NO. lO NEBRASKA AKCHEOLOGV STRONG 37 



Such evidence not only justifies the general conception of Nebraska 

 and Kansas as constituting the center of bison distribution, but also 

 brings home the extreme recency and tragic thoroughness of the exter- 

 mination of the buffalo in this portion of the plains. In Nebraska, 

 about 1849, also occurred the permanent division of the buffalo into 

 the northern and southern herds which were never united again. Allen 

 (1876, pp. 144, 145) says: 



The great overland route, as is well known, followed up the Kansas and 

 Platte Rivers, and thence westward by the North Platte, crossing the Rocky 

 Mountains by way of the South Pass. The buffaloes were soon all driven from 

 the vicinity of this line of travel, thousands being annually slaughtered, a large 

 proportion of them being killed wantonly. The increase of travel, and finally the 

 construction of the Union Pacific Railroad and the consequent opening up of 

 the country to settlement has effected a wider separation of the herds, the 

 buffalo retiring every year further and further from their persecutors. None 

 are now found for a long distance to the north of this road, and they approach 

 it from the southward only along that portion situated between Fort Kearney 

 and the Forks of the Platte. 



Allen quotes Col. Richard I. Dodge to the effect that the Dakota 

 tribes exterminated the bison in the High Plains region of Nebraska 

 and adjoining States: 



The great composite tribe of Sioux driven by encroaching civilization from 

 their homes in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, had crossed the Missouri and 

 thrust themselves between the Pawnees on the east and the Crows on the north 

 and west. A long-continued war between the tribes taught at least mutual 

 respect, and an immense area, embracing the Black Hills and the vast plains 

 watered by the Niobrara and White Rivers, became a debatable land, where 

 they were comparatively unmolested, remaining there summer and winter in 

 security. When the Pawnees were finally overthrown and forced on to a reserva- 

 tion, the Sioux poured into this country, just suited to their tastes, and, finding 

 buffalo very plenteous and a ready sale for their robes, made such a furious 

 onslaught upon the poor beasts that in a few years scarce a buffalo could be 

 found in the extensive tract of country south of the Cheyenne and north and 

 east of the North Platte River. This area, in which the buffalo had thus 

 become practically extinct, joined on the southwest the Laramie Plains country, 

 and there resulted a broad east-and-west belt from the Missouri to Montana 

 which contained no buffalo." 



Although one may justly doubt that the Dakota alone or even in 

 large part effected the decimation of these herds, especially when one 

 considers the terrific inroads made by professional hide hunters and 

 meat hunters for the railroads, mines, army posts, etc., the quotation 

 is of interest in regard to the nature of the late Dakota occupation of 



"Dodge, R. I., Chicago Inter Ocean, August 5, 1875, quoted by Allen, 1876, 

 pp. 163-164. 



