Name:
Date:
Buffalo Disappear on the Plains Timeline
Directions: Use the information in the timeline to answer the questions below.
Summary:
The buffalo meant a lot of different things to Native Americans of the Great Plains. They were used for food and clothing,
tools and utensils, and as a spirit blessing the Indians with everything they needed to survive. The buffalo was the center
of Indian culture in the Great Plains. The coming of white settlers to the Great Plains was the beginning of the end of the
buffalo and horse culture of the American Indians.
Date
Approximately
20,000 years ago
1590’s
1700
1750’s
Event
Anthropologists estimate there were between 30 – 60 million Buffalo living in America. When
Native American’s arrived in America after crossing the Bearing Straits from Siberia, they had to
hunt buffalo on foot because they did not have horses.
Arrival of the horse. The Spanish had brought over the horse in their conquest of Mexico, but
many horses escaped and moved to the Plains.
Horses were tamed by the Native People and this made hunting buffalo much easier. Natives could
now move easily with the herds of buffalo and have a constant supply of food - a nomadic lifestyle.
All the tribes of the Great Plains had horses. They had become experts at raising, training and
riding horses. They became experts at horse medicine.
1849
Francis Parkman wrote: "The buffalo supplies the Indians with the necessities of life; with housing,
food, clothing, beds and fuel, strings for their bows, glue, thread, ropes for their horses, covering
for their saddles, vessels to hold water, boats to cross streams, and the means of purchasing all they
want from the traders. When the buffalo are extinct, they too must dwindle away."
1860’s
Manifest Destiny and the Homestead Act had moved cattle ranchers across the plains towards
California; as a result they destroyed the hunting grounds of the Native People. The "cattle barons"
wanted the Native People moved off of the Plains and the herds of buffalo destroyed.
1867
1870’s
1885
"Buffalo" Bill Cody, hired by the U.S. Government to hunt buffalo on the plains. By his own
count, he killed more than 4,000 buffalos in less than two years.
More buffalo were killed than in any other decade in history. The three years of 1872, '73, and '74
were the worst. According to one buffalo hunter, who based his calculations on first-hand accounts
and shipping records, 4.5 million buffalo were slaughtered in that three year period alone.
The U.S. government estimated that only 200 buffalo were alive in the wild. The huge herds had
been destroyed with the numbers declining from millions to almost none.
1.
Name five things the buffalo was used for by the Plains Indians?
2.
What did the horse provide to the Plains Indians that made hunting buffalo easier?
3.
Which decade saw the largest decline of buffalo?
4.
Who was hired by the U.S. Gov’t to kill Buffalo in 1867?
5.
Name one reason that whites to wanted the Buffalo gone from the plains?
Copyright © EducatorWorksheets.com
Name:
Date:
Buffalo Disappear on the Plains Timeline
Directions: Use the information in the timeline to answer the questions below.
Summary:
The buffalo meant a lot of different things to Native Americans of the Great Plains. They were used for food and clothing,
tools and utensils, and as a spirit blessing the Indians with everything they needed to survive. The buffalo was the center
of Indian culture in the Great Plains. The coming of white settlers to the Great Plains was the beginning of the end of the
buffalo and horse culture of the American Indians.
Date
Approximately
20,000 years ago
1590’s
1700
1750’s
Event
Anthropologists estimate there were between 30 – 60 million Buffalo living in America. When
Native American’s arrived in America after crossing the Bearing Straits from Siberia, they had to
hunt buffalo on foot because they did not have horses.
Arrival of the horse. The Spanish had brought over the horse in their conquest of Mexico, but
many horses escaped and moved to the Plains.
Horses were tamed by the Native People and this made hunting buffalo much easier. Natives could
now move easily with the herds of buffalo and have a constant supply of food - a nomadic lifestyle.
All the tribes of the Great Plains had horses. They had become experts at raising, training and
riding horses. They became experts at horse medicine.
1849
Francis Parkman wrote: "The buffalo supplies the Indians with the necessities of life; with housing,
food, clothing, beds and fuel, strings for their bows, glue, thread, ropes for their horses, covering
for their saddles, vessels to hold water, boats to cross streams, and the means of purchasing all they
want from the traders. When the buffalo are extinct, they too must dwindle away."
1860’s
Manifest Destiny and the Homestead Act had moved cattle ranchers across the plains towards
California; as a result they destroyed the hunting grounds of the Native People. The "cattle barons"
wanted the Native People moved off of the Plains and the herds of buffalo destroyed.
1867
1870’s
1885
"Buffalo" Bill Cody, hired by the U.S. Government to hunt buffalo on the plains. By his own
count, he killed more than 4,000 buffalos in less than two years.
More buffalo were killed than in any other decade in history. The three years of 1872, '73, and '74
were the worst. According to one buffalo hunter, who based his calculations on first-hand accounts
and shipping records, 4.5 million buffalo were slaughtered in that three year period alone.
The U.S. government estimated that only 200 buffalo were alive in the wild. The huge herds had
been destroyed with the numbers declining from millions to almost none.
1.
Name five things the buffalo was used for by the Plains Indians?
2.
What did the horse provide to the Plains Indians that made hunting buffalo easier?
3.
Which decade saw the largest decline of buffalo?
4.
Who was hired by the U.S. Gov’t to kill Buffalo in 1867?
5.
Name one reason that whites to wanted the Buffalo gone from the plains?
Copyright © EducatorWorksheets.com
Food, Clothing, Trade,
Housing, Ropes (Other
answers acceptable)
Transportation
1870’s
“Buffalo" Bill Cody
Manifest Destiny
(Other answers acceptable)