens for the National Museum just as wild herds were fading into myth. The party’s somber hunt and encounter with Native ceremonial markings on a downed bull foreshadows the depth of loss being experienced.
• Notable quote:
  • “The bison hunt in America was an ancient economy going back multiple thousands of years. Now native people like the Blackfeet, who had often taken 20,000 bison a year—in 1883 had killed all of six.” (04:13, Dan Flores)

2. Bison Evolution, Adaptation & Herd Life

• Biological background (07:31–13:00): Discussion of bison evolution post-Pleistocene, and how human and wolf predation influenced their biology—smaller, fast-reproducing, superbly adapted to grasslands.
• Seasonal life & social structure: Describes “bachelor” and “cow-calf” herds, bison migrations, and large-scale herd movements connected to climate, fire, predation, and human intervention.
• Notable quote:
  • “Their size and rapid reproduction—a natural increase of about 18%—selected by human and gray wolf predation... made the modern bison one of the most perfectly adapted of all American species.” (08:30, Dan Flores)

3. Human Partnership: From Ancient Hunters to Horse Warriors

• Ancient economies: Archaeological and ethnographic discussion of thousands of years of pedestrian bison hunting, communal drives (e.g., buffalo jumps), use of fire to manage landscapes, and the ceremonial depth of the bison’s place in indigenous life (13:00–19:45).
• The horse revolution: How the arrival of horses in the 17th century enabled an explosion of mounted buffalo hunting cultures—an era that lasted only about 10 generations but looms large in American identity.
• Social shifts: Many formerly agricultural peoples abandoned farming to pursue the bison hunt—a reversal of European “progress narratives.”
• Notable quote:
  • “For roughly 10 human generations, conditions were perfect for fashioning a legendary American scene—the horse-mounted Indian as hunter of buffalo and other Western animals. A kind of Edenic opportunity emerged around 1650 and lasted until the early 1880s.” (19:10, Dan Flores)

4. Women’s Experiences & Social Realities

• Class and gender roles: Lower-class women in farming societies often joined bison-hunting bands, sometimes as plural wives and laborers for the robe trade, highlighting a complex negotiation of agency and exploitation (25:55–27:00).
• Mythic humor: Native stories (e.g., the Coyote and the chief’s daughter) reflect both the allure and ambivalence of new wealth and trade.

5. Spiritual and Mythic Bison: Native Cosmologies

• Ceremonial kinship: Plains beliefs cast bison as not just animals, but as kin—beings with societies, opinions, memories, and spiritual significance. Countless ceremonies, myths, and dances centered around maintaining the human-bison partnership (28:00–36:00).
• Regeneration and mystery: Many tribes believed bison would retreat underground and could be ceremonially summoned back—a thread that persisted into new pan-Indian ceremonies like the Ghost Dance after the bison’s disappearance.
• Notable quote:
  • “For humans, who had been among bison for thousands of years, the animals were similarly beyond all time, all history... Buffalo had families and societies and opinions and memories. They were people.” (34:00, Dan Flores)

6. Endings and Unanswered Questions

• Collapse and cultural fallout: By the late 19th century, as bison became functionally extinct, Native peoples struggled to explain their disappearance. Spiritual explanations (e.g., “wakan—a mystery,” per Lakota elders, 41:49) coexisted with acknowledgment of market forces and inter-tribal competition.

7. Western Science Meets Indigenous Knowledge

• Comparing worldviews (45:07–54:59):
  • Flores and Steve unpack the deep time and unparalleled duration of the human-bison relationship, noting the difference between indigenous moral/reciprocal frameworks and Western ecological science.
  • Notable quote:
    • “The difference in understanding between Western science and sort of indigenous knowledge...is sort of fascinating. They explain these things in terms of obligations and reciprocity and there’s a certain moral relationship with the animal.” (51:44, Steve)

8. Market Forces and the End of the Bison World

• The robe trade: The insatiable market for bison robes led to mounting harvesting pressures, drawing in both Native peoples and white hide hunters—and ultimately contributing to collapse (54:59–61:15).
• Perfect storm: Disease, climate, horses, overland trails, and market demand combined in the mid-to-late 1800s to one of the most profound ecological and cultural ruptures in North America.

Memorable Quotes

• On the bison’s fall:
  • "The end of bison was a historical change so traumatic that, as the Crow leader Pliny Coup would put it, after that, nothing happened." (06:05, Dan Flores)
• On bison as kin:
  • “The precise regeneration places tended to move as people relocated as tribes migrated onto the Great Plains. ... The Lakotas believe this mysterious renewal happened in caves like Ludlow Cave in and near the Black Hills, which native people surrounded with petroglyphs of buffalo tracks and human vaginas—enjoined symbols of fertility.” (29:30, Dan Flores)
• On cultural adaptation:
  • “For many Native people, the America of the 1600s through the 1800s offered a perfect opportunity to descend the ladder, not climb it. In those years, an unusual number of Native people, who in fact had long been farmers, reverted to full time hunting.” (18:10, Dan Flores)
• On loss and mystery:
  • “‘So far as they could determine,’ they told Curtis, ‘the explanation [for the buffalo’s disappearance] was wakan—a mystery.’” (41:49, Dan Flores relaying Lakota elders)

Important Timestamps & Segments

• 01:44–02:37: Episode opening; setting context for “A Dream of Bison”
• 02:37–07:30: William T. Hornaday’s 1886 Montana expedition; eyewitness of extinction’s edge
• 07:31–19:45: Bison ecology, evolutionary adaptation, and the rise and fall of ancient hunting economies
• 19:46–22:51: Native adoption of the horse; transformation of bison hunting cultures
• 25:55–29:29: Social changes, gender roles, and mythology in bison-hunting societies
• 29:30–36:00: Native cosmology; ceremonies, cave myths, and the spiritual meaning of bison
• 36:00–41:49: Collapse of herds; Ghost Dance and attempts to call bison back
• 45:07–54:59: Discussion—Flores and Steve on deep time, unique longevity of human-bison partnership, and differing worldviews
• 54:59–61:15: Market forces, the robe trade, and environmental catastrophe

Tone & Style

Flores’s narration is lyrical, sweeping, and evocative, blending the rigor of historical scholarship with the cadence and feeling of storytelling. Steve’s contributions bring a reflective, conversational, and comparative analytical tone.

For Further Listening

The next episode will cover the era of the hide hunt and the final collapse of the wild bison herds.