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Viewers like you make
this program possible.
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Support your local PBS station.
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Gentlemen, why in
heaven's name this haste?
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You have time enough.
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Why sacrifice the
present to the future,
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fancying that you
will be happier when
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your fields teem with wealth
and your cities with people?
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In Europe we have cities
wealthier and more populous
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than yours and we are not happy.
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You dream of your posterity;
but your posterity will
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look back to yours
as the golden age,
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and envy those who
first burst into this
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silent, splendid Nature,
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who first lifted up their
axes upon these tall trees
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and lined these waters
with busy wharves.
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Why, then, seek to
complete in a few decades
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what took the other nations of
the world thousands of years?
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Why, in your hurry to
subdue and utilize Nature,
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squander her splendid gifts?
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You have opportunities such as
mankind has never had before,
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and may never have again.
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Lord James Bryce.
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The first time I
met a buffalo, I looked into his eyes,
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and it was like looking into the
past and the future at the same time.
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Because I really do
think that they have seen
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the whole tragedy that has
played out on the Great Plains.
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I think that one of
the ways they survive,
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and have survived for
hundreds of thousands of years,
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is they turn into the wind
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and they move through the storm
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rather than being
chased by the storm.
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They say, in a bad storm,
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he has to turn
and face that storm
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or else things won't
be good for him.
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I heard that, that
saying, but as I start
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looking at them, then it...
that saying made sense to me.
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Like, you're right. If
you don't face the day,
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you don't face the storm,
there could be problems.
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The creature of
the American West was the bison.
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The minute you see
one, you understand it.
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Their sheer magnificence.
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Their confidence;
they're unafraid.
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They're massive, but they
can run 35 miles per hour.
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And, somehow, they're
the symbol of America,
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with a capital "A."
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And to think that our
Indian policy and our greed
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and our industrialization
would just blink this thing out
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and we would just say, "Well,
that was then and this is now."
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That seems like a
repudiation, somehow,
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of the very idea of America.
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We are the most
dangerous species of life on the planet,
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and every other species,
even the Earth itself,
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has cause to fear our
power to exterminate.
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But we are also the
only species which,
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when it chooses to do
so, will go to great effort
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to save what it might destroy.
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Wallace Stegner.
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By the early 1880s,
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the buffalo that had once
teemed across the Great Plains
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by the tens of millions
had been reduced to
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fewer than 1,000, scattered
in small, isolated herds...
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Victims of a decades-long
frenzy of slaughter
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that stripped
them of their hides
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and left their carcasses
to rot in the sun.
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Most people believed
the continent's
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most magnificent creature
was about to disappear forever.
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During the same time,
Native Americans had been
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dispossessed of most
of their homelands,
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confined to reservations,
and deprived of an animal
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that had fed their bodies
and nourished their spirits
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for untold generations.
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Some thought the
Indians, too, had become
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what they called
a "vanishing race."
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But as the nineteenth
century ended,
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an unlikely group of Americans
would begin to try, somehow,
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to pull the buffalo
back from the brink.
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And the road back begins in
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all these little
different places,
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with these different characters,
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with their own reasons.
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Some of them actually odious.
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It's unorganized at
first, and, then, slowly,
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it finally has to gain
enough momentum
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that the, those individual
efforts can coalesce
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and become something that
might save the national mammal
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from just becoming a memory.
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The early history of the
modern conservation movement
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is full of people who did
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the right thing for
the wrong reasons.
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Many of the people who
wanted to save the bison
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were motivated by reasons
that were all wrapped up
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with nationalism, with racism,
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and their own ideas
about who they were
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and what the nation should be...
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and then there were people
who genuinely loved these species
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and wanted to see them survive.
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There were a
lot of things contributing
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to the near extinction
of that bison.
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But what that also
means is that many things
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had to contribute to the preservation
of the bison from extinction.
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We can say that were
it not for these people,
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with their particular
motivations,
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the bison might well
have gone extinct.
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An ambitious
taxidermist in the nation's capital,
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who initially hoped to kill
some of the remaining buffaloes
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for preservation as
museum exhibits,
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would join forces with
an earnest New Englander
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whose personal passion for
bison would grow into a campaign
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for a national movement
to protect them.
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A former hide hunter
would switch from
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shooting bison to breeding them;
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00:08:06,137 --> 00:08:09,105
and a flamboyant
former cavalry scout,
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who had once killed
thousands of buffalo,
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would begin saving them...
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And then bring them to the world
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in performances
that thrilled millions.
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The wife of a Texas cattleman
and former Indian fighter
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would persuade her
hard-bitten husband
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to take pity on
some buffalo calves.
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It would eventually lead him
to reconsider his relationship
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with the animals and the
people he had once despised.
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On two different
Indian reservations...
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One in South Dakota, the
other in western Montana...
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Families would start small herds
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that would become
the largest in the nation.
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A patrician New York
magazine publisher,
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whose experiences in the
West had turned him into
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a crusading conservationist,
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00:09:01,225 --> 00:09:04,995
would befriend an
energetic, impetuous hunter...
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And convert him to the cause,
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which he would take with him
all the way to the White House.
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And a Comanche leader,
who had once waged war
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against the hide hunters,
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00:09:16,073 --> 00:09:18,409
would become a man of peace...
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And live to see the buffalo
return to his homeland.
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I know there is such
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strength and resilience
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to where this is not
just a story of tragedy;
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this is a story of persevering
and continuing on.
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Helping to bring
these buffalo back.
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In the fall of
1883, a young politician,
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the eldest son of a prominent
New York City family,
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00:10:01,786 --> 00:10:05,656
became alarmed by reports
that the vast herds of buffalo
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00:10:05,657 --> 00:10:09,626
were quickly disappearing
from the Great Plains.
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So, he hurried west on
the Northern Pacific Railroad
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00:10:13,297 --> 00:10:16,299
and got off when he reached
the Little Missouri River
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in the heart of the
Badlands in Dakota Territory.
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He was 24 years old, and
he feared that the bison
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would all be gone before he
got the chance to shoot one.
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His name was Theodore Roosevelt.
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He hires a
local guide, Joe Ferris,
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00:10:34,786 --> 00:10:38,021
who's very reluctant to
take this New York "dude"
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out buffalo hunting.
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For one thing,
there are no buffalo.
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And he keeps
saying to Roosevelt,
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"This... you're not going
to probably find one."
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And it's raining
and chilly and cold,
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and everything goes wrong.
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Roosevelt falls off his
horse into a patch of
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prickly pear cactus
and his gun snaps up
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and opens a vein
in his forehead,
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00:10:56,974 --> 00:10:58,575
and blood is shooting out.
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Everything goes wrong that can.
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He wounded a buffalo,
after he finally found some,
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but it got away.
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The next day, he sees one
and he had a clean miss,
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didn't even hit him.
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00:11:10,087 --> 00:11:11,722
They were living
on cold biscuits.
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00:11:11,723 --> 00:11:15,091
Their horses get
stampeded by wolves.
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It's just miserable.
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He woke up, one of
those mornings,
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00:11:20,898 --> 00:11:23,934
and Joe Ferris said... he
woke up and looked around
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at this wet and cold, and says,
"By Godfrey, but this is fun."
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Finally, after 3
days of scouring the Badlands,
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they encountered a big bull.
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This time, Roosevelt
brought it down.
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He immediately took a
$100 bill out of his pocket
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00:11:44,255 --> 00:11:45,856
and gave it to Joe
Ferris, his guide,
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00:11:45,857 --> 00:11:47,924
and then he did an
"Indian War Whoop dance"
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around the carcass.
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They cut out steaks.
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They cut off the
big, shaggy head
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and... and then had it mounted
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by a taxidermist in Bismarck.
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Before heading home,
Roosevelt impulsively invested
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some of his inheritance in
one of the many cattle ranches
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sprouting up on the
former buffalo range.
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He would return off and
on for the next 4 years
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to pursue what he
called "the strenuous life"
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and to escape the
grief he suffered
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when his wife and mother
died on the same day.
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"Black Care," he said,
"rarely sits behind a rider
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whose pace is fast enough."
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00:12:27,699 --> 00:12:29,866
Roosevelt would
eventually write a book
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00:12:29,867 --> 00:12:31,768
about his experiences.
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00:12:31,769 --> 00:12:34,404
In it, he declared
that he had become
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"at heart as much a Westerner
as I am an Easterner."
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00:12:43,047 --> 00:12:44,881
While
the slaughter of the buffalo
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00:12:44,882 --> 00:12:47,818
has been in places
needless and brutal,
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00:12:47,819 --> 00:12:49,920
and while it is to
be greatly regretted
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00:12:49,921 --> 00:12:53,089
that the species is
likely to become extinct,
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00:12:53,090 --> 00:12:57,027
it must be remembered that
its destruction was the condition
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00:12:57,028 --> 00:13:01,699
necessary for the advance of
White civilization in the West.
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00:13:02,734 --> 00:13:05,401
Above all, the
extermination of the buffalo
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00:13:05,402 --> 00:13:08,171
was the only way of
solving the Indian question...
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00:13:08,172 --> 00:13:11,708
and its disappearance was
the only method of forcing them
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to at least partially abandon
their savage mode of life.
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00:13:17,615 --> 00:13:20,784
From the standpoint
of humanity at large,
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00:13:20,785 --> 00:13:24,555
the extermination of the
buffalo has been a blessing.
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00:13:27,158 --> 00:13:28,759
We are sorry to see
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00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:32,996
that a number of hunting
myths are given as fact,
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00:13:32,997 --> 00:13:36,700
but it was after all
scarcely to be expected
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00:13:36,701 --> 00:13:39,502
that with the author's
limited experience
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00:13:39,503 --> 00:13:42,405
he could sift the
wheat from the chaff
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00:13:42,406 --> 00:13:46,442
and distinguish the
true from the false.
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00:13:46,443 --> 00:13:48,712
George Bird Grinnell.
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00:13:51,315 --> 00:13:53,049
When George Bird Grinnell,
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00:13:53,050 --> 00:13:56,152
the publisher of "Forest
and Stream" magazine,
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00:13:56,153 --> 00:14:00,190
gave Theodore Roosevelt's
book a mildly critical review,
220
00:14:00,191 --> 00:14:04,628
the author burst into
Grinnell's office to complain.
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00:14:04,629 --> 00:14:06,730
The two men turned
the awkward moment
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00:14:06,731 --> 00:14:09,666
into the beginning
of a lasting friendship.
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00:14:09,667 --> 00:14:13,637
They both quickly realized
they shared much in common,
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00:14:13,638 --> 00:14:17,742
including a love of the West
and its big game animals.
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00:14:18,910 --> 00:14:21,945
Roosevelt had
two buffalo trophy heads
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00:14:21,946 --> 00:14:25,548
on the wall at his
home in Sagamore Hill.
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00:14:25,549 --> 00:14:29,252
In Grinnell's office, he
had two buffalo skulls.
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00:14:29,253 --> 00:14:33,089
And he wrote about them
and their presence in his office,
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00:14:33,090 --> 00:14:35,491
and what that evoked in him.
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00:14:35,492 --> 00:14:38,261
It reminded him of
the death of the bison
231
00:14:38,262 --> 00:14:40,263
and what that meant.
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00:14:40,264 --> 00:14:43,234
Not a trophy. A reminder.
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00:14:44,602 --> 00:14:47,103
Together,
Roosevelt and Grinnell formed
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00:14:47,104 --> 00:14:51,307
the Boone and Crockett Club
to promote what they called
235
00:14:51,308 --> 00:14:54,010
"the manly sport" of hunting,
236
00:14:54,011 --> 00:14:55,646
and at its first meeting,
237
00:14:55,647 --> 00:15:00,016
elected Theodore
Roosevelt its first president.
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00:15:00,017 --> 00:15:04,420
To these men,
there was no contradiction
239
00:15:04,421 --> 00:15:08,224
between their concern
for conservation
240
00:15:08,225 --> 00:15:11,294
and their love of hunting.
241
00:15:11,295 --> 00:15:13,664
They wanted to
protect these species
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00:15:13,665 --> 00:15:17,701
because they wanted
to continue hunting them.
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00:15:17,702 --> 00:15:21,171
At the end of the 19th
century, there are a lot of men
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00:15:21,172 --> 00:15:25,308
who are terribly concerned
that this increasingly
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00:15:25,309 --> 00:15:30,480
urban and comfortable and
cosmopolitan American society
246
00:15:30,481 --> 00:15:34,985
is pampering American men
and making them too soft.
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00:15:34,986 --> 00:15:37,821
And, so, what
American men need to do
248
00:15:37,822 --> 00:15:41,424
is they need to
experience the frontier.
249
00:15:41,425 --> 00:15:43,459
Roosevelt wanted to preserve
250
00:15:43,460 --> 00:15:47,030
what he saw as
these American ideals.
251
00:15:47,031 --> 00:15:50,366
He wanted to preserve
it in order to protect
252
00:15:50,367 --> 00:15:54,570
his own ideas about
national progress,
253
00:15:54,571 --> 00:15:59,609
about White masculinity,
about his own race.
254
00:16:01,946 --> 00:16:05,015
At the same time
it promoted sports hunting,
255
00:16:05,016 --> 00:16:07,851
the Boone and Crockett
Club dedicated itself
256
00:16:07,852 --> 00:16:11,955
to "the preservation of the
large game of this country"
257
00:16:11,956 --> 00:16:14,758
and called for strict
regulations against
258
00:16:14,759 --> 00:16:19,930
the rampant market hunting
laying waste to so many species.
259
00:16:19,931 --> 00:16:21,965
Through his
friendship with Grinnell,
260
00:16:21,966 --> 00:16:25,068
Roosevelt was beginning
to broaden his view about
261
00:16:25,069 --> 00:16:28,504
Americans' responsibilities
toward wildlife...
262
00:16:28,505 --> 00:16:30,842
Including the buffalo.
263
00:16:32,009 --> 00:16:35,045
Those guys
first started introducing
264
00:16:35,046 --> 00:16:38,715
the idea that we have
to operate with restraint.
265
00:16:38,716 --> 00:16:41,785
And that was a
revolutionary idea.
266
00:16:41,786 --> 00:16:45,588
This idea that we have wildlife
that is owned by the public.
267
00:16:45,589 --> 00:16:49,292
Like, the American
people own wildlife.
268
00:16:49,293 --> 00:16:52,162
And the government, state
and federal governments,
269
00:16:52,163 --> 00:16:55,131
help regulate it on our
behalf, but it's our thing.
270
00:16:58,235 --> 00:17:00,937
Meanwhile, in 1886,
271
00:17:00,938 --> 00:17:05,776
a onetime hide hunter named
Charles Jesse "Buffalo" Jones
272
00:17:05,777 --> 00:17:08,711
left his home near
Garden City, Kansas,
273
00:17:08,712 --> 00:17:11,915
and headed southwest
toward the Texas Panhandle,
274
00:17:11,916 --> 00:17:14,684
where 10 years earlier
he had taken part
275
00:17:14,685 --> 00:17:16,519
in the wholesale slaughter of
276
00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:20,090
the buffalo herds on
the southern Plains.
277
00:17:20,091 --> 00:17:23,526
The trip brought
back painful memories.
278
00:17:23,527 --> 00:17:25,528
Man as
Jones: Often while
279
00:17:25,529 --> 00:17:28,031
hunting these
animals as a business,
280
00:17:28,032 --> 00:17:32,569
I fully realized the cruelty
of slaying the poor creatures.
281
00:17:33,637 --> 00:17:36,039
Many times did I "swear off,"
282
00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:40,043
and would promise myself to
break my gun over a wagon wheel
283
00:17:40,044 --> 00:17:42,445
when I got back to camp.
284
00:17:43,714 --> 00:17:45,615
The next morning, I would hear
285
00:17:45,616 --> 00:17:47,350
the guns of other hunters
286
00:17:47,351 --> 00:17:49,352
booming in all directions,
287
00:17:49,353 --> 00:17:52,989
and would say to myself
that even if I did not
288
00:17:52,990 --> 00:17:58,929
kill any more, the buffalo
would soon all be killed anyway.
289
00:17:58,930 --> 00:18:02,065
Again, I would
shoulder my rifle,
290
00:18:02,066 --> 00:18:05,401
to repeat the
previous day's murder.
291
00:18:06,770 --> 00:18:09,239
I am positive it
was the wickedness
292
00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:11,741
committed in killing so many
293
00:18:11,742 --> 00:18:13,844
that impelled me
to take measures
294
00:18:13,845 --> 00:18:16,212
for perpetuating the race
295
00:18:16,213 --> 00:18:19,483
which I had helped
to almost destroy.
296
00:18:20,985 --> 00:18:24,354
Did he have a
radical transformation? Maybe.
297
00:18:24,355 --> 00:18:26,289
I do believe, though,
he had a legitimate
298
00:18:26,290 --> 00:18:28,058
love for the animals.
299
00:18:28,059 --> 00:18:30,793
But he was also... he
had a love for the dollar.
300
00:18:30,794 --> 00:18:32,929
When a fierce winter devastated
301
00:18:32,930 --> 00:18:35,065
the cattle herds on the Plains,
302
00:18:35,066 --> 00:18:40,536
Jones remembered seeing
buffalo unfazed by similar weather.
303
00:18:40,537 --> 00:18:43,606
I thought to
myself, "Why not domesticate
304
00:18:43,607 --> 00:18:48,444
"this wonderful beast which
can endure such a blizzard?
305
00:18:48,445 --> 00:18:52,682
"Why not infuse this hardy
blood into our native cattle
306
00:18:52,683 --> 00:18:54,550
and have a perfect animal?"
307
00:18:56,854 --> 00:18:58,688
Once he got to Texas,
308
00:18:58,689 --> 00:19:02,225
Jones managed to
locate and lasso 18 calves
309
00:19:02,226 --> 00:19:05,896
to bring back to
Garden City, Kansas.
310
00:19:05,897 --> 00:19:09,165
He purchased more from
a private herd in Canada
311
00:19:09,166 --> 00:19:12,735
and made more
trips back to Texas.
312
00:19:12,736 --> 00:19:14,837
Then he began experimenting,
313
00:19:14,838 --> 00:19:18,108
crossing buffalo bulls
with domestic cows,
314
00:19:18,109 --> 00:19:21,077
to create what
he called "cattalo."
315
00:19:21,078 --> 00:19:24,380
The results were mixed, at best.
316
00:19:24,381 --> 00:19:26,883
Too many cows died in calving;
317
00:19:26,884 --> 00:19:29,953
too many calves
were stillborn or sterile
318
00:19:29,954 --> 00:19:32,855
to make it
commercially profitable.
319
00:19:32,856 --> 00:19:36,259
But Buffalo Jones would
have much better success...
320
00:19:36,260 --> 00:19:39,829
And a greater impact on
the future of the species...
321
00:19:39,830 --> 00:19:43,733
By selling his bison to
zoos and wealthy families
322
00:19:43,734 --> 00:19:48,304
interested in having
their own private herds.
323
00:19:48,305 --> 00:19:50,873
I really like the fact
that Buffalo Jones
324
00:19:50,874 --> 00:19:53,643
was willing to accept
325
00:19:53,644 --> 00:19:55,311
his own responsibility.
326
00:19:55,312 --> 00:20:00,350
He confronted his
culpability and took on himself
327
00:20:00,351 --> 00:20:03,586
the responsibility of
trying to save the animals
328
00:20:03,587 --> 00:20:05,957
that he had almost obliterated.
329
00:20:15,466 --> 00:20:19,502
In early 1886...
The same year Buffalo Jones
330
00:20:19,503 --> 00:20:23,606
had gone to Texas to try
to save some bison calves...
331
00:20:23,607 --> 00:20:28,211
The chief taxidermist of the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington
332
00:20:28,212 --> 00:20:32,015
was asked by the museum's
director to make an inventory
333
00:20:32,016 --> 00:20:36,587
of the collection of bison
skins and skeletons in storage.
334
00:20:37,521 --> 00:20:40,756
William T. Hornaday
quickly reported back
335
00:20:40,757 --> 00:20:43,126
that they didn't have much...
336
00:20:43,127 --> 00:20:45,896
And all of it was
in poor condition.
337
00:20:47,164 --> 00:20:51,134
At age 32, Hornaday had
already gained a reputation
338
00:20:51,135 --> 00:20:55,005
among his colleagues for
impatience and arrogance,
339
00:20:55,006 --> 00:20:58,408
but he had also distinguished
himself as someone
340
00:20:58,409 --> 00:21:02,178
who could hunt down
and kill exotic species...
341
00:21:02,179 --> 00:21:06,182
Like elephants,
crocodiles, Bengal tigers...
342
00:21:06,183 --> 00:21:10,020
Preserving them for
display in museums.
343
00:21:10,021 --> 00:21:14,624
Now he set his sights
on the American buffalo.
344
00:21:14,625 --> 00:21:16,892
He wrote to people,
all over the Plains and said,
345
00:21:16,893 --> 00:21:20,163
"Where can I find bison
hides? Bison skulls?
346
00:21:20,164 --> 00:21:22,532
Our collection needs them."
347
00:21:22,533 --> 00:21:27,037
And all of his contacts wrote
back and said, "Good luck.
348
00:21:27,038 --> 00:21:30,173
There are no more bison."
349
00:21:30,174 --> 00:21:34,377
And, for Hornaday, this
came as a real shock.
350
00:21:34,378 --> 00:21:38,281
He described it as a
"hammer blow to the head."
351
00:21:38,282 --> 00:21:41,984
A species that to him,
and to many other people,
352
00:21:41,985 --> 00:21:45,555
defined the nation,
was so rare that
353
00:21:45,556 --> 00:21:47,323
the Smithsonian Institution,
354
00:21:47,324 --> 00:21:49,425
the most prominent
museum in the country,
355
00:21:49,426 --> 00:21:53,064
couldn't get hold of a
skull or a hide at any price.
356
00:21:54,531 --> 00:21:56,366
But one of his correspondents
357
00:21:56,367 --> 00:21:59,335
had alerted Hornaday
that a few bison
358
00:21:59,336 --> 00:22:00,770
had been spotted between
359
00:22:00,771 --> 00:22:03,306
the Yellowstone
and Missouri rivers,
360
00:22:03,307 --> 00:22:06,776
so he immediately took the
train to Miles City, Montana,
361
00:22:06,777 --> 00:22:10,381
in hopes that he could
kill some for the museum.
362
00:22:11,948 --> 00:22:14,784
Hornaday was soon
crossing the rugged landscape
363
00:22:14,785 --> 00:22:16,886
near the Missouri River Breaks,
364
00:22:16,887 --> 00:22:19,222
still strewn with what he called
365
00:22:19,223 --> 00:22:22,392
the "ghastly
monuments of slaughter,"
366
00:22:22,393 --> 00:22:25,328
and after two weeks
of fruitless searching,
367
00:22:25,329 --> 00:22:28,165
his party encountered
a few buffalo.
368
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:33,269
They shot one old bull,
but Hornaday considered it
369
00:22:33,270 --> 00:22:36,872
unsuitable for display
because most of its fur
370
00:22:36,873 --> 00:22:39,743
had already been
shed in the late spring.
371
00:22:40,911 --> 00:22:44,180
They did manage to
capture a small calf,
372
00:22:44,181 --> 00:22:46,249
which Hornaday named "Sandy,"
373
00:22:46,250 --> 00:22:49,852
and brought back... alive...
To the Smithsonian,
374
00:22:49,853 --> 00:22:52,389
where it became
a public attraction.
375
00:22:54,057 --> 00:22:56,392
He was back in
Montana by September,
376
00:22:56,393 --> 00:22:58,828
when whatever
bison he could find
377
00:22:58,829 --> 00:23:00,731
would have full winter coats.
378
00:23:01,732 --> 00:23:06,636
After two months, he and
his crew finally found and killed
379
00:23:06,637 --> 00:23:11,741
more than 20 specimens,
including one gigantic bull.
380
00:23:11,742 --> 00:23:17,713
In its body, Hornaday found 4
bullets from previous hunters.
381
00:23:20,184 --> 00:23:22,185
Under different circumstances,
382
00:23:22,186 --> 00:23:24,420
nothing could have
induced me to engage
383
00:23:24,421 --> 00:23:28,524
in such a mean, cruel, and
utterly heartless enterprise
384
00:23:28,525 --> 00:23:31,927
as the hunting down of
the last representatives
385
00:23:31,928 --> 00:23:34,230
of a vanishing race.
386
00:23:34,231 --> 00:23:36,767
But there is no alternative.
387
00:23:38,101 --> 00:23:41,637
Perhaps you think a
wild animal has no soul,
388
00:23:41,638 --> 00:23:44,307
but let me tell you it has.
389
00:23:44,308 --> 00:23:49,879
Its skin is its soul, and when
mounted by skillful hands,
390
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:53,849
it becomes
comparatively immortal.
391
00:23:53,850 --> 00:23:55,818
When another bull
392
00:23:55,819 --> 00:23:58,087
was shot just before sunset,
393
00:23:58,088 --> 00:24:00,490
more than 8 miles
from their camp,
394
00:24:00,491 --> 00:24:02,959
they decided to
leave it for the night.
395
00:24:04,328 --> 00:24:06,962
When they returned the next
day, they found the carcass
396
00:24:06,963 --> 00:24:12,935
stripped not only of its hide,
but also its flesh and tongue.
397
00:24:12,936 --> 00:24:18,174
The head was untouched,
except one side was painted yellow
398
00:24:18,175 --> 00:24:20,444
and the other painted red.
399
00:24:21,845 --> 00:24:25,348
And Hornaday
falls into a fit of anger.
400
00:24:25,349 --> 00:24:27,650
"They... they've
desecrated my buffalo.
401
00:24:27,651 --> 00:24:29,319
They... they've spoiled it."
402
00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:31,086
And he, he thinks
it's vandalism.
403
00:24:31,087 --> 00:24:33,689
It's not vandalism.
404
00:24:33,690 --> 00:24:36,058
It's probably the Crow;
it might be the Blackfeet.
405
00:24:36,059 --> 00:24:38,228
It could be Sioux.
406
00:24:38,229 --> 00:24:41,231
But Natives have come and
they have harvested the meat,
407
00:24:41,232 --> 00:24:43,433
which he wasn't going to do.
408
00:24:43,434 --> 00:24:45,801
They've taken the
hide for their own uses.
409
00:24:45,802 --> 00:24:48,938
And then they have done
the most important thing,
410
00:24:48,939 --> 00:24:51,674
which is to bow,
in a sacred way,
411
00:24:51,675 --> 00:24:56,145
to this creature by painting
it and positioning the skull.
412
00:24:56,146 --> 00:24:58,581
It's a sacred thing
that they've done.
413
00:24:58,582 --> 00:25:02,518
And he's pissed off because
they stole his specimen?
414
00:25:02,519 --> 00:25:04,187
And he misses the lesson.
415
00:25:05,188 --> 00:25:08,157
An animal whose
head is painted like that,
416
00:25:08,158 --> 00:25:10,293
among some Native peoples,
417
00:25:10,294 --> 00:25:14,297
symbolizes an ending of things,
418
00:25:14,298 --> 00:25:20,503
a transition from one
moment in time to another one.
419
00:25:20,504 --> 00:25:24,974
As the Crow leader,
Plenty Coups, put it
420
00:25:24,975 --> 00:25:27,243
when he saw that
the buffalo were gone,
421
00:25:27,244 --> 00:25:29,111
as far as he was concerned,
422
00:25:29,112 --> 00:25:31,781
nothing else
happened in history.
423
00:25:31,782 --> 00:25:33,517
That was the end of history.
424
00:25:35,252 --> 00:25:37,987
This part of
Montana was the same area
425
00:25:37,988 --> 00:25:41,190
where Lewis and Clark, in 1805,
426
00:25:41,191 --> 00:25:45,461
had seen so many
buffalo that Lewis reported
427
00:25:45,462 --> 00:25:48,331
the men had to throw
sticks and stones at them,
428
00:25:48,332 --> 00:25:51,233
just to get them out of the way.
429
00:25:51,234 --> 00:25:55,671
This was the same place
where, 5, 6 years before,
430
00:25:55,672 --> 00:26:00,376
the hide hunters had shown
up, and a hide hunter could kill
431
00:26:00,377 --> 00:26:04,280
22 buffalo in a morning's work.
432
00:26:04,281 --> 00:26:09,184
And it takes Hornaday
more than two months
433
00:26:09,185 --> 00:26:11,821
to find and shoot 22 buffalo.
434
00:26:11,822 --> 00:26:16,126
That's the trajectory that
the bison had been on.
435
00:26:17,494 --> 00:26:19,228
Back at the Smithsonian,
436
00:26:19,229 --> 00:26:21,263
Hornaday eagerly started work
437
00:26:21,264 --> 00:26:25,301
on a new way of
displaying his specimens.
438
00:26:25,302 --> 00:26:27,703
He would place 6
of them in a group:
439
00:26:27,704 --> 00:26:31,807
the huge bull he had
killed, a younger bull,
440
00:26:31,808 --> 00:26:34,043
a yearling, two cows...
441
00:26:34,044 --> 00:26:38,382
And the little calf, Sandy,
who had died in captivity.
442
00:26:39,450 --> 00:26:41,584
All of them were
gathered around a small
443
00:26:41,585 --> 00:26:44,587
alkaline watering hole
near some clusters of
444
00:26:44,588 --> 00:26:48,724
sagebrush, buffalo grass,
and prickly pear cactus
445
00:26:48,725 --> 00:26:51,395
Hornaday had brought
back from Montana.
446
00:26:52,563 --> 00:26:55,798
They would be enclosed
in the largest display case
447
00:26:55,799 --> 00:26:57,667
ever made for the museum:
448
00:26:57,668 --> 00:27:00,803
a glass cube that
would allow visitors
449
00:27:00,804 --> 00:27:02,939
to view them from all sides.
450
00:27:04,040 --> 00:27:07,877
As a taxidermist, he
considered it his masterpiece
451
00:27:07,878 --> 00:27:11,514
and hoped his display would
help galvanize the public
452
00:27:11,515 --> 00:27:16,719
against the final extermination
of bison in North America.
453
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,089
He now blamed their
destruction on what he called
454
00:27:20,090 --> 00:27:22,492
"man's reckless greed."
455
00:27:22,493 --> 00:27:25,227
He also believed that
it had gone unchecked
456
00:27:25,228 --> 00:27:29,164
because of the apathy
of average Americans.
457
00:27:29,165 --> 00:27:32,334
His new mission
was to change that.
458
00:27:34,137 --> 00:27:37,940
It was displayed at
the Smithsonian for 70 years.
459
00:27:37,941 --> 00:27:40,042
People lined up to see it
460
00:27:40,043 --> 00:27:43,278
and it was extremely popular.
461
00:27:43,279 --> 00:27:47,783
It allowed people to
get closer to a bison.
462
00:27:47,784 --> 00:27:50,453
They were able to see how
large these full-grown bison
463
00:27:50,454 --> 00:27:53,023
were in comparison
to themselves.
464
00:27:54,257 --> 00:27:58,761
They were able to get
a sense of these animals
465
00:27:58,762 --> 00:28:02,164
as... as living beings.
466
00:28:02,165 --> 00:28:05,701
Probably never
before in the history of the world,
467
00:28:05,702 --> 00:28:09,939
until civilized man came
in contact with the buffalo,
468
00:28:09,940 --> 00:28:15,077
did whole armies of men
march out in true military style...
469
00:28:15,078 --> 00:28:17,581
and make war on wild animals.
470
00:28:18,915 --> 00:28:22,952
Its record is a disgrace to the
American people in general,
471
00:28:22,953 --> 00:28:24,487
and the Territorial, State,
472
00:28:24,488 --> 00:28:27,357
and General
Government in particular.
473
00:28:28,659 --> 00:28:31,527
It will cause succeeding
generations to regard us
474
00:28:31,528 --> 00:28:34,930
as being possessed
of cruelty and greed.
475
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:40,670
In 1889, Hornaday created a map
476
00:28:40,671 --> 00:28:44,707
showing how the buffaloes'
range had steadily collapsed,
477
00:28:44,708 --> 00:28:49,411
and he estimated that
there were now 541 bison...
478
00:28:49,412 --> 00:28:54,517
256 living in a few
zoos or private herds,
479
00:28:54,518 --> 00:28:57,853
about 200 in
Yellowstone National Park,
480
00:28:57,854 --> 00:29:03,893
and only 85 roaming free
and unprotected on the Plains.
481
00:29:03,894 --> 00:29:07,730
It was all part of a much
larger pattern of destruction
482
00:29:07,731 --> 00:29:11,734
that had reached a
crescendo in the last decades.
483
00:29:11,735 --> 00:29:16,371
"Here," Hornaday wrote, "is
an inexorable law of Nature
484
00:29:16,372 --> 00:29:18,874
"to which there
are no exceptions:
485
00:29:18,875 --> 00:29:24,614
"no wild species of bird,
mammal, reptile, or fish
486
00:29:24,615 --> 00:29:29,685
can withstand exploitation
for commercial purposes."
487
00:29:29,686 --> 00:29:33,288
And he said it was
this "Inexorable law that
488
00:29:33,289 --> 00:29:37,126
"any animal that got
commodified by the market
489
00:29:37,127 --> 00:29:40,429
couldn't survive
it." And
490
00:29:40,430 --> 00:29:42,698
he was pretty right about that.
491
00:29:42,699 --> 00:29:46,802
Hornaday's idea was that
if we're going to conserve
492
00:29:46,803 --> 00:29:49,271
some of these animals,
we're going to have to
493
00:29:49,272 --> 00:29:51,274
protect them from the market.
494
00:29:52,308 --> 00:29:54,276
Hornaday sarcastically noted
495
00:29:54,277 --> 00:29:59,381
that Montana had recently
passed a law against killing bison...
496
00:29:59,382 --> 00:30:01,984
10 years after they
had been slaughtered...
497
00:30:01,985 --> 00:30:05,420
And predicted that
Texas might do likewise,
498
00:30:05,421 --> 00:30:08,992
now that the buffalo there
had also been eradicated.
499
00:30:10,193 --> 00:30:14,296
After the success
of his bison display,
500
00:30:14,297 --> 00:30:16,398
he started to think bigger.
501
00:30:16,399 --> 00:30:18,801
The next step, he
thought, would be
502
00:30:18,802 --> 00:30:23,439
to begin to raise
bison in captivity.
503
00:30:24,875 --> 00:30:27,309
Hornaday
persuaded the Smithsonian
504
00:30:27,310 --> 00:30:30,413
to start a small
zoo on its grounds.
505
00:30:31,715 --> 00:30:35,851
It included some deer,
prairie dogs, bears,
506
00:30:35,852 --> 00:30:40,657
along with 4 bison that had
been captured in the Black Hills.
507
00:30:41,592 --> 00:30:44,760
The attraction proved
immensely popular,
508
00:30:44,761 --> 00:30:48,631
and Hornaday began pushing
for a more spacious location
509
00:30:48,632 --> 00:30:50,801
than the lawn of
the Smithsonian.
510
00:30:52,002 --> 00:30:55,838
With Congressional approval,
he scouted the Rock Creek Park
511
00:30:55,839 --> 00:30:59,108
area of Washington
and selected a site
512
00:30:59,109 --> 00:31:03,245
for what he hoped would
be a proper national zoo.
513
00:31:10,353 --> 00:31:12,521
I cannot think
of much of anything
514
00:31:12,522 --> 00:31:15,825
but the possibility of
doing something great
515
00:31:15,826 --> 00:31:19,595
with the buffaloes for humanity.
516
00:31:19,596 --> 00:31:23,899
My dream is a home
for my little pets,
517
00:31:23,900 --> 00:31:25,467
to let them roam at will
518
00:31:25,468 --> 00:31:30,239
with plenty of room
for a long time.
519
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:31,573
Molly Goodnight.
520
00:31:33,409 --> 00:31:35,277
After her parents died,
521
00:31:35,278 --> 00:31:37,379
Molly Dyer had singlehandedly
522
00:31:37,380 --> 00:31:39,314
raised her younger brothers
523
00:31:39,315 --> 00:31:41,516
and then married
Charlie Goodnight,
524
00:31:41,517 --> 00:31:44,987
who was already
a legend in Texas.
525
00:31:44,988 --> 00:31:48,490
He had been an Indian
fighter with the Texas Rangers,
526
00:31:48,491 --> 00:31:51,126
blazed some of
the early cattle trails
527
00:31:51,127 --> 00:31:53,095
north to the railroads,
528
00:31:53,096 --> 00:31:57,668
and then established the first
ranch in the Palo Duro Canyon.
529
00:31:58,735 --> 00:32:02,905
A cattleman, Goodnight
had little sympathy for buffalo;
530
00:32:02,906 --> 00:32:06,175
he had paid to have the
buffalo in the canyon killed
531
00:32:06,176 --> 00:32:10,545
so they wouldn't compete
with his cattle for the grass.
532
00:32:10,546 --> 00:32:12,581
Horse Capture, Jr.:
Let's get rid of the buffalo
533
00:32:12,582 --> 00:32:15,685
so my cows can run here.
534
00:32:15,686 --> 00:32:18,688
My cows. Not
this, what's free for
535
00:32:18,689 --> 00:32:21,123
the taking for all of us.
536
00:32:21,124 --> 00:32:24,493
But "my," so I can make money.
537
00:32:24,494 --> 00:32:26,796
And it's odd to get
rid of something
538
00:32:26,797 --> 00:32:29,131
that everybody
could enjoy to eat
539
00:32:29,132 --> 00:32:33,704
just for "my," the
ownership of a livestock.
540
00:32:34,738 --> 00:32:36,638
I can't even comprehend that.
541
00:32:36,639 --> 00:32:43,946
I don't know if...
there is an Indian alive,
542
00:32:43,947 --> 00:32:48,784
or was alive, that
could comprehend that.
543
00:32:48,785 --> 00:32:51,286
It seemed like a lack of ability
544
00:32:51,287 --> 00:32:54,323
to enjoy what the Creator made.
545
00:32:56,659 --> 00:32:58,460
In 1878,
546
00:32:58,461 --> 00:33:00,662
Goodnight had sent
some of his cowboys
547
00:33:00,663 --> 00:33:04,066
to drive the remaining
bison out of the canyon
548
00:33:04,067 --> 00:33:06,368
and shoot any stragglers.
549
00:33:06,369 --> 00:33:08,237
Molly, one of them remembered,
550
00:33:08,238 --> 00:33:10,873
"put a stop to the whole thing."
551
00:33:10,874 --> 00:33:13,042
She felt sorry for the buffalo,
552
00:33:13,043 --> 00:33:17,179
considered them worth preserving
as part of the region's history,
553
00:33:17,180 --> 00:33:20,149
and asked her husband
to find a few calves
554
00:33:20,150 --> 00:33:22,617
she could nurture
around the ranch house
555
00:33:22,618 --> 00:33:24,653
and keep her company.
556
00:33:24,654 --> 00:33:29,291
Her closest neighbor
was 75 miles away.
557
00:33:29,292 --> 00:33:31,026
"I was not very enthusiastic
558
00:33:31,027 --> 00:33:33,628
over the suggestion,"
Charlie admitted,
559
00:33:33,629 --> 00:33:35,965
but he went out
and roped a bull calf
560
00:33:35,966 --> 00:33:38,633
and a young female bison anyway
561
00:33:38,634 --> 00:33:40,202
and brought them in for her.
562
00:33:42,773 --> 00:33:45,941
By 1889, the
Goodnights responded
563
00:33:45,942 --> 00:33:50,645
to William Hornaday's inquiries
about private bison herds
564
00:33:50,646 --> 00:33:54,284
and wrote him that
theirs now had 13.
565
00:33:55,318 --> 00:33:58,921
Molly, I think,
deserves most of the credit
566
00:33:58,922 --> 00:34:02,357
for switching this
buffalo killer, rancher,
567
00:34:02,358 --> 00:34:09,731
Indian fighter, into a guy who
would start having some mercy.
568
00:34:09,732 --> 00:34:12,868
She wanted him to
take pity on some calves.
569
00:34:12,869 --> 00:34:14,369
And I don't know if she thought,
570
00:34:14,370 --> 00:34:16,872
"Let's take pity on these calves
571
00:34:16,873 --> 00:34:20,675
and we'll start reviving
the bison of North America,"
572
00:34:20,676 --> 00:34:22,912
or just, "Let's
take some pity on
573
00:34:22,913 --> 00:34:25,949
some of these calves
who've lost their mother."
574
00:34:32,488 --> 00:34:34,256
Buffalo Bill was a good fellow,
575
00:34:34,257 --> 00:34:36,491
and while he was no
great shakes as a scout
576
00:34:36,492 --> 00:34:38,227
as he made the
Eastern people believe,
577
00:34:38,228 --> 00:34:41,330
still we all liked him, and
we had to hand it to him,
578
00:34:41,331 --> 00:34:43,098
because he was the only
one that had brains enough
579
00:34:43,099 --> 00:34:46,301
to make that Wild
West stuff pay money.
580
00:34:46,302 --> 00:34:48,137
Teddy Blue Abbott.
581
00:34:48,138 --> 00:34:51,706
By 1889, Buffalo Bill Cody
582
00:34:51,707 --> 00:34:55,044
was the most famous
American in the world.
583
00:34:55,045 --> 00:34:59,281
To millions of people, he had
become the dashing embodiment
584
00:34:59,282 --> 00:35:03,285
of a mythic West
of bygone times.
585
00:35:03,286 --> 00:35:04,786
As a young man, he had worked
586
00:35:04,787 --> 00:35:07,089
as a buffalo hunter
for the railroads
587
00:35:07,090 --> 00:35:11,526
and a scout for the army
during the Indian wars.
588
00:35:11,527 --> 00:35:13,896
His exploits had
been publicized...
589
00:35:13,897 --> 00:35:18,133
And greatly exaggerated...
In scores of dime novels,
590
00:35:18,134 --> 00:35:21,871
some of which he turned
into theatrical performances,
591
00:35:21,872 --> 00:35:26,208
always featuring Cody
himself in the starring role.
592
00:35:28,011 --> 00:35:31,881
The stage eventually proved
too confining and he launched
593
00:35:31,882 --> 00:35:35,851
"Buffalo Bill's Wild West,"
an outdoor show that
594
00:35:35,852 --> 00:35:39,890
promised "a year's
visit West in 3 hours."
595
00:35:40,991 --> 00:35:43,125
It was, Buffalo Bill said,
596
00:35:43,126 --> 00:35:46,962
"a noisy, rattling,
gunpowder entertainment,"
597
00:35:46,963 --> 00:35:50,165
featuring real cowboys
and real Indians,
598
00:35:50,166 --> 00:35:53,903
Pony Express riders
and Mexican vaqueros,
599
00:35:53,904 --> 00:35:57,506
and a series of vignettes
supposedly demonstrating
600
00:35:57,507 --> 00:35:59,108
the history of the West...
601
00:35:59,109 --> 00:36:02,212
And Cody's glorified role in it.
602
00:36:03,246 --> 00:36:06,248
The Deadwood
Stagecoach was attacked...
603
00:36:06,249 --> 00:36:09,384
And saved by Buffalo Bill.
604
00:36:09,385 --> 00:36:11,553
A wagon train was raided
605
00:36:11,554 --> 00:36:14,389
and saved by Buffalo Bill.
606
00:36:14,390 --> 00:36:17,792
A settler's cabin was
surrounded by Indians
607
00:36:17,793 --> 00:36:20,430
and saved by Buffalo Bill.
608
00:36:21,464 --> 00:36:25,134
A re-enactment of the
Battle of the Little Bighorn...
609
00:36:25,135 --> 00:36:28,603
"Custer's Last Stand"...
Ended with Buffalo Bill
610
00:36:28,604 --> 00:36:33,843
showing up while the words
"TOO LATE" were displayed.
611
00:36:35,278 --> 00:36:40,049
Each performance also
included a stampede of buffalo
612
00:36:40,050 --> 00:36:43,285
and a mock hunt with
Cody and his compatriots
613
00:36:43,286 --> 00:36:46,589
firing blank cartridges
at the animals.
614
00:36:48,191 --> 00:36:51,026
The crowds couldn't
get enough of it.
615
00:36:54,130 --> 00:36:56,565
People loved these buffalo.
616
00:36:56,566 --> 00:37:04,273
And he became the Great
Plains' first roadside hustler.
617
00:37:04,274 --> 00:37:06,808
A million
people attended his shows
618
00:37:06,809 --> 00:37:09,478
on Staten Island one summer.
619
00:37:09,479 --> 00:37:12,114
Another million paid
to see him that winter
620
00:37:12,115 --> 00:37:16,585
at Madison Square Garden,
where 20 of Cody's bison
621
00:37:16,586 --> 00:37:19,088
perished from pneumonia.
622
00:37:19,089 --> 00:37:23,092
He managed to replenish
them from his ranch in Nebraska
623
00:37:23,093 --> 00:37:25,460
and, later, with
7 he bought from
624
00:37:25,461 --> 00:37:29,864
Molly and Charles
Goodnight's growing herd.
625
00:37:29,865 --> 00:37:32,767
It's amazing
how these transitions
626
00:37:32,768 --> 00:37:37,939
were so abrupt that
a guy that kills 4,000
627
00:37:37,940 --> 00:37:41,643
then becomes a guy,
within a decade or two,
628
00:37:41,644 --> 00:37:45,414
becomes a guy who's trying
desperately to find a couple
629
00:37:45,415 --> 00:37:49,418
in order to take them on
the road to teach people
630
00:37:49,419 --> 00:37:53,623
about what they lost,
"they" being him...
631
00:37:55,491 --> 00:37:57,426
the other day, right?
632
00:37:57,427 --> 00:37:58,460
It's astounding.
633
00:38:00,563 --> 00:38:05,034
In 1887, during a
triumphant tour of Europe,
634
00:38:05,035 --> 00:38:08,737
Cody took his show to
England for the celebration of
635
00:38:08,738 --> 00:38:11,773
Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee,
636
00:38:11,774 --> 00:38:17,013
bringing along 97 Native
Americans and 18 buffalo.
637
00:38:18,081 --> 00:38:22,717
"The Birmingham
Gazette," November 4th, 1887.
638
00:38:22,718 --> 00:38:26,155
Additional interest is attached
to the buffaloes by the fact
639
00:38:26,156 --> 00:38:28,223
that they are almost
the only survivors
640
00:38:28,224 --> 00:38:31,326
of what is nearly
an extinct species.
641
00:38:31,327 --> 00:38:34,396
According to Colonel
Cody, there are not so many
642
00:38:34,397 --> 00:38:36,898
buffaloes on the whole
American continent
643
00:38:36,899 --> 00:38:39,035
as there are in the exhibition.
644
00:38:40,270 --> 00:38:42,237
The Deadwood Stagecoach carried
645
00:38:42,238 --> 00:38:46,908
the kings of Denmark,
Greece, Belgium, and Saxony,
646
00:38:46,909 --> 00:38:49,044
along with the Prince of Wales,
647
00:38:49,045 --> 00:38:51,680
while Cody himself
drove the stage
648
00:38:51,681 --> 00:38:55,084
during a simulated
Indian attack.
649
00:38:55,085 --> 00:38:58,653
"I've held 4 kings,"
Buffalo Bill told a reporter,
650
00:38:58,654 --> 00:39:03,758
"but 4 kings and the Prince
of Wales makes a royal flush
651
00:39:03,759 --> 00:39:06,595
such as no man
ever held before."
652
00:39:08,564 --> 00:39:13,635
He became so famous
that he would put up posters
653
00:39:13,636 --> 00:39:17,772
that showed some
buffalo running.
654
00:39:17,773 --> 00:39:20,041
In an oval cutout,
in the center of
655
00:39:20,042 --> 00:39:24,614
the most prominent
buffalo, was just his face.
656
00:39:25,581 --> 00:39:29,651
And it would say, in bold
letters, "I am coming."
657
00:39:29,652 --> 00:39:31,920
He even had those in French.
658
00:39:31,921 --> 00:39:34,756
Most Americans had never
been to the Great Plains, of course.
659
00:39:34,757 --> 00:39:37,292
That's still true.
But most Americans
660
00:39:37,293 --> 00:39:39,728
got their buffalo from Wild West
661
00:39:39,729 --> 00:39:44,133
or from Hornaday's glass
box at the Smithsonian.
662
00:39:44,134 --> 00:39:47,102
These played an
incalculably large media role,
663
00:39:47,103 --> 00:39:50,139
public relations role, in
building a constituency
664
00:39:50,140 --> 00:39:52,006
in the country to do something
665
00:39:52,007 --> 00:39:54,709
to save this creature
from extinction.
666
00:40:02,084 --> 00:40:06,421
The
wild Indian exists no longer.
667
00:40:06,422 --> 00:40:10,725
The game on which he
lived has been destroyed;
668
00:40:10,726 --> 00:40:15,364
the country over which he
roamed has been taken up;
669
00:40:15,365 --> 00:40:20,569
and his tribes, one by one,
have been compelled to abandon
670
00:40:20,570 --> 00:40:22,537
the old nomadic life,
671
00:40:22,538 --> 00:40:27,242
and to settle down within the
narrow confines of reservations.
672
00:40:28,844 --> 00:40:33,014
The magnitude of it is
equaled only by the suddenness
673
00:40:33,015 --> 00:40:35,116
with which it has been wrought,
674
00:40:35,117 --> 00:40:37,820
and by its completeness.
675
00:40:38,854 --> 00:40:40,822
George Bird Grinnell.
676
00:40:42,625 --> 00:40:45,260
For the Native
peoples of the Plains,
677
00:40:45,261 --> 00:40:47,996
the final decades
of the 19th century
678
00:40:47,997 --> 00:40:50,832
were the most
traumatic in their history.
679
00:40:50,833 --> 00:40:52,967
Indian nations that
had gone to war
680
00:40:52,968 --> 00:40:54,969
against White encroachments
681
00:40:54,970 --> 00:40:57,839
had been defeated by
the United States Army
682
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:00,575
and forced onto reservations.
683
00:41:00,576 --> 00:41:04,480
So were tribes that had
always remained peaceful.
684
00:41:05,815 --> 00:41:08,550
Under law, Native
Americans were not considered
685
00:41:08,551 --> 00:41:13,288
U.S. citizens, and to travel
beyond a reservation boundary
686
00:41:13,289 --> 00:41:16,858
required government permission.
687
00:41:16,859 --> 00:41:18,860
There was a system in place
688
00:41:18,861 --> 00:41:22,664
in the 19th century that
was both enslaving people
689
00:41:22,665 --> 00:41:26,235
and it was also taking
Indigenous people's
690
00:41:26,236 --> 00:41:29,904
land and landscape
to feed kind of
691
00:41:29,905 --> 00:41:32,040
this capitalistic machine.
692
00:41:32,041 --> 00:41:36,177
It was not
inevitable. It was planned.
693
00:41:36,178 --> 00:41:38,713
Well-meaning
reformers in the East,
694
00:41:38,714 --> 00:41:42,351
calling themselves
"Friends of the Indians,"
695
00:41:42,352 --> 00:41:45,620
pushed Congress to enact
a number of provisions
696
00:41:45,621 --> 00:41:49,691
intended to hasten Native
Americans' assimilation
697
00:41:49,692 --> 00:41:52,995
into the White culture
that now surrounded them.
698
00:41:54,464 --> 00:41:57,499
Our belongings
were taken from us,
699
00:41:57,500 --> 00:42:01,069
even the little medicine
bags our mothers had given us
700
00:42:01,070 --> 00:42:03,538
to protect us from harm.
701
00:42:03,539 --> 00:42:07,443
Everything was placed
in a heap and set afire.
702
00:42:08,711 --> 00:42:09,945
Lone Wolf.
703
00:42:11,314 --> 00:42:14,015
Children as young as 5 years old
704
00:42:14,016 --> 00:42:15,984
were taken from their families
705
00:42:15,985 --> 00:42:18,119
and sent to boarding schools...
706
00:42:18,120 --> 00:42:20,422
Like one in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania...
707
00:42:20,423 --> 00:42:22,991
Where they learned
English, and were beaten
708
00:42:22,992 --> 00:42:25,295
if they spoke their
native language.
709
00:42:26,462 --> 00:42:29,264
All vestiges of their
traditional culture
710
00:42:29,265 --> 00:42:30,932
were to be removed.
711
00:42:35,805 --> 00:42:37,806
"Education," said one reformer,
712
00:42:37,807 --> 00:42:41,376
"should seek the
disintegration of the tribes.
713
00:42:41,377 --> 00:42:44,879
"They should be
educated, not as Indians,
714
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:46,481
but as Americans."
715
00:42:48,351 --> 00:42:52,253
"Kill the
Indian, Save the Man."
716
00:42:52,254 --> 00:42:55,290
And that was said by someone
717
00:42:55,291 --> 00:42:59,160
who was supposed to
be a "Friend of the Indian."
718
00:42:59,161 --> 00:43:04,766
The only way that the
Native people could survive
719
00:43:04,767 --> 00:43:07,268
is to not be who they were.
720
00:43:07,269 --> 00:43:15,243
"Kill the Indian, Save
the Man" is kind of like,
721
00:43:15,244 --> 00:43:18,380
save the bison, make it a cow.
722
00:43:18,381 --> 00:43:22,317
It's saying they'll
be allowed to exist
723
00:43:22,318 --> 00:43:25,186
as long as they don't
stay what they are,
724
00:43:25,187 --> 00:43:28,491
as long as they become
what we want them to be.
725
00:43:29,892 --> 00:43:32,627
Even today, people say,
"Well, it was inevitable,
726
00:43:32,628 --> 00:43:34,228
it was going to happen."
727
00:43:34,229 --> 00:43:35,964
It was not inevitable.
728
00:43:39,435 --> 00:43:42,404
In 1887, Congress passed
729
00:43:42,405 --> 00:43:45,774
the Dawes General Allotment Act.
730
00:43:45,775 --> 00:43:49,177
It provided for each
Indian family to be given
731
00:43:49,178 --> 00:43:51,913
160 acres of farming land
732
00:43:51,914 --> 00:43:57,586
and 320 acres of grazing
land on the reservation.
733
00:43:57,587 --> 00:44:01,055
But then, all the
remaining tribal land
734
00:44:01,056 --> 00:44:06,361
would be declared "surplus" and
opened for Whites to purchase.
735
00:44:06,362 --> 00:44:10,064
Tribal ownership... and
the tribes themselves...
736
00:44:10,065 --> 00:44:12,234
Were meant to simply disappear.
737
00:44:13,369 --> 00:44:17,872
Before the Allotment Act,
some 150 million acres
738
00:44:17,873 --> 00:44:20,041
remained in Native hands.
739
00:44:20,042 --> 00:44:24,947
Within 20 years, 2/3 of
their land had been taken.
740
00:44:25,881 --> 00:44:28,683
The Allotment
Act was one of the most
741
00:44:28,684 --> 00:44:32,621
devastating acts
for Indian people.
742
00:44:32,622 --> 00:44:35,790
They didn't understand
private land ownership.
743
00:44:35,791 --> 00:44:40,094
You didn't own land. The
land you were a part of;
744
00:44:40,095 --> 00:44:44,265
you used the land for the
resources as you needed them.
745
00:44:44,266 --> 00:44:47,602
The whole point of
assimilating Indians,
746
00:44:47,603 --> 00:44:50,705
transforming Indians,
was to open this area
747
00:44:50,706 --> 00:44:52,441
to settlement coming in.
748
00:44:52,442 --> 00:44:54,142
That was the purpose then.
749
00:44:54,143 --> 00:44:55,710
That was the government's goal.
750
00:44:58,881 --> 00:45:02,283
The buffalo were gone, too.
751
00:45:02,284 --> 00:45:04,018
Horse Capture, Jr.:
Well, since the beginning,
752
00:45:04,019 --> 00:45:08,222
we and the buffalo have a
fairly long history together.
753
00:45:08,223 --> 00:45:10,659
Co-dependent, in a way.
754
00:45:10,660 --> 00:45:14,128
Just like my people,
their people suffered from
755
00:45:14,129 --> 00:45:16,498
"manifest destiny."
756
00:45:16,499 --> 00:45:22,170
They were victims of
genocide, ethnic cleansing,
757
00:45:22,171 --> 00:45:25,406
westward expansion.
758
00:45:25,407 --> 00:45:27,743
Shared history,
all the way across.
759
00:45:29,078 --> 00:45:32,581
In the buffalo's
place, the government supplied
760
00:45:32,582 --> 00:45:36,618
beef cows for the
Indians to kill and eat.
761
00:45:36,619 --> 00:45:40,221
At one Lakota Reservation,
when the cattle were released
762
00:45:40,222 --> 00:45:43,391
into a large corral,
the men mounted up
763
00:45:43,392 --> 00:45:45,727
and brought them
down, just as they had
764
00:45:45,728 --> 00:45:48,731
brought down
buffalo in the old days.
765
00:45:49,899 --> 00:45:52,567
Eventually, the agent
put an end to that,
766
00:45:52,568 --> 00:45:57,238
and built a slaughterhouse
to kill and butcher the cattle.
767
00:45:57,239 --> 00:46:00,442
The Lakotas burned
the slaughterhouse down.
768
00:46:01,744 --> 00:46:04,178
We always say,
"We're just like the buffalo."
769
00:46:04,179 --> 00:46:06,748
They almost
exterminated us, too.
770
00:46:06,749 --> 00:46:09,417
And, when, when
the zoos first started,
771
00:46:09,418 --> 00:46:12,787
what they'd do, they'd
put buffalo in zoos.
772
00:46:12,788 --> 00:46:15,590
And the old people would
say, "What did they do to us?
773
00:46:15,591 --> 00:46:17,926
They put us on reservations,"
and we couldn't get
774
00:46:17,927 --> 00:46:20,428
out of those reservations
without a permit.
775
00:46:20,429 --> 00:46:22,564
You know, the
zoos kept the buffalo.
776
00:46:22,565 --> 00:46:24,265
The White people
kept us on reservations.
777
00:46:24,266 --> 00:46:26,134
Same thing.
778
00:46:26,135 --> 00:46:27,836
There are stories about old men
779
00:46:27,837 --> 00:46:31,072
going to those zoos
and seeing buffalo.
780
00:46:31,073 --> 00:46:32,707
You can imagine the fence
781
00:46:32,708 --> 00:46:35,611
and these old men
crying and praying.
782
00:46:36,912 --> 00:46:39,981
Pretty soon, those buffalo come
over and they stand in front of him.
783
00:46:39,982 --> 00:46:42,817
There was numerous stories
like that, where the buffalo
784
00:46:42,818 --> 00:46:44,619
stand in front of him
and, and look at him
785
00:46:44,620 --> 00:46:46,988
as he's praying and crying.
786
00:46:46,989 --> 00:46:48,757
And then he has to go.
787
00:46:48,758 --> 00:46:50,593
And the animals
stay in that zoo.
788
00:46:52,227 --> 00:46:56,164
They saw, by that
point, an almost total
789
00:46:56,165 --> 00:47:00,468
destruction of
all of the animals
790
00:47:00,469 --> 00:47:02,904
that were sacred to them.
791
00:47:02,905 --> 00:47:05,406
It was not just the bison.
792
00:47:05,407 --> 00:47:07,576
What happened to the elk?
793
00:47:07,577 --> 00:47:10,011
What happened to the wolves?
794
00:47:10,012 --> 00:47:12,346
What happened to the grizzlies?
795
00:47:12,347 --> 00:47:14,883
It was sort of destruction
after destruction
796
00:47:14,884 --> 00:47:16,885
after destruction.
797
00:47:16,886 --> 00:47:19,721
The elk and
grizzly bears that survived
798
00:47:19,722 --> 00:47:22,991
could now be found
only in the mountains.
799
00:47:22,992 --> 00:47:27,662
Bighorn sheep disappeared
from the Dakota Badlands.
800
00:47:27,663 --> 00:47:31,499
Market hunters killed
millions of antelope.
801
00:47:31,500 --> 00:47:34,302
Herds of cattle and
sheep now grazed
802
00:47:34,303 --> 00:47:37,371
where the buffalo
had once roamed.
803
00:47:37,372 --> 00:47:39,874
With the bison
gone, the prairie itself
804
00:47:39,875 --> 00:47:41,342
began changing.
805
00:47:41,343 --> 00:47:43,211
Millions of acres of soil
806
00:47:43,212 --> 00:47:45,279
were plowed for the first time.
807
00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:50,952
Wheat, corn, and other crops
replaced the native grasses.
808
00:47:50,953 --> 00:47:55,089
Buffalo wallows... where vital
rainwater had once pooled...
809
00:47:55,090 --> 00:47:56,692
Filled with sand.
810
00:47:57,760 --> 00:48:00,862
On the southern Plains, in 1886,
811
00:48:00,863 --> 00:48:04,933
the Kiowa calendar showed
a leafy tree above a lodge,
812
00:48:04,934 --> 00:48:09,203
signifying another summer
without a Sun Dance,
813
00:48:09,204 --> 00:48:11,305
because no buffalo
could be found
814
00:48:11,306 --> 00:48:14,709
to sacrifice for
their ceremonies.
815
00:48:14,710 --> 00:48:19,180
In 1887, they were able
to hold their sacred ritual
816
00:48:19,181 --> 00:48:22,784
after they received one
from the Goodnights.
817
00:48:25,020 --> 00:48:28,456
At the same time, the aging
Hunkpapa Lakota leader
818
00:48:28,457 --> 00:48:30,524
Sitting Bull had been touring
819
00:48:30,525 --> 00:48:33,394
with Buffalo Bill
Cody's Wild West Show,
820
00:48:33,395 --> 00:48:35,496
where he was paid to
ride around the arena
821
00:48:35,497 --> 00:48:38,066
once during each performance,
822
00:48:38,067 --> 00:48:41,937
promoted as "the
slayer of General Custer."
823
00:48:43,305 --> 00:48:45,640
He also signed
pictures of himself
824
00:48:45,641 --> 00:48:49,611
for the awestruck visitors
who came to his tepee.
825
00:48:51,080 --> 00:48:54,582
But after 4 months with
Cody, Sitting Bull had seen
826
00:48:54,583 --> 00:48:56,751
enough of the White world.
827
00:48:56,752 --> 00:48:59,587
He could not understand
why beggars were ignored
828
00:48:59,588 --> 00:49:01,790
on the streets of big cities,
829
00:49:01,791 --> 00:49:03,858
and he gave much of his pay away
830
00:49:03,859 --> 00:49:07,029
to the hoboes and
newsboys he met.
831
00:49:08,597 --> 00:49:12,433
Back at the Standing Rock
Reservation in Dakota Territory,
832
00:49:12,434 --> 00:49:17,906
he used the money he had left
to provide feasts for his friends.
833
00:49:21,643 --> 00:49:23,111
Horse Capture,
Jr.: Some of this is
834
00:49:23,112 --> 00:49:25,714
very hard to put into words.
835
00:49:25,715 --> 00:49:27,949
But sometimes there'd be
836
00:49:27,950 --> 00:49:30,720
a certain amount of
emptiness in a spot.
837
00:49:32,187 --> 00:49:36,958
You can have this emptiness
and you can't identify it.
838
00:49:36,959 --> 00:49:39,694
It's only an
emptiness, you know,
839
00:49:39,695 --> 00:49:44,365
and it's... maybe that
would have been a part of it.
840
00:49:44,366 --> 00:49:46,267
But, also, we've
got a lot of things
841
00:49:46,268 --> 00:49:48,536
that are... that are gone.
842
00:49:48,537 --> 00:49:50,504
That are gone.
843
00:49:50,505 --> 00:49:53,674
In 1890, a summer drought killed
844
00:49:53,675 --> 00:49:57,178
whatever crops the
Lakotas were trying to raise.
845
00:49:57,179 --> 00:50:00,882
The government had already
cut rations at every reservation
846
00:50:00,883 --> 00:50:02,717
by more than 20%.
847
00:50:02,718 --> 00:50:04,919
Whooping cough and influenza
848
00:50:04,920 --> 00:50:07,421
spread among the hungry people,
849
00:50:07,422 --> 00:50:09,257
particularly the children.
850
00:50:11,526 --> 00:50:14,528
Then, word arrived
that a new ceremony
851
00:50:14,529 --> 00:50:17,365
called the Ghost Dance
was sweeping through
852
00:50:17,366 --> 00:50:19,533
many tribes of the West.
853
00:50:19,534 --> 00:50:21,770
Preached by a
Paiute medicine man
854
00:50:21,771 --> 00:50:25,306
and combining Christian
as well as Indian elements,
855
00:50:25,307 --> 00:50:29,544
it offered dispirited
Native Americans hope.
856
00:50:30,980 --> 00:50:34,315
My brothers, I bring
you word from your fathers,
857
00:50:34,316 --> 00:50:38,319
the ghosts, that they are
marching now to join you,
858
00:50:38,320 --> 00:50:41,756
led by the Messiah who
came once to live on Earth
859
00:50:41,757 --> 00:50:45,559
with the White man,
but was killed by them.
860
00:50:45,560 --> 00:50:47,862
I bring to you the
promise of a day in which
861
00:50:47,863 --> 00:50:50,364
there will be no White
man to lay his hand
862
00:50:50,365 --> 00:50:52,600
on the bridle of
an Indian's horse;
863
00:50:52,601 --> 00:50:58,406
when the red men of the prairie
will rule the world. Wovoka.
864
00:51:00,675 --> 00:51:03,611
Wovoka's prophecy
required men and women
865
00:51:03,612 --> 00:51:10,018
to purify themselves, give up
alcohol, and forswear violence.
866
00:51:10,019 --> 00:51:12,954
Then, they were to
dance in a large circle,
867
00:51:12,955 --> 00:51:17,558
singing and calling upon
the spirits of their ancestors.
868
00:51:17,559 --> 00:51:20,494
If they did, the Ghost
Dancers believed,
869
00:51:20,495 --> 00:51:22,263
the Whites would vanish
870
00:51:22,264 --> 00:51:25,934
and the buffalo would
cover the Plains again.
871
00:51:25,935 --> 00:51:29,537
"Give me my arrows,"
they sang as they danced.
872
00:51:29,538 --> 00:51:33,741
"The buffalo are coming,
the buffalo are coming."
873
00:51:35,577 --> 00:51:37,678
Though he lived
in New York City,
874
00:51:37,679 --> 00:51:41,015
the naturalist and writer
George Bird Grinnell
875
00:51:41,016 --> 00:51:43,551
spent parts of every
year living among
876
00:51:43,552 --> 00:51:46,754
the Pawnee, Blackfeet,
and Cheyenne,
877
00:51:46,755 --> 00:51:50,291
listening to their stories,
studying their religion,
878
00:51:50,292 --> 00:51:51,861
learning their history.
879
00:51:52,995 --> 00:51:56,697
In the fall of 1890, he
watched the Cheyenne
880
00:51:56,698 --> 00:51:58,399
hold a Ghost Dance.
881
00:51:58,400 --> 00:52:02,203
Grinnell understood the
appeal of its message.
882
00:52:02,204 --> 00:52:04,839
"This is only what
any of us will do,"
883
00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:07,241
he wrote, "if we get hungry."
884
00:52:11,280 --> 00:52:14,615
In the Lakotas' adaptation
of the ceremony,
885
00:52:14,616 --> 00:52:17,218
Ghost Dancers
wore special shirts,
886
00:52:17,219 --> 00:52:20,922
said to be impervious to
the White man's bullets.
887
00:52:20,923 --> 00:52:22,924
Government agents
became alarmed,
888
00:52:22,925 --> 00:52:25,827
fearing an uprising
was imminent.
889
00:52:27,362 --> 00:52:29,063
As a precautionary measure,
890
00:52:29,064 --> 00:52:32,200
Indian police at the
Standing Rock Reservation
891
00:52:32,201 --> 00:52:36,237
were ordered to arrest the
most prominent Lakota chief...
892
00:52:36,238 --> 00:52:37,771
Sitting Bull.
893
00:52:37,772 --> 00:52:40,241
When some of his
followers resisted,
894
00:52:40,242 --> 00:52:41,876
a fight broke out.
895
00:52:41,877 --> 00:52:44,078
Both sides began firing
896
00:52:44,079 --> 00:52:46,948
and a dozen people were killed.
897
00:52:46,949 --> 00:52:49,117
Sitting Bull was one of them.
898
00:52:51,120 --> 00:52:54,889
Several hundred
Lakotas, flying a white flag,
899
00:52:54,890 --> 00:52:56,991
headed toward the Black Hills,
900
00:52:56,992 --> 00:53:00,294
and planned to turn
themselves over to the U.S. Army
901
00:53:00,295 --> 00:53:05,266
to settle things peaceably
before more blood was shed.
902
00:53:05,267 --> 00:53:09,904
They encamped one night at
a creek called Wounded Knee.
903
00:53:11,706 --> 00:53:15,409
The next morning,
December 29th, 1890,
904
00:53:15,410 --> 00:53:19,813
soldiers armed with 4
devastating Hotchkiss guns
905
00:53:19,814 --> 00:53:22,150
encircled the camp and began
906
00:53:22,151 --> 00:53:24,986
confiscating the
Indians' weapons.
907
00:53:24,987 --> 00:53:26,820
Someone's gun went off.
908
00:53:26,821 --> 00:53:29,891
The soldiers opened fire.
909
00:53:31,961 --> 00:53:36,864
When the shooting stopped,
more than 250 Lakotas...
910
00:53:36,865 --> 00:53:40,434
Most of them women
and children... were dead.
911
00:53:40,435 --> 00:53:42,704
So were 25 soldiers.
912
00:53:44,106 --> 00:53:46,740
Horse Capture, Jr.: What
was they trying to do?
913
00:53:46,741 --> 00:53:50,011
They was trying to
dance their ways back.
914
00:53:50,012 --> 00:53:54,648
They were praying. They
tried to dance the buffalo back.
915
00:53:54,649 --> 00:53:56,650
You know? And they
paid with their lives.
916
00:53:58,787 --> 00:54:02,856
The most
shameful chapter of American history
917
00:54:02,857 --> 00:54:04,758
is that in which is recorded
918
00:54:04,759 --> 00:54:08,429
the account of our
dealings with the Indians.
919
00:54:08,430 --> 00:54:12,166
The story of our government's
relations with this race
920
00:54:12,167 --> 00:54:17,872
is an unbroken narrative of
injustice, fraud, and robbery.
921
00:54:19,108 --> 00:54:22,876
We are too apt to
forget that these people
922
00:54:22,877 --> 00:54:26,614
are humans like ourselves,
923
00:54:26,615 --> 00:54:29,850
that they are
fathers and mothers,
924
00:54:29,851 --> 00:54:35,523
husbands and wives,
brothers and sisters,
925
00:54:35,524 --> 00:54:42,231
men and women with emotions
and passions like our own.
926
00:54:43,432 --> 00:54:45,099
George Bird Grinnell.
927
00:54:49,004 --> 00:54:50,771
Growing up in New York City,
928
00:54:50,772 --> 00:54:55,009
George Bird Grinnell had
been a student of Lucy Audubon,
929
00:54:55,010 --> 00:54:59,080
the widow of the famous
ornithologist and painter.
930
00:54:59,081 --> 00:55:01,182
Among the things
she taught the boy
931
00:55:01,183 --> 00:55:05,187
was how to observe and
appreciate the natural world.
932
00:55:06,655 --> 00:55:10,724
But, even more
significantly, she teaches him
933
00:55:10,725 --> 00:55:14,528
about an ethic that
was important to her
934
00:55:14,529 --> 00:55:17,031
that she called "self-denial."
935
00:55:17,032 --> 00:55:20,834
And what she really meant
by self-denial was the notion
936
00:55:20,835 --> 00:55:23,104
that you would, you would
937
00:55:23,105 --> 00:55:25,673
think about future generations,
938
00:55:25,674 --> 00:55:29,343
that you would not do things
that you might want to do
939
00:55:29,344 --> 00:55:33,147
in deference to thinking about,
940
00:55:33,148 --> 00:55:35,416
how your children
and grandchildren
941
00:55:35,417 --> 00:55:37,351
might live one day.
942
00:55:37,352 --> 00:55:41,122
And that ethic runs
almost directly counter
943
00:55:41,123 --> 00:55:44,093
to the prevailing
norms of the day.
944
00:55:45,427 --> 00:55:48,829
As the editor of
"Forest and Stream" magazine,
945
00:55:48,830 --> 00:55:52,900
Grinnell put Lucy
Audubon's lessons to work.
946
00:55:52,901 --> 00:55:55,836
He railed against the
hat-making industry,
947
00:55:55,837 --> 00:55:57,705
which had created
a fashion frenzy
948
00:55:57,706 --> 00:56:01,209
for the colorful plumes
of birds in the Everglades,
949
00:56:01,210 --> 00:56:05,446
threatening the survival
of egrets and ibises.
950
00:56:05,447 --> 00:56:08,116
And he
decried the market hunters
951
00:56:08,117 --> 00:56:09,950
who were supplying restaurants
952
00:56:09,951 --> 00:56:12,386
with the meat of
passenger pigeons,
953
00:56:12,387 --> 00:56:17,392
driving a bird that once existed
in the billions toward oblivion.
954
00:56:18,893 --> 00:56:20,428
To help him carry on the fight
955
00:56:20,429 --> 00:56:23,864
against this commercial
destruction of bird life,
956
00:56:23,865 --> 00:56:27,535
Grinnell founded an
organization named in honor of
957
00:56:27,536 --> 00:56:32,040
the Audubon Society.
958
00:56:33,442 --> 00:56:37,678
But he never lost his focus
on the American buffalo.
959
00:56:47,389 --> 00:56:50,991
Every saloon in
America wants to have
960
00:56:50,992 --> 00:56:55,329
a stuffed buffalo head
to hang on the wall.
961
00:56:55,330 --> 00:57:01,802
And the market for buffalo
heads goes through the roof.
962
00:57:01,803 --> 00:57:06,073
And, what used
to be a $4.00 shot
963
00:57:06,074 --> 00:57:10,744
if you killed a buffalo
and could sell its hide
964
00:57:10,745 --> 00:57:13,547
becomes a $500 shot.
965
00:57:13,548 --> 00:57:18,686
And the response to that
is poachers descend upon
966
00:57:18,687 --> 00:57:21,822
these few places where
there still are buffalo remaining
967
00:57:21,823 --> 00:57:24,525
and try to kill them.
968
00:57:24,526 --> 00:57:28,196
By 1894, the last surviving herd
969
00:57:28,197 --> 00:57:30,898
of free-ranging bison in America
970
00:57:30,899 --> 00:57:34,368
could be found in
Yellowstone National Park.
971
00:57:34,369 --> 00:57:37,705
But the superintendent
reported that poachers
972
00:57:37,706 --> 00:57:41,074
had killed 114 of the 200
973
00:57:41,075 --> 00:57:43,377
William T. Hornaday
had estimated
974
00:57:43,378 --> 00:57:46,315
were there only 4 years earlier.
975
00:57:47,449 --> 00:57:49,717
The Army was
responsible for stopping
976
00:57:49,718 --> 00:57:53,654
poachers in Yellowstone
and for enforcing regulations
977
00:57:53,655 --> 00:57:57,291
against vandalizing
the geyser formations,
978
00:57:57,292 --> 00:58:01,229
but the park existed in
a legal no-man's land,
979
00:58:01,230 --> 00:58:04,031
with no federal law
giving the soldiers
980
00:58:04,032 --> 00:58:07,501
clear authority to
prosecute offenders.
981
00:58:07,502 --> 00:58:10,070
Their only recourse
was a warning,
982
00:58:10,071 --> 00:58:12,273
or in the most serious cases,
983
00:58:12,274 --> 00:58:14,943
temporary expulsion
from the park.
984
00:58:16,044 --> 00:58:20,481
No one understood the threat
to Yellowstone and its wildlife
985
00:58:20,482 --> 00:58:24,118
more keenly than
George Bird Grinnell.
986
00:58:25,420 --> 00:58:28,756
He knows
that it's this vast place.
987
00:58:28,757 --> 00:58:32,993
He knows that there are
a handful of wild buffalo
988
00:58:32,994 --> 00:58:36,129
who are still there because
they've been far enough away
989
00:58:36,130 --> 00:58:39,433
from the railroads
that they still survive.
990
00:58:39,434 --> 00:58:42,570
Grinnell realizes that
this is the buffalo's,
991
00:58:42,571 --> 00:58:45,105
that Yellowstone is
the buffalo's last chance.
992
00:58:45,106 --> 00:58:49,510
On March 13th, 1894,
993
00:58:49,511 --> 00:58:54,081
two troopers out on patrol in
a remote corner of Yellowstone
994
00:58:54,082 --> 00:58:56,750
heard shots in the distance.
995
00:58:56,751 --> 00:59:00,321
They hurried in that direction
and soon came across
996
00:59:00,322 --> 00:59:03,056
several buffalo carcasses.
997
00:59:03,057 --> 00:59:05,393
A man was hunched
over one of them,
998
00:59:05,394 --> 00:59:09,730
so busily skinning it that he
didn't realize anyone was there
999
00:59:09,731 --> 00:59:13,568
until a soldier was beside
him with a drawn gun.
1000
00:59:14,603 --> 00:59:17,371
The poacher was Edgar
Howell, who had been
1001
00:59:17,372 --> 00:59:20,575
killing Yellowstone's
bison for years.
1002
00:59:21,510 --> 00:59:24,945
As luck would have it, a
reporter named Emerson Hough,
1003
00:59:24,946 --> 00:59:29,149
on assignment for Grinnell's
"Forest and Stream" magazine,
1004
00:59:29,150 --> 00:59:32,353
was also in the park...
With a photographer...
1005
00:59:32,354 --> 00:59:36,690
To write an article about
Yellowstone in the winter.
1006
00:59:36,691 --> 00:59:39,593
When the poacher bragged
that the worst punishment
1007
00:59:39,594 --> 00:59:43,831
he could receive for his crime
was expulsion from the park,
1008
00:59:43,832 --> 00:59:47,568
Hough realized he had
stumbled onto a great story
1009
00:59:47,569 --> 00:59:51,373
and quickly telegraphed it
to Grinnell in New York City.
1010
00:59:52,741 --> 00:59:54,975
Grinnell knew just
what to do with it...
1011
00:59:54,976 --> 00:59:59,847
And began to generate a public
outcry for Congressional action
1012
00:59:59,848 --> 01:00:01,449
through a series of stories,
1013
01:00:01,450 --> 01:00:04,217
along with photographs
that included
1014
01:00:04,218 --> 01:00:07,588
soldiers posing
with 9 buffalo heads
1015
01:00:07,589 --> 01:00:11,492
that Howell had not yet
hauled out of the park.
1016
01:00:11,493 --> 01:00:16,097
And it's a political
lightning bolt in Washington.
1017
01:00:17,366 --> 01:00:20,233
In his editorials,
Grinnell was very good
1018
01:00:20,234 --> 01:00:23,236
at explaining that
Yellowstone National Park
1019
01:00:23,237 --> 01:00:26,507
belongs to all Americans.
1020
01:00:26,508 --> 01:00:28,642
So that when someone,
when a poacher,
1021
01:00:28,643 --> 01:00:32,179
is stealing from
Yellowstone National Park,
1022
01:00:32,180 --> 01:00:34,448
he's stealing from you.
1023
01:00:34,449 --> 01:00:36,450
In Washington, Grinnell's friend
1024
01:00:36,451 --> 01:00:40,087
Theodore Roosevelt, now a
Civil Service Commissioner,
1025
01:00:40,088 --> 01:00:42,456
sprang into action.
1026
01:00:42,457 --> 01:00:44,558
He stalked the
corridors of the Capitol,
1027
01:00:44,559 --> 01:00:46,994
lobbying for a bill
that would institute
1028
01:00:46,995 --> 01:00:49,763
fines of up to $1,000
1029
01:00:49,764 --> 01:00:54,802
and jail sentences of up
to two years for offenders.
1030
01:00:54,803 --> 01:00:57,705
On May 7th, 1894...
1031
01:00:57,706 --> 01:01:00,408
Less than two months
after Howell's capture...
1032
01:01:00,409 --> 01:01:04,077
President Grover Cleveland
signed the bill into law,
1033
01:01:04,078 --> 01:01:07,648
authorizing regulations
that would protect the park,
1034
01:01:07,649 --> 01:01:13,654
its geysers, and its
wildlife... at least on paper.
1035
01:01:17,759 --> 01:01:19,960
The
nearer the species approaches
1036
01:01:19,961 --> 01:01:21,695
to complete extermination,
1037
01:01:21,696 --> 01:01:24,264
the more eagerly are
the wretched fugitives
1038
01:01:24,265 --> 01:01:27,635
pursued to the death
whenever found.
1039
01:01:27,636 --> 01:01:31,004
Western hunters are striving
for the questionable honor
1040
01:01:31,005 --> 01:01:34,174
of killing the last buffalo.
1041
01:01:34,175 --> 01:01:36,677
At least 8 or 10
buffaloes of pure breed
1042
01:01:36,678 --> 01:01:39,580
should be secured very
soon by the National Zoo
1043
01:01:39,581 --> 01:01:42,249
and cared for with
special reference
1044
01:01:42,250 --> 01:01:46,319
in keeping the breed
absolutely pure.
1045
01:01:46,320 --> 01:01:47,722
William T. Hornaday.
1046
01:01:49,090 --> 01:01:53,160
When the new
National Zoo opened in 1891,
1047
01:01:53,161 --> 01:01:57,731
William T. Hornaday was
no longer at the Smithsonian.
1048
01:01:57,732 --> 01:02:00,601
He was living in
Buffalo, New York,
1049
01:02:00,602 --> 01:02:03,471
working for a real
estate company.
1050
01:02:03,472 --> 01:02:06,607
Disagreements with his
old colleagues in Washington
1051
01:02:06,608 --> 01:02:09,977
had prompted him
to abruptly resign.
1052
01:02:09,978 --> 01:02:12,646
He was quite
notoriously temperamental,
1053
01:02:12,647 --> 01:02:14,815
irritable, difficult
to get along with.
1054
01:02:14,816 --> 01:02:17,384
But, at the same
time, very charismatic,
1055
01:02:17,385 --> 01:02:20,954
a great speaker, a
great public advocate.
1056
01:02:20,955 --> 01:02:22,856
He was genuinely
passionate about
1057
01:02:22,857 --> 01:02:25,594
the long-term
survival of the bison.
1058
01:02:26,561 --> 01:02:29,997
In early 1896,
he received an invitation
1059
01:02:29,998 --> 01:02:34,802
from the newly formed
New York Zoological Society,
1060
01:02:34,803 --> 01:02:38,271
asking whether he would like
to help them create in the city
1061
01:02:38,272 --> 01:02:41,743
what they envisioned
as the world's largest zoo.
1062
01:02:43,144 --> 01:02:45,245
Hornaday readily
accepted the job
1063
01:02:45,246 --> 01:02:47,347
to become its first director,
1064
01:02:47,348 --> 01:02:51,119
design it, and find
the best location for it.
1065
01:02:52,253 --> 01:02:54,822
He found that
location in the Bronx,
1066
01:02:54,823 --> 01:02:58,325
and for the next 3 years
personally supervised
1067
01:02:58,326 --> 01:03:00,861
every detail of
the construction...
1068
01:03:00,862 --> 01:03:04,297
From deciding which
trees could be cut down
1069
01:03:04,298 --> 01:03:06,801
to what animals
would be showcased.
1070
01:03:08,069 --> 01:03:10,738
When it opened in late 1899,
1071
01:03:10,739 --> 01:03:13,707
the Bronx Zoo was
an immediate success,
1072
01:03:13,708 --> 01:03:18,311
soon attracting more than
a million visitors a year.
1073
01:03:18,312 --> 01:03:21,248
Many of them seemed
particularly fascinated
1074
01:03:21,249 --> 01:03:23,517
by the small buffalo herd,
1075
01:03:23,518 --> 01:03:27,454
which in a few years
would grow to 26.
1076
01:03:27,455 --> 01:03:30,691
They included bison that
had originally been captured
1077
01:03:30,692 --> 01:03:32,292
by Buffalo Jones
1078
01:03:32,293 --> 01:03:34,562
and 3 bulls and a cow
1079
01:03:34,563 --> 01:03:38,131
from Charles and
Molly Goodnight's ranch.
1080
01:03:38,132 --> 01:03:42,169
Hornaday was proud that he
could now display live buffalo...
1081
01:03:42,170 --> 01:03:45,773
Instead of stuffed ones, as
he had at the Smithsonian...
1082
01:03:45,774 --> 01:03:48,776
To millions of Americans,
who, he hoped,
1083
01:03:48,777 --> 01:03:53,547
would join his newfound
crusade for preserving wildlife.
1084
01:03:55,817 --> 01:04:00,453
But he also worried that
a few bison saved in zoos,
1085
01:04:00,454 --> 01:04:04,024
on private ranches... or
even in the small herd
1086
01:04:04,025 --> 01:04:08,428
under the uncertain protection
of Yellowstone National Park...
1087
01:04:08,429 --> 01:04:10,397
Were not enough.
1088
01:04:10,398 --> 01:04:12,866
"The only way to
ensure the perpetuation
1089
01:04:12,867 --> 01:04:16,637
of the bison species
permanently," Hornaday said,
1090
01:04:16,638 --> 01:04:19,006
"is to create large herds,"
1091
01:04:19,007 --> 01:04:23,611
preferably in their
native homes in the West.
1092
01:04:23,612 --> 01:04:27,380
The idea that citizens
of the United States
1093
01:04:27,381 --> 01:04:30,150
had driven this species extinct
1094
01:04:30,151 --> 01:04:33,654
was... was offensive to
him, was an outrage to him.
1095
01:04:33,655 --> 01:04:36,824
But it was also tied up with his
1096
01:04:36,825 --> 01:04:39,761
strong sense of
racial superiority.
1097
01:04:40,995 --> 01:04:42,863
One of the
most prominent founders
1098
01:04:42,864 --> 01:04:45,833
of the Bronx Zoo
was Madison Grant,
1099
01:04:45,834 --> 01:04:48,669
a widely admired
conservationist,
1100
01:04:48,670 --> 01:04:52,740
who had led the effort to save
the Redwoods in California.
1101
01:04:52,741 --> 01:04:55,575
He was also a leading
proponent of a new
1102
01:04:55,576 --> 01:04:58,813
pseudo-science called eugenics.
1103
01:05:00,014 --> 01:05:02,816
It falsely claimed,
with no evidence,
1104
01:05:02,817 --> 01:05:05,018
that human beings
could be separated
1105
01:05:05,019 --> 01:05:08,255
into a rigid,
immutable hierarchy
1106
01:05:08,256 --> 01:05:10,991
based not only on
the color of their skin,
1107
01:05:10,992 --> 01:05:15,062
but the so-called
"purity" of their ancestry.
1108
01:05:15,063 --> 01:05:19,199
At the top were certain tall,
blue-eyed white Protestants...
1109
01:05:19,200 --> 01:05:22,469
Like Grant... the real
Americans, he thought,
1110
01:05:22,470 --> 01:05:24,404
who were the rightful inheritors
1111
01:05:24,405 --> 01:05:26,841
and now stewards
of the continent.
1112
01:05:28,076 --> 01:05:31,478
Everyone else was catalogued
in a descending order
1113
01:05:31,479 --> 01:05:33,715
of genetic inferiority.
1114
01:05:35,216 --> 01:05:38,218
Madison Grant would
eventually put his racist theories
1115
01:05:38,219 --> 01:05:42,489
in a book, "The Passing
of the Great Race."
1116
01:05:42,490 --> 01:05:45,893
Theodore Roosevelt
and William T. Hornaday
1117
01:05:45,894 --> 01:05:49,529
subscribed to many
of the book's views.
1118
01:05:49,530 --> 01:05:52,599
Hornaday was
stridently anti-Catholic,
1119
01:05:52,600 --> 01:05:54,735
stridently anti-immigrant.
1120
01:05:54,736 --> 01:05:58,305
He blamed Italian Americans
and African Americans,
1121
01:05:58,306 --> 01:06:00,507
without evidence,
for the decline of
1122
01:06:00,508 --> 01:06:03,010
songbirds in the American South.
1123
01:06:03,011 --> 01:06:05,946
These racists,
these White supremacists,
1124
01:06:05,947 --> 01:06:09,950
were only one group of those
who were saving the bison.
1125
01:06:09,951 --> 01:06:13,687
But they were sure there.
They were sure there.
1126
01:06:13,688 --> 01:06:17,758
More than 1,500
miles west of the Bronx Zoo,
1127
01:06:17,759 --> 01:06:20,660
the two biggest bison
herds in the nation
1128
01:06:20,661 --> 01:06:23,196
were being managed
by several families
1129
01:06:23,197 --> 01:06:26,768
on two reservations
on the northern Plains.
1130
01:06:28,336 --> 01:06:31,171
In South Dakota,
Frederick Dupuis,
1131
01:06:31,172 --> 01:06:33,340
a French-Canadian fur trader,
1132
01:06:33,341 --> 01:06:35,442
had married Good Elk Woman,
1133
01:06:35,443 --> 01:06:37,277
a Minniconjou Lakota,
1134
01:06:37,278 --> 01:06:41,448
and established a ranch on
the Cheyenne River Reservation,
1135
01:06:41,449 --> 01:06:43,584
where they raised 9 children.
1136
01:06:44,518 --> 01:06:47,855
In the early 1880s,
just as the hide hunters
1137
01:06:47,856 --> 01:06:49,790
were finishing their slaughter,
1138
01:06:49,791 --> 01:06:52,960
the Dupuis had
captured 4 bison calves
1139
01:06:52,961 --> 01:06:56,529
and began raising
them on the ranch.
1140
01:06:56,530 --> 01:06:59,967
By the time
Frederick died in 1898,
1141
01:06:59,968 --> 01:07:03,471
their herd numbered
nearly 80 buffaloes.
1142
01:07:04,538 --> 01:07:07,207
A Scottish immigrant,
James Philip...
1143
01:07:07,208 --> 01:07:09,376
Whose wife Sarah was also from
1144
01:07:09,377 --> 01:07:11,378
the Cheyenne River Reservation...
1145
01:07:11,379 --> 01:07:15,916
Bought the herd and moved
it to 6,000 acres of rangeland
1146
01:07:15,917 --> 01:07:20,688
along the Missouri River, a
few miles north of Fort Pierre.
1147
01:07:21,622 --> 01:07:24,992
Dupuis, and
Scotty Philip, these guys
1148
01:07:24,993 --> 01:07:29,296
must have had either
very tough wives,
1149
01:07:29,297 --> 01:07:35,635
or they were really in love
because they were the ones
1150
01:07:35,636 --> 01:07:39,973
that drove these two
hard-ass cowboys to go out
1151
01:07:39,974 --> 01:07:42,009
and take care of these buffalo.
1152
01:07:44,813 --> 01:07:46,947
One of
Scotty Philip's buffaloes,
1153
01:07:46,948 --> 01:07:50,884
named Pierre, became
an international celebrity
1154
01:07:50,885 --> 01:07:52,920
when it took part
in what was called
1155
01:07:52,921 --> 01:07:55,222
the "Bull Fight of the Century"
1156
01:07:55,223 --> 01:07:58,793
in the Plaza de Toros
in Juarez, Mexico.
1157
01:07:59,794 --> 01:08:02,729
When a spirited
Mexican bull was released
1158
01:08:02,730 --> 01:08:04,932
and immediately attacked him,
1159
01:08:04,933 --> 01:08:07,835
Pierre pivoted quickly
and the two animals
1160
01:08:07,836 --> 01:08:13,040
butted heads, bringing the
Mexican bull to its knees.
1161
01:08:13,041 --> 01:08:16,944
After several more attempts...
Each with the same result...
1162
01:08:16,945 --> 01:08:19,179
It began circling the arena,
1163
01:08:19,180 --> 01:08:21,682
looking for a
gate to be let out.
1164
01:08:22,851 --> 01:08:25,018
In quick succession,
3 more bulls
1165
01:08:25,019 --> 01:08:27,587
were sent in to attack Pierre.
1166
01:08:27,588 --> 01:08:33,126
Refusing to move, he knocked
them down one after another.
1167
01:08:33,127 --> 01:08:36,764
Then he stretched out
in the sun and took a nap.
1168
01:08:38,499 --> 01:08:42,435
A week later, a younger
bison bull, Pierre Jr.,
1169
01:08:42,436 --> 01:08:44,872
was scheduled to face a matador.
1170
01:08:44,873 --> 01:08:48,141
But the provincial governor
called off the spectacle,
1171
01:08:48,142 --> 01:08:52,947
not willing to risk losing
Juarez's best bull fighter.
1172
01:08:55,416 --> 01:08:59,719
By the early 1900s,
the largest herd of buffalo...
1173
01:08:59,720 --> 01:09:04,357
Including 300 bulls,
cows, and calves...
1174
01:09:04,358 --> 01:09:06,493
Grazed on the
Flathead Reservation
1175
01:09:06,494 --> 01:09:08,328
in northwestern Montana,
1176
01:09:08,329 --> 01:09:13,766
home of the Salish, Kootenai,
and Pend d'Oreille people.
1177
01:09:13,767 --> 01:09:16,769
Accounts of that
herd's origins differ,
1178
01:09:16,770 --> 01:09:19,406
but according to
tribal oral history,
1179
01:09:19,407 --> 01:09:24,011
sometime in the 1870s, a
young man named Latatí
1180
01:09:24,012 --> 01:09:26,746
traveled east over
the Rocky Mountains
1181
01:09:26,747 --> 01:09:30,984
to the buffalo plains and
brought back 6 calves.
1182
01:09:32,853 --> 01:09:35,923
The herd grew, and in the 1880s,
1183
01:09:35,924 --> 01:09:37,657
two ranchers on the reservation,
1184
01:09:37,658 --> 01:09:42,662
Charles Allard and Michel
Pablo, had bought them.
1185
01:09:42,663 --> 01:09:44,998
Charles Allard was part Indian
1186
01:09:44,999 --> 01:09:48,435
and married to Louise,
a Pend d'Oreille woman.
1187
01:09:48,436 --> 01:09:52,405
Michel Pablo was born on
the Blackfeet Reservation
1188
01:09:52,406 --> 01:09:56,476
and married to Agathe,
also a Pend d'Oreille.
1189
01:09:56,477 --> 01:09:59,746
My great-great-
grandfather, Michel Pablo,
1190
01:09:59,747 --> 01:10:03,583
was the son of, they
called him "Old Man Pablo,"
1191
01:10:03,584 --> 01:10:07,154
and Otter Woman, who
was Piegan Blackfeet.
1192
01:10:07,155 --> 01:10:11,224
So, he was half Blackfeet,
half Spaniard, or Mexican.
1193
01:10:11,225 --> 01:10:13,660
He saw the buffalo
at their prime.
1194
01:10:13,661 --> 01:10:17,197
I mean, he saw the buffalo
when there were lots of them.
1195
01:10:17,198 --> 01:10:19,766
The Pablo-Allard herd flourished
1196
01:10:19,767 --> 01:10:22,302
on the reservation's
lush pastures
1197
01:10:22,303 --> 01:10:26,106
just west of Montana's
Mission Mountains.
1198
01:10:26,107 --> 01:10:31,012
With 50 calves born each
year, their herd kept expanding.
1199
01:10:32,380 --> 01:10:36,316
When Allard died in
1896, his family began
1200
01:10:36,317 --> 01:10:40,254
slowly selling off his
bison to various buyers.
1201
01:10:41,289 --> 01:10:44,524
But Pablo stayed
put... and his buffalo
1202
01:10:44,525 --> 01:10:47,027
soon numbered in the hundreds.
1203
01:10:47,028 --> 01:10:49,997
It was much more
than a business for him.
1204
01:10:49,998 --> 01:10:52,132
He was a visionary.
1205
01:10:52,133 --> 01:10:58,205
He... he knew we
needed the buffalo
1206
01:10:58,206 --> 01:11:01,274
on this Earth to
survive as people.
1207
01:11:01,275 --> 01:11:06,846
Not just Indians; we
need the buffalo to survive.
1208
01:11:06,847 --> 01:11:09,249
We need that spirit.
1209
01:11:09,250 --> 01:11:11,784
Michel Pablo
was now in charge of
1210
01:11:11,785 --> 01:11:15,122
more buffalo than
anyone else in the nation...
1211
01:11:15,123 --> 01:11:18,091
Including the
federal government.
1212
01:11:18,092 --> 01:11:22,129
Despite the law passed
in 1894 to protect them,
1213
01:11:22,130 --> 01:11:25,065
the number of wild
and free-ranging bison
1214
01:11:25,066 --> 01:11:28,601
in Yellowstone National
Park had dwindled
1215
01:11:28,602 --> 01:11:30,470
to less than two dozen.
1216
01:11:41,015 --> 01:11:44,217
Part of the
motivation for the Americans
1217
01:11:44,218 --> 01:11:47,787
who were interested
in preserving bison
1218
01:11:47,788 --> 01:11:49,822
at the turn of the last century
1219
01:11:49,823 --> 01:11:52,792
was not to return
them to the wild.
1220
01:11:52,793 --> 01:11:56,596
It was actually to
preserve them so that
1221
01:11:56,597 --> 01:12:02,169
people could see them,
almost as a zoo-type species.
1222
01:12:02,170 --> 01:12:03,903
There was no
interest, at that time,
1223
01:12:03,904 --> 01:12:07,407
in creating large
landscapes where bison
1224
01:12:07,408 --> 01:12:09,509
could be a wild species.
1225
01:12:09,510 --> 01:12:12,912
There was an interest in
creating small landscapes,
1226
01:12:12,913 --> 01:12:17,984
where bison could be preserved,
where people could go see them.
1227
01:12:17,985 --> 01:12:20,187
Of all the unlikely places where
1228
01:12:20,188 --> 01:12:23,723
a herd of buffalo could be
found in the United States,
1229
01:12:23,724 --> 01:12:29,028
none was more unlikely than the
Blue Mountain Forest Reservation
1230
01:12:29,029 --> 01:12:31,399
in western New Hampshire.
1231
01:12:32,400 --> 01:12:36,369
Covering 24,000 acres
and surrounded by
1232
01:12:36,370 --> 01:12:38,738
an 8 1/2-foot-high fence,
1233
01:12:38,739 --> 01:12:40,140
it was the private retreat of
1234
01:12:40,141 --> 01:12:43,843
a millionaire banker,
Austin Corbin.
1235
01:12:43,844 --> 01:12:46,012
For years, he had
stocked his estate
1236
01:12:46,013 --> 01:12:50,483
with exotic game animals...
Caribou, Himalayan goats,
1237
01:12:50,484 --> 01:12:53,887
and wild boar from
Germany's Black Forest.
1238
01:12:55,089 --> 01:12:57,957
Corbin had also
purchased 10 bison
1239
01:12:57,958 --> 01:13:03,230
for $1,000 each from
Buffalo Jones in Kansas.
1240
01:13:03,231 --> 01:13:08,569
By 1904, Corbin's heirs
owned a herd of 160.
1241
01:13:09,503 --> 01:13:12,339
That same year, the
family agreed to provide
1242
01:13:12,340 --> 01:13:15,007
an unoccupied
house on the property
1243
01:13:15,008 --> 01:13:18,010
to an eccentric nature
writer from Boston
1244
01:13:18,011 --> 01:13:20,347
named Ernest Harold Baynes,
1245
01:13:20,348 --> 01:13:23,150
who was scratching out a
living by submitting stories
1246
01:13:23,151 --> 01:13:25,452
to newspapers and magazines...
1247
01:13:25,453 --> 01:13:29,356
Accompanied by photographs
taken by his wife Louise...
1248
01:13:29,357 --> 01:13:32,492
About birds and
snapping turtles,
1249
01:13:32,493 --> 01:13:35,495
squirrels, and opossums.
1250
01:13:35,496 --> 01:13:38,665
At Blue Mountain, Baynes
expanded his work...
1251
01:13:38,666 --> 01:13:42,802
And Louise kept her
camera ready to record it.
1252
01:13:48,276 --> 01:13:51,678
His wife Louise would
take pictures of him,
1253
01:13:51,679 --> 01:13:54,281
hundreds of pictures of him,
1254
01:13:54,282 --> 01:13:58,518
him feeding a bird off
of his lip, or a finger.
1255
01:13:58,519 --> 01:14:00,953
They had, wolf
pups that they named
1256
01:14:00,954 --> 01:14:03,556
"Death" and "Dauntless."
1257
01:14:03,557 --> 01:14:06,493
He had a pet red fox.
1258
01:14:06,494 --> 01:14:08,395
He adopted this wild boar
1259
01:14:08,396 --> 01:14:10,497
and took it on the lecture tour
1260
01:14:10,498 --> 01:14:11,964
until it grew into a real
1261
01:14:11,965 --> 01:14:14,201
Black Forest wild
boar with tusks
1262
01:14:14,202 --> 01:14:15,802
and kind of a mean temperament.
1263
01:14:18,472 --> 01:14:21,341
At the same time, he saw this as
1264
01:14:21,342 --> 01:14:24,944
part of a way to reach people.
1265
01:14:24,945 --> 01:14:26,879
He didn't think of wild animals,
1266
01:14:26,880 --> 01:14:29,316
I don't believe, as pets.
1267
01:14:29,317 --> 01:14:33,820
He believed that the way to
capture Americans' attention
1268
01:14:33,821 --> 01:14:36,088
to the importance of habitat,
1269
01:14:36,089 --> 01:14:37,957
and other things
for wild animals,
1270
01:14:37,958 --> 01:14:39,392
rather than just
slaughtering them,
1271
01:14:39,393 --> 01:14:43,496
was to engage people this way.
1272
01:14:43,497 --> 01:14:45,832
What captivated Baynes the most
1273
01:14:45,833 --> 01:14:48,034
was the buffalo
herd roaming across
1274
01:14:48,035 --> 01:14:50,770
the nearby pastures and forests.
1275
01:14:50,771 --> 01:14:54,441
In his first encounter with
them, they galloped away,
1276
01:14:54,442 --> 01:14:59,947
except for an immense bull,
who steadfastly refused to move.
1277
01:15:00,981 --> 01:15:04,150
Perhaps
never did I feel so much ashamed
1278
01:15:04,151 --> 01:15:06,853
in the presence of
any animal as when,
1279
01:15:06,854 --> 01:15:10,590
standing face to face with
that magnificent creature,
1280
01:15:10,591 --> 01:15:13,893
I thought of the wrongs
his race had suffered
1281
01:15:13,894 --> 01:15:15,928
at the hands of mine.
1282
01:15:17,931 --> 01:15:20,667
With the help of
the preserve's gamekeeper,
1283
01:15:20,668 --> 01:15:24,070
he brought 3 calves
back to his barnyard...
1284
01:15:24,071 --> 01:15:28,074
Two young bulls he named
War Whoop and Tomahawk,
1285
01:15:28,075 --> 01:15:31,412
and a female he
called Sacajawea.
1286
01:15:32,446 --> 01:15:35,582
He fed them cow's
milk from a baby bottle...
1287
01:15:35,583 --> 01:15:37,117
And watched them grow.
1288
01:15:38,419 --> 01:15:41,087
I decided that
the time had come to teach them
1289
01:15:41,088 --> 01:15:44,591
what they could do for
man in order that he in turn
1290
01:15:44,592 --> 01:15:47,295
might learn what he
could do with them.
1291
01:15:48,662 --> 01:15:50,463
When they were 5 months old,
1292
01:15:50,464 --> 01:15:52,832
he took them to the
Sullivan County Fair,
1293
01:15:52,833 --> 01:15:57,036
where they created a
sensation... pulling the stone sled
1294
01:15:57,037 --> 01:15:59,205
that carried a barrel of apples,
1295
01:15:59,206 --> 01:16:02,442
then a wagon with a load of hay.
1296
01:16:02,443 --> 01:16:06,078
For a grand finale, they
took him and a small cart
1297
01:16:06,079 --> 01:16:09,383
around the fair's race
track at full speed.
1298
01:16:10,584 --> 01:16:12,919
By the time War
Whoop and Tomahawk
1299
01:16:12,920 --> 01:16:14,887
were 2 1/2 years old,
1300
01:16:14,888 --> 01:16:16,489
they were famous.
1301
01:16:16,490 --> 01:16:19,526
Baynes brought them
to the Central Maine Fair,
1302
01:16:19,527 --> 01:16:23,396
where a young farmer
accepted the challenge for a race
1303
01:16:23,397 --> 01:16:26,933
between his steer and War Whoop.
1304
01:16:26,934 --> 01:16:28,935
"The result," Baynes wrote,
1305
01:16:28,936 --> 01:16:31,204
"was not in doubt for a moment."
1306
01:16:32,406 --> 01:16:36,008
This was the
last appearance of my calves.
1307
01:16:36,009 --> 01:16:37,877
They were trained
to awaken interest
1308
01:16:37,878 --> 01:16:39,912
in the American bison...
1309
01:16:39,913 --> 01:16:41,614
and they had done their share.
1310
01:16:47,721 --> 01:16:50,122
Because of the costs involved,
1311
01:16:50,123 --> 01:16:52,625
the Corbin family
began to talk about
1312
01:16:52,626 --> 01:16:55,895
getting rid of
their buffalo herd.
1313
01:16:55,896 --> 01:16:58,431
To save the bison as a species,
1314
01:16:58,432 --> 01:17:03,235
Baynes now believed a national
organization should be created
1315
01:17:03,236 --> 01:17:06,072
and the federal government
needed to establish
1316
01:17:06,073 --> 01:17:08,408
several more herds.
1317
01:17:08,409 --> 01:17:11,310
In Walpole, New
Hampshire, Baynes met with
1318
01:17:11,311 --> 01:17:13,446
Professor Franklin W. Hooper,
1319
01:17:13,447 --> 01:17:15,482
director of the
Brooklyn Institute
1320
01:17:15,483 --> 01:17:19,352
of Arts and Sciences,
to discuss the idea.
1321
01:17:19,353 --> 01:17:21,754
Hooper encouraged him
to write to a number of
1322
01:17:21,755 --> 01:17:26,125
prominent Americans,
including the enthusiastic hunter
1323
01:17:26,126 --> 01:17:29,429
who had now become
an ardent conservationist
1324
01:17:29,430 --> 01:17:34,435
and the President of the United
States... Theodore Roosevelt.
1325
01:17:35,703 --> 01:17:38,771
Roosevelt responded
immediately and promised
1326
01:17:38,772 --> 01:17:43,275
to address the issue in his
annual message to Congress.
1327
01:17:43,276 --> 01:17:46,380
To the Senate
and House of Representatives...
1328
01:17:47,381 --> 01:17:49,949
I desire to urge
upon the Congress
1329
01:17:49,950 --> 01:17:52,685
the importance of
authorizing the President
1330
01:17:52,686 --> 01:17:55,054
to set aside certain portions of
1331
01:17:55,055 --> 01:17:58,057
the forest reserves
as game refuges
1332
01:17:58,058 --> 01:18:00,661
for the preservation
of the bison.
1333
01:18:01,895 --> 01:18:04,964
We owe it to future
generations to keep alive
1334
01:18:04,965 --> 01:18:07,066
the noble and
beautiful creatures,
1335
01:18:07,067 --> 01:18:11,303
which by their presence
add such distinctive character
1336
01:18:11,304 --> 01:18:13,173
to the American wilderness.
1337
01:18:14,675 --> 01:18:17,309
Baynes had also
been corresponding with
1338
01:18:17,310 --> 01:18:20,312
William T. Hornaday,
who shared his belief
1339
01:18:20,313 --> 01:18:23,916
that multiple federal
herds were crucial.
1340
01:18:23,917 --> 01:18:26,318
The close confines of zoos,
1341
01:18:26,319 --> 01:18:28,888
the uncertainties
of private herds,
1342
01:18:28,889 --> 01:18:32,258
and concerns about
crossbreeding with cattle
1343
01:18:32,259 --> 01:18:35,361
provided no guarantee
that any buffalo
1344
01:18:35,362 --> 01:18:39,198
would still exist in
another generation.
1345
01:18:39,199 --> 01:18:41,868
We got to the era when
you could just count them up,
1346
01:18:41,869 --> 01:18:44,471
right, there were so
few here and there.
1347
01:18:44,472 --> 01:18:47,173
It was perfectly plausible
that you could have
1348
01:18:47,174 --> 01:18:50,543
a disease break
out and it would kill
1349
01:18:50,544 --> 01:18:53,680
half of the animals
left in the country.
1350
01:18:53,681 --> 01:18:55,748
Half the animals
left in the world.
1351
01:18:55,749 --> 01:18:59,318
A lightning strike could
have walked away with 10%,
1352
01:18:59,319 --> 01:19:01,521
25% of the known animals.
1353
01:19:01,522 --> 01:19:04,757
There was a real vulnerability.
1354
01:19:04,758 --> 01:19:07,159
In some of the
surviving bison herds
1355
01:19:07,160 --> 01:19:09,128
that make it into
the 20th century,
1356
01:19:09,129 --> 01:19:12,732
there are a dozen,
or fewer, animals.
1357
01:19:12,733 --> 01:19:15,334
And there's one
dominant bull who may be
1358
01:19:15,335 --> 01:19:17,870
siring all of the animals.
1359
01:19:17,871 --> 01:19:20,306
And, so, it's a problem
with inbreeding.
1360
01:19:20,307 --> 01:19:24,143
'Cause there's just not enough
genetic diversity among them.
1361
01:19:24,144 --> 01:19:25,646
Zoos weren't big enough.
1362
01:19:27,047 --> 01:19:29,716
Private ownership
was too tenuous.
1363
01:19:29,717 --> 01:19:33,786
What you needed was bigger
places; and, most importantly,
1364
01:19:33,787 --> 01:19:37,824
you had to have the
stability and perpetuity
1365
01:19:37,825 --> 01:19:40,426
of government control.
1366
01:19:47,434 --> 01:19:50,402
By 1904, the most imposing home
1367
01:19:50,403 --> 01:19:52,972
on the Comanche
Reservation in Oklahoma,
1368
01:19:52,973 --> 01:19:56,509
called the Star House,
was a two-story structure
1369
01:19:56,510 --> 01:19:59,411
with spacious
wrap-around porches.
1370
01:19:59,412 --> 01:20:02,582
Inside, the home
boasted 10-foot ceilings,
1371
01:20:02,583 --> 01:20:05,985
a large dining room
with formal wallpaper,
1372
01:20:05,986 --> 01:20:07,754
and a wood-burning stove,
1373
01:20:07,755 --> 01:20:10,691
and plenty of bedrooms
for a big family.
1374
01:20:11,859 --> 01:20:14,426
Its proud owner
was Quanah Parker,
1375
01:20:14,427 --> 01:20:18,430
the leader of the Quahada
band of Comanches.
1376
01:20:18,431 --> 01:20:21,100
The story goes that
Quanah had met
1377
01:20:21,101 --> 01:20:26,505
a military general who
had 3 stars on his uniform.
1378
01:20:26,506 --> 01:20:30,643
And Quanah said, "I
deserve more than that,"
1379
01:20:30,644 --> 01:20:33,512
and more than doubled
that with the stars
1380
01:20:33,513 --> 01:20:35,683
on the roof of the "Star House."
1381
01:20:36,884 --> 01:20:39,418
Quanah and his Quahadas had been
1382
01:20:39,419 --> 01:20:42,321
the last to surrender
on the Southern Plains
1383
01:20:42,322 --> 01:20:46,759
and settle on a
reservation in 1875.
1384
01:20:46,760 --> 01:20:49,596
But now, no Comanche
was more committed
1385
01:20:49,597 --> 01:20:52,732
to helping his people
adapt to reservation life
1386
01:20:52,733 --> 01:20:55,201
than Quanah Parker...
Who had added
1387
01:20:55,202 --> 01:20:57,503
his mother's last
name to his own
1388
01:20:57,504 --> 01:21:00,740
as a sign of respect
for her memory.
1389
01:21:00,741 --> 01:21:03,142
He was a natural leader.
1390
01:21:03,143 --> 01:21:04,711
In one century,
he was a warrior;
1391
01:21:04,712 --> 01:21:06,412
in the other
century, he, he was...
1392
01:21:06,413 --> 01:21:09,649
Led us into the new world.
1393
01:21:09,650 --> 01:21:11,819
He was preparing us for that.
1394
01:21:13,120 --> 01:21:15,087
Trying to live in two worlds
1395
01:21:15,088 --> 01:21:19,491
is a very common thing
among Native American people.
1396
01:21:19,492 --> 01:21:22,561
He was rather
successful at it, I think.
1397
01:21:22,562 --> 01:21:26,365
But he must have lived in
turmoil some of the time, then,
1398
01:21:26,366 --> 01:21:27,967
wondering which way to go,
1399
01:21:27,968 --> 01:21:31,170
which direction to take
at this fork in the road
1400
01:21:31,171 --> 01:21:32,973
that he had been given.
1401
01:21:34,507 --> 01:21:36,643
He would adapt and adapt,
1402
01:21:36,644 --> 01:21:40,814
time and again, to do what
was best for his people.
1403
01:21:42,349 --> 01:21:46,452
He saw that certain
eras were fading,
1404
01:21:46,453 --> 01:21:49,055
but he never stopped
being Comanche.
1405
01:21:50,991 --> 01:21:53,626
He used the
same skills when dealing
1406
01:21:53,627 --> 01:21:56,162
with White officials
and businessmen...
1407
01:21:56,163 --> 01:21:59,031
Negotiating a deal that
permitted cattle drives
1408
01:21:59,032 --> 01:22:02,434
across Indian lands
in exchange for
1409
01:22:02,435 --> 01:22:06,238
taxes on each
wagon and each cow.
1410
01:22:06,239 --> 01:22:10,409
Eventually, he built his
own cattle herd of 500 head
1411
01:22:10,410 --> 01:22:13,512
on what was called
the "Quanah Pasture,"
1412
01:22:13,513 --> 01:22:19,118
and he ran a 150-acre farm
with crops and 200 hogs,
1413
01:22:19,119 --> 01:22:21,689
tended by a hired White man.
1414
01:22:22,756 --> 01:22:24,490
At his big house, he hosted
1415
01:22:24,491 --> 01:22:27,393
a constant stream
of prominent visitors.
1416
01:22:27,394 --> 01:22:30,997
With them, he never talked
about his time as a warrior,
1417
01:22:30,998 --> 01:22:34,100
preferring to win them
over with his easy manner
1418
01:22:34,101 --> 01:22:35,969
and ready sense of humor.
1419
01:22:37,170 --> 01:22:41,741
On some things, Quanah
Parker never compromised.
1420
01:22:41,742 --> 01:22:45,477
He always wore his
hair long and in braids,
1421
01:22:45,478 --> 01:22:47,915
even when wearing
a business suit.
1422
01:22:48,982 --> 01:22:51,617
Despite strict
government rules outlawing
1423
01:22:51,618 --> 01:22:53,619
polygamy on reservations,
1424
01:22:53,620 --> 01:22:55,487
he had 8 wives,
1425
01:22:55,488 --> 01:22:59,525
with whom he
fathered 24 children.
1426
01:22:59,526 --> 01:23:02,194
And he openly advocated
the use of peyote
1427
01:23:02,195 --> 01:23:07,533
in religious ceremonies,
though it, too, was banned by law.
1428
01:23:07,534 --> 01:23:09,769
"The White man goes
into his church house
1429
01:23:09,770 --> 01:23:12,739
and talks about Jesus,"
he explained about
1430
01:23:12,740 --> 01:23:14,774
the use of the hallucinogen,
1431
01:23:14,775 --> 01:23:19,679
"but the Indian goes into
his tepee and talks to Jesus."
1432
01:23:24,617 --> 01:23:28,120
On March 4th,
1905, Theodore Roosevelt
1433
01:23:28,121 --> 01:23:32,025
was inaugurated for his
first full term as President.
1434
01:23:33,026 --> 01:23:36,495
Riding in the parade were
6 Native American leaders
1435
01:23:36,496 --> 01:23:39,465
from different western
tribes, including
1436
01:23:39,466 --> 01:23:41,600
Geronimo of the Apache
1437
01:23:41,601 --> 01:23:43,837
and Quanah Parker
of the Comanche.
1438
01:23:45,238 --> 01:23:48,207
Invited to a private
reception at the White House,
1439
01:23:48,208 --> 01:23:50,609
Quanah learned that the
President was planning
1440
01:23:50,610 --> 01:23:53,780
a hunting trip to
Oklahoma in April
1441
01:23:53,781 --> 01:23:56,983
and offered to return
Roosevelt's hospitality.
1442
01:23:59,619 --> 01:24:01,553
When the President's
train arrived in
1443
01:24:01,554 --> 01:24:04,156
Frederick, Oklahoma,
Quanah was among
1444
01:24:04,157 --> 01:24:07,726
the 3,000 people
gathered to welcome him.
1445
01:24:09,997 --> 01:24:12,965
Then, the two men
and a small group
1446
01:24:12,966 --> 01:24:16,836
spent several days camping
and hunting coyotes...
1447
01:24:16,837 --> 01:24:19,906
Getting to know
one another better.
1448
01:24:19,907 --> 01:24:23,675
We know that
Roosevelt does not have
1449
01:24:23,676 --> 01:24:27,113
a favorable impression
of Indigenous people
1450
01:24:27,114 --> 01:24:28,981
anywhere on the planet.
1451
01:24:28,982 --> 01:24:32,218
He has the idea that
Indigenous people
1452
01:24:32,219 --> 01:24:38,825
represent an earlier
form of humans.
1453
01:24:38,826 --> 01:24:42,929
Roosevelt's time
with Quanah, it didn't totally
1454
01:24:42,930 --> 01:24:46,099
change his view
of Native people.
1455
01:24:47,034 --> 01:24:49,836
He had written some
really shameful things
1456
01:24:49,837 --> 01:24:52,972
about his opinion of Indians.
1457
01:24:52,973 --> 01:24:55,607
I don't know if it...
If it's true friendship,
1458
01:24:55,608 --> 01:25:00,012
or if it's just an
understanding by
1459
01:25:00,013 --> 01:25:04,216
two old warriors that we see
thing... the world differently.
1460
01:25:04,217 --> 01:25:07,219
After the hunt,
Quanah hosted the president
1461
01:25:07,220 --> 01:25:09,356
for lunch at his house.
1462
01:25:10,490 --> 01:25:12,724
It's during
this time, where Quanah
1463
01:25:12,725 --> 01:25:15,161
can talk one-on-one
with Roosevelt,
1464
01:25:15,162 --> 01:25:19,832
to be able to help
further instill these ideas
1465
01:25:19,833 --> 01:25:22,768
about the importance
of not just preserving
1466
01:25:22,769 --> 01:25:24,770
the relatively few buffalo left,
1467
01:25:24,771 --> 01:25:28,074
but being able to
revitalize herds.
1468
01:25:28,075 --> 01:25:30,309
The president
spent the night sleeping
1469
01:25:30,310 --> 01:25:32,011
on one of the porches.
1470
01:25:32,012 --> 01:25:34,080
Before he left, he
presented Quanah
1471
01:25:34,081 --> 01:25:38,918
with a small porcelain
cup... and then some news.
1472
01:25:38,919 --> 01:25:41,653
Congress, he said,
had given him authority
1473
01:25:41,654 --> 01:25:44,924
to create a preserve
for large game animals...
1474
01:25:44,925 --> 01:25:48,327
Especially buffaloes...
And his trip to Oklahoma
1475
01:25:48,328 --> 01:25:50,997
had convinced him that
the Wichita Mountains
1476
01:25:50,998 --> 01:25:53,233
would be a perfect location.
1477
01:25:54,467 --> 01:26:00,006
On June 2nd, 1905, Roosevelt
signed an executive order
1478
01:26:00,007 --> 01:26:03,876
designating 60,000
acres of national forest
1479
01:26:03,877 --> 01:26:07,213
as the Wichita Forest
and Game Preserve...
1480
01:26:07,214 --> 01:26:09,115
The first of its kind.
1481
01:26:09,116 --> 01:26:11,183
It was on land
that had been taken
1482
01:26:11,184 --> 01:26:14,186
from the Comanches
years earlier.
1483
01:26:18,992 --> 01:26:21,493
6 months later, in
the reception room
1484
01:26:21,494 --> 01:26:23,662
of the Bronx Zoo's Lion House,
1485
01:26:23,663 --> 01:26:26,165
the first meeting of
a new organization,
1486
01:26:26,166 --> 01:26:29,568
the American Bison
Society, took place.
1487
01:26:29,569 --> 01:26:32,804
It was something Ernest
Harold Baynes of New Hampshire
1488
01:26:32,805 --> 01:26:35,875
had been advocating
for for more than a year.
1489
01:26:36,843 --> 01:26:40,046
"The objects of this
Society," the group declared,
1490
01:26:40,047 --> 01:26:43,515
"shall be the permanent
preservation and increase
1491
01:26:43,516 --> 01:26:45,218
of the American bison."
1492
01:26:46,253 --> 01:26:49,956
William T. Hornaday was
elected as its president,
1493
01:26:49,957 --> 01:26:53,025
Baynes to serve
as its secretary.
1494
01:26:53,026 --> 01:26:56,295
Theodore Roosevelt had
agreed to lend his name
1495
01:26:56,296 --> 01:26:58,031
as honorary president.
1496
01:26:59,099 --> 01:27:02,935
Roosevelt's real presidency...
Of the United States...
1497
01:27:02,936 --> 01:27:05,804
Was dedicated to his
belief that a vigorous
1498
01:27:05,805 --> 01:27:08,174
federal government
was essential,
1499
01:27:08,175 --> 01:27:10,676
the only force
capable of combatting
1500
01:27:10,677 --> 01:27:15,814
the immense power of the robber
barons, monopolies, and trusts
1501
01:27:15,815 --> 01:27:19,051
that controlled the
nation's railroads, banking,
1502
01:27:19,052 --> 01:27:23,355
oil, timber, and
mining interests.
1503
01:27:23,356 --> 01:27:26,525
He also championed
the cause of conservation
1504
01:27:26,526 --> 01:27:29,028
as no president had ever done:
1505
01:27:29,029 --> 01:27:32,464
creating national
parks, national forests,
1506
01:27:32,465 --> 01:27:36,268
national monuments,
national bird sanctuaries,
1507
01:27:36,269 --> 01:27:38,904
and wildlife refuges.
1508
01:27:38,905 --> 01:27:41,207
"When I hear of the
destruction of a species,"
1509
01:27:41,208 --> 01:27:44,076
he now said, "I feel
just as if the works
1510
01:27:44,077 --> 01:27:46,746
of some great
writer had perished."
1511
01:27:47,780 --> 01:27:52,051
Meanwhile, William Hornaday
successfully lobbied Congress
1512
01:27:52,052 --> 01:27:56,255
to put up $15,000 for
fencing and buildings
1513
01:27:56,256 --> 01:27:58,890
at the Wichita
Mountains preserve...
1514
01:27:58,891 --> 01:28:02,294
After he promised that
the Bronx Zoo would donate
1515
01:28:02,295 --> 01:28:07,666
15 of their pure-bred bison
to provide the seed stock.
1516
01:28:09,569 --> 01:28:14,307
On October 11th, 1907,
everything was ready.
1517
01:28:15,442 --> 01:28:18,644
Hornaday had personally
designed special crates
1518
01:28:18,645 --> 01:28:22,414
for each animal...
9 cows and 6 bulls...
1519
01:28:22,415 --> 01:28:25,952
For their 1,500-mile
journey to Oklahoma.
1520
01:28:26,953 --> 01:28:29,788
At the Fordham railroad
station in the Bronx,
1521
01:28:29,789 --> 01:28:32,191
they were loaded
onto two freight cars
1522
01:28:32,192 --> 01:28:34,593
usually reserved
for transporting
1523
01:28:34,594 --> 01:28:37,096
expensive thoroughbreds.
1524
01:28:37,097 --> 01:28:40,099
They have to move them, not from
1525
01:28:40,100 --> 01:28:43,602
the last wild bastions,
you know, the last canyon,
1526
01:28:43,603 --> 01:28:46,472
um, hideouts of the animals
in the American West.
1527
01:28:46,473 --> 01:28:50,409
They have to move
them from the Bronx Zoo
1528
01:28:50,410 --> 01:28:52,378
back to the American West.
1529
01:28:52,379 --> 01:28:54,346
Not only that, by rail.
1530
01:28:54,347 --> 01:28:57,249
So, all this time we've been
taking hides and tongues,
1531
01:28:57,250 --> 01:29:01,120
and shipping it in trains to
be consumed in the East.
1532
01:29:01,121 --> 01:29:03,389
And people in the East
are taking trains out
1533
01:29:03,390 --> 01:29:05,324
to shoot the animals
out the windows
1534
01:29:05,325 --> 01:29:08,026
and just leave them
to rot on the Prairie.
1535
01:29:08,027 --> 01:29:09,861
But, all of a sudden,
now we're at this point
1536
01:29:09,862 --> 01:29:12,231
where we have a
small herd of them
1537
01:29:12,232 --> 01:29:16,235
in the biggest city
on the continent...
1538
01:29:16,236 --> 01:29:20,506
and they put 15 on a train
and drive them back out West.
1539
01:29:20,507 --> 01:29:23,942
This had to
be the most extraordinary
1540
01:29:23,943 --> 01:29:29,115
bison migration in the
history of North America.
1541
01:29:29,116 --> 01:29:31,850
They get on a train
in New York City
1542
01:29:31,851 --> 01:29:34,753
to head home to
the Great Plains,
1543
01:29:34,754 --> 01:29:36,455
to the Wichita Mountains,
1544
01:29:36,456 --> 01:29:40,192
which were the sacred place
where some people believed
1545
01:29:40,193 --> 01:29:44,029
they had first emerged
onto the surface of the Earth,
1546
01:29:44,030 --> 01:29:46,432
and where others had
believed this is where
1547
01:29:46,433 --> 01:29:50,437
they went to hide until it
was time to return again.
1548
01:29:51,438 --> 01:29:53,572
7 days later, they arrived
1549
01:29:53,573 --> 01:29:56,642
at the train station
in Cache, Oklahoma,
1550
01:29:56,643 --> 01:30:00,946
and were taken 12 miles
by wagon to a holding corral,
1551
01:30:00,947 --> 01:30:03,415
before their release
into the preserve.
1552
01:30:07,019 --> 01:30:09,588
Among the spectators
awaiting the bison
1553
01:30:09,589 --> 01:30:14,360
was Quanah Parker... along with
other Comanches and Kiowas,
1554
01:30:14,361 --> 01:30:17,296
some of them old enough
to remember the days
1555
01:30:17,297 --> 01:30:20,065
when buffalo
covered the prairie...
1556
01:30:20,066 --> 01:30:22,234
Some of them
children who had only
1557
01:30:22,235 --> 01:30:24,904
heard about buffalo in stories.
1558
01:30:25,872 --> 01:30:30,209
I'd like to think there is a
calling out to the buffalo,
1559
01:30:30,210 --> 01:30:33,179
"tasiwóo", "tasiwóo."
1560
01:30:33,180 --> 01:30:37,048
Calling out to those
buffalo and being able
1561
01:30:37,049 --> 01:30:42,053
to try to continue,
being able to reestablish
1562
01:30:42,054 --> 01:30:46,124
some kind of relationship
between Comanches
1563
01:30:46,125 --> 01:30:48,927
and those who
had, for generations,
1564
01:30:48,928 --> 01:30:50,497
provided so much for us.
1565
01:30:51,764 --> 01:30:54,032
What must have gone on
in their minds, you know,
1566
01:30:54,033 --> 01:30:58,204
in their... in their blood
memory, they had to be,
1567
01:30:58,205 --> 01:31:02,774
amazed and probably joyful.
1568
01:31:02,775 --> 01:31:07,547
Um... also, a kind of
remorse, a kind of sadness.
1569
01:31:08,615 --> 01:31:11,984
Quanah Parker cried when
he saw the buffalo return.
1570
01:31:12,952 --> 01:31:16,021
I can imagine that. You
know, I think that could be true,
1571
01:31:16,022 --> 01:31:18,089
not only of him, but
of many other people
1572
01:31:18,090 --> 01:31:21,427
who witnessed this
miracle of return.
1573
01:31:23,296 --> 01:31:27,032
One young woman
got up, very early in the morning...
1574
01:31:27,033 --> 01:31:29,368
For nearly two generations,
1575
01:31:29,369 --> 01:31:32,304
following the destruction
wrought by the hide hunters
1576
01:31:32,305 --> 01:31:36,708
in the early 1870s, the Kiowas
had passed along a legend
1577
01:31:36,709 --> 01:31:40,779
told by Old Lady Horse
about the last buffalo herd.
1578
01:31:40,780 --> 01:31:45,951
Last buffalo herd
appear like a spirit dream.
1579
01:31:45,952 --> 01:31:49,521
They had walked,
she said, into Mount Scott...
1580
01:31:49,522 --> 01:31:52,724
The sacred place from
which, the tribe believed,
1581
01:31:52,725 --> 01:31:56,595
the animals had first
emerged onto the Great Plains
1582
01:31:56,596 --> 01:31:58,397
in the age before people.
1583
01:31:58,398 --> 01:32:03,236
Into this world of
beauty, the buffalo walked.
1584
01:32:04,671 --> 01:32:07,306
After some
time in their holding corral,
1585
01:32:07,307 --> 01:32:11,443
the 15 buffalo from the
Bronx Zoo were set loose,
1586
01:32:11,444 --> 01:32:15,314
free to wander in
their new old home,
1587
01:32:15,315 --> 01:32:17,816
within sight of Mount Scott.
1588
01:32:20,253 --> 01:32:23,722
Old Lady Horse.
I like to think of her there.
1589
01:32:23,723 --> 01:32:25,557
If she had seen their return,
1590
01:32:25,558 --> 01:32:28,159
her sense of the sacred
would have been realized
1591
01:32:28,160 --> 01:32:32,098
at that moment as a
high point in her life.
1592
01:32:33,433 --> 01:32:35,301
That makes the story whole.
1593
01:32:38,271 --> 01:32:41,273
Less than a month
after the buffalo's arrival,
1594
01:32:41,274 --> 01:32:43,175
two calves were born.
1595
01:32:44,143 --> 01:32:48,246
Within 6 years, the herd
would double in size.
1596
01:32:59,025 --> 01:33:01,593
The people who are
interested in preserving the bison,
1597
01:33:01,594 --> 01:33:04,730
the American Bison Society
and associated groups,
1598
01:33:04,731 --> 01:33:08,700
are not at all interested in
preserving bison on behalf of
1599
01:33:08,701 --> 01:33:10,336
Indigenous people
in the Great Plains.
1600
01:33:10,337 --> 01:33:12,070
In fact, in many ways,
1601
01:33:12,071 --> 01:33:13,405
the preservation of
the bison comes at
1602
01:33:13,406 --> 01:33:16,376
the expense of
Indigenous people.
1603
01:33:17,344 --> 01:33:21,146
The notable bison
preserves, these are created
1604
01:33:21,147 --> 01:33:24,983
when what had been
very large reservations
1605
01:33:24,984 --> 01:33:27,353
were diminished
in size through this
1606
01:33:27,354 --> 01:33:29,788
complicated process
known as "Allotment."
1607
01:33:29,789 --> 01:33:33,992
So, ironically, the killing
of the bison by hide hunters
1608
01:33:33,993 --> 01:33:37,596
in the 1880s had come at
the expense of Native people,
1609
01:33:37,597 --> 01:33:39,197
and the preservation
of the bison
1610
01:33:39,198 --> 01:33:40,932
in the early 20th
century also comes
1611
01:33:40,933 --> 01:33:42,801
at the expense of Native people.
1612
01:33:42,802 --> 01:33:46,171
In Montana, much
of the Flathead Reservation
1613
01:33:46,172 --> 01:33:48,907
had been broken
up into small parcels
1614
01:33:48,908 --> 01:33:51,477
through the Dawes Allotment Act.
1615
01:33:51,478 --> 01:33:53,745
The remainder was
declared "surplus"
1616
01:33:53,746 --> 01:33:56,749
and was about to be
opened to homesteaders.
1617
01:33:57,917 --> 01:34:01,052
Michel Pablo realized
his buffalo pastures
1618
01:34:01,053 --> 01:34:06,224
would be divided up and
sold in the impending land rush.
1619
01:34:06,225 --> 01:34:08,794
You can't run
600 head of buffalo
1620
01:34:08,795 --> 01:34:11,363
on 160 acres.
1621
01:34:11,364 --> 01:34:18,570
So, Michel saw the finger
of doom for his buffalo.
1622
01:34:18,571 --> 01:34:22,474
Pablo offered to sell
his herd to the United States.
1623
01:34:22,475 --> 01:34:25,511
President Roosevelt
favored the proposal;
1624
01:34:25,512 --> 01:34:28,914
George Bird Grinnell
and others endorsed it.
1625
01:34:28,915 --> 01:34:32,652
But Congress refused
to appropriate any money.
1626
01:34:34,053 --> 01:34:37,556
He was so hopeful
that the buffalo would stay
1627
01:34:37,557 --> 01:34:41,760
that when he had to sell
them, his spirit was broken.
1628
01:34:41,761 --> 01:34:43,195
He was devastated.
1629
01:34:44,531 --> 01:34:47,232
The Canadian
government, looking to create
1630
01:34:47,233 --> 01:34:49,735
Buffalo National
Park in Alberta,
1631
01:34:49,736 --> 01:34:54,606
jumped at the opportunity
and bought the entire herd.
1632
01:34:54,607 --> 01:34:57,476
With Joe Allard, the
son of his late partner,
1633
01:34:57,477 --> 01:35:00,011
Pablo recruited
some local cowboys
1634
01:35:00,012 --> 01:35:04,716
and began to round up the
buffalo in the summer of 1907.
1635
01:35:06,519 --> 01:35:08,587
Pablo had estimated
it would take them
1636
01:35:08,588 --> 01:35:11,457
two years to gather
his herd into corrals
1637
01:35:11,458 --> 01:35:15,461
and get them onto freight
trains for shipment to Canada.
1638
01:35:15,462 --> 01:35:18,096
It took more than 5.
1639
01:35:18,097 --> 01:35:23,034
Instead of 350 bison, to
his surprise it turned out
1640
01:35:23,035 --> 01:35:25,203
he had nearly twice as many...
1641
01:35:25,204 --> 01:35:29,675
And they often proved unwilling
to leave their home range.
1642
01:35:39,486 --> 01:35:41,720
Have you
ever tried to herd buffalo?
1643
01:35:41,721 --> 01:35:46,725
It's not easy to herd buffalo.
1644
01:35:46,726 --> 01:35:52,197
They are astonishing in their
athleticism and their power.
1645
01:35:52,198 --> 01:35:58,203
But one thing they don't
do well is, like, take orders.
1646
01:35:58,204 --> 01:36:00,138
So, if somebody's
trying to round them up
1647
01:36:00,139 --> 01:36:05,310
and force them into little
carts, that's not an easy thing.
1648
01:36:05,311 --> 01:36:07,879
You don't mess with
a 2,000-pound animal
1649
01:36:07,880 --> 01:36:09,215
and survive.
1650
01:36:10,149 --> 01:36:11,483
One of the participants
1651
01:36:11,484 --> 01:36:13,218
at two of the roundups
1652
01:36:13,219 --> 01:36:15,286
was the painter
and former cowboy
1653
01:36:15,287 --> 01:36:17,022
Charles M. Russell.
1654
01:36:17,023 --> 01:36:20,225
He was world famous for
creating works that portrayed
1655
01:36:20,226 --> 01:36:23,294
a West that seemed
to be a fading memory...
1656
01:36:23,295 --> 01:36:28,033
Symbolized by the buffalo skull
he attached to every painting,
1657
01:36:28,034 --> 01:36:29,268
next to his name.
1658
01:36:30,202 --> 01:36:33,739
For Russell, the chance to
take part in another roundup...
1659
01:36:33,740 --> 01:36:37,510
This time with buffaloes...
Proved irresistible.
1660
01:36:38,444 --> 01:36:41,780
He rode with the cowboys,
told stories of the old days
1661
01:36:41,781 --> 01:36:45,116
around the campfire...
And sketched watercolors
1662
01:36:45,117 --> 01:36:48,520
to his heart's content,
sometimes adding them
1663
01:36:48,521 --> 01:36:51,323
to illustrate letters
he sent to friends.
1664
01:36:52,625 --> 01:36:55,393
Ultimately, Michel
Pablo would deliver
1665
01:36:55,394 --> 01:36:58,797
more than 670 bison to Canada.
1666
01:37:01,367 --> 01:37:05,336
But news of the sale had
created a national uproar.
1667
01:37:05,337 --> 01:37:07,939
"President Roosevelt
may easily be imagined
1668
01:37:07,940 --> 01:37:11,042
stamping his feet
and grinding his teeth,"
1669
01:37:11,043 --> 01:37:13,078
a Denver newspaper reported,
1670
01:37:13,079 --> 01:37:15,647
"when he hears that
his cherished ambition
1671
01:37:15,648 --> 01:37:18,617
"to secure for
American national parks
1672
01:37:18,618 --> 01:37:22,053
"the famous herd
belonging to Michel Pablo
1673
01:37:22,054 --> 01:37:23,655
"has been defeated by
1674
01:37:23,656 --> 01:37:26,759
energetic officials of the
Canadian government."
1675
01:37:27,794 --> 01:37:31,997
The American Bison Society
used all the negative publicity
1676
01:37:31,998 --> 01:37:36,434
to push Congress into
appropriating $40,000
1677
01:37:36,435 --> 01:37:40,606
to purchase and fence
29 square miles of land
1678
01:37:40,607 --> 01:37:44,843
in the Flathead Reservation
for a new buffalo preserve...
1679
01:37:44,844 --> 01:37:49,615
Not far from where Pablo's
herd had once grazed.
1680
01:37:49,616 --> 01:37:53,451
How dumb can
this be? What an insult.
1681
01:37:53,452 --> 01:37:57,388
You had the chance
to buy this premier herd,
1682
01:37:57,389 --> 01:38:03,494
and you make a
buffalo, bison range, um,
1683
01:38:03,495 --> 01:38:06,998
right in the midst
of where they were?
1684
01:38:06,999 --> 01:38:09,467
It doesn't make any sense.
1685
01:38:09,468 --> 01:38:11,302
The Bison Society then launched
1686
01:38:11,303 --> 01:38:17,208
a private campaign to raise
$10,000 to buy more buffalo.
1687
01:38:17,209 --> 01:38:20,545
Since some of Pablo's herd
hadn't yet been rounded up
1688
01:38:20,546 --> 01:38:22,347
for shipment to Canada,
1689
01:38:22,348 --> 01:38:24,549
many people hoped
the Bison Society
1690
01:38:24,550 --> 01:38:26,785
could buy them from him.
1691
01:38:26,786 --> 01:38:29,120
But no deal could be arranged.
1692
01:38:29,121 --> 01:38:30,689
Pablo said he wouldn't break
1693
01:38:30,690 --> 01:38:32,624
his agreement
with the Canadians,
1694
01:38:32,625 --> 01:38:36,027
which infuriated
William T. Hornaday.
1695
01:38:36,028 --> 01:38:38,764
He would never,
Hornaday wrote a colleague,
1696
01:38:38,765 --> 01:38:42,934
"ask favors of a half-breed
Mexican-Flathead."
1697
01:38:42,935 --> 01:38:46,437
The reservation agent
told George Bird Grinnell
1698
01:38:46,438 --> 01:38:49,407
that the problem was
what he called Hornaday's
1699
01:38:49,408 --> 01:38:53,845
"unpardonable sin"
of racial hostility.
1700
01:38:56,749 --> 01:38:59,617
In the end, the Bison
Society purchased
1701
01:38:59,618 --> 01:39:03,822
34 buffalo from a family
in Kalispell, Montana,
1702
01:39:03,823 --> 01:39:07,493
who had bought part of
the Allard herd back in 1902.
1703
01:39:08,427 --> 01:39:13,498
The Goodnights in Texas
donated two of their buffalo.
1704
01:39:13,499 --> 01:39:15,633
The Corbin family
in New Hampshire
1705
01:39:15,634 --> 01:39:17,770
gave 3 from their herd.
1706
01:39:19,271 --> 01:39:24,009
On October 17th, 1909,
the animals were released
1707
01:39:24,010 --> 01:39:27,046
to graze on the
National Bison Range.
1708
01:39:27,980 --> 01:39:31,917
The United States had 3
federal herds under protection...
1709
01:39:31,918 --> 01:39:36,287
In Yellowstone National
Park, the Wichita Mountains,
1710
01:39:36,288 --> 01:39:38,557
and now western Montana.
1711
01:39:39,992 --> 01:39:45,363
75 of Michel Pablo's buffalo
had eluded capture for Canada,
1712
01:39:45,364 --> 01:39:47,598
and for a while
they grazed outside
1713
01:39:47,599 --> 01:39:49,500
the new preserve's fences...
1714
01:39:49,501 --> 01:39:53,672
Sometimes creating problems
for homesteaders in the region.
1715
01:39:54,874 --> 01:39:57,776
The State of Montana
claimed jurisdiction
1716
01:39:57,777 --> 01:40:01,246
over what came to be
called the "outlaw herd,"
1717
01:40:01,247 --> 01:40:04,682
but declined any suggestions
to try and move them
1718
01:40:04,683 --> 01:40:08,553
inside the new
federal bison range.
1719
01:40:08,554 --> 01:40:10,889
Poachers went to work,
1720
01:40:10,890 --> 01:40:13,559
eventually killing them all.
1721
01:40:15,127 --> 01:40:16,995
Within the next 6 years,
1722
01:40:16,996 --> 01:40:19,931
more protected herds
were established...
1723
01:40:19,932 --> 01:40:24,469
At Wind Cave National Park
in South Dakota's Black Hills
1724
01:40:24,470 --> 01:40:27,739
and at nearby Custer State Park.
1725
01:40:27,740 --> 01:40:30,876
At Fort Niobrara in Nebraska.
1726
01:40:30,877 --> 01:40:33,278
Even one in a national forest
1727
01:40:33,279 --> 01:40:35,581
near Asheville, North Carolina.
1728
01:40:37,049 --> 01:40:40,585
In the Texas Panhandle,
Molly and Charles Goodnight
1729
01:40:40,586 --> 01:40:42,888
called for a Palo Duro Canyon
1730
01:40:42,889 --> 01:40:46,191
National Forest
Reserve and Park.
1731
01:40:46,192 --> 01:40:50,996
Legislation to create it was
introduced in Congress 3 times.
1732
01:40:50,997 --> 01:40:53,231
Each time, the bill
was turned down,
1733
01:40:53,232 --> 01:40:56,768
because the land was
not already federally owned
1734
01:40:56,769 --> 01:41:00,439
and purchasing it was
considered too expensive.
1735
01:41:01,707 --> 01:41:05,310
Over time, the old Indian
fighter Charlie Goodnight
1736
01:41:05,311 --> 01:41:08,980
had become friendly with
a number of Native tribes,
1737
01:41:08,981 --> 01:41:11,249
and he helped Quanah
Parker in his efforts
1738
01:41:11,250 --> 01:41:14,585
to have his mother
and little sister reburied
1739
01:41:14,586 --> 01:41:17,555
on the Comanche
Reservation in Oklahoma...
1740
01:41:17,556 --> 01:41:21,961
Not far from where the Wichita
Mountains herd now grazed.
1741
01:41:23,062 --> 01:41:26,597
In thanks, Quanah presented
Goodnight with a lance
1742
01:41:26,598 --> 01:41:29,634
he had used in the raid
against the hide hunters
1743
01:41:29,635 --> 01:41:33,505
at Adobe Walls back in 1874.
1744
01:41:34,974 --> 01:41:38,176
In 1911, he wrote
to Goodnight saying
1745
01:41:38,177 --> 01:41:41,246
he planned to bring 50
other Comanches with him
1746
01:41:41,247 --> 01:41:44,883
to Charlie's ranch
to "see your buffalo
1747
01:41:44,884 --> 01:41:47,854
and make these
old Indians glad."
1748
01:41:48,988 --> 01:41:51,523
But Quanah Parker never made it.
1749
01:41:52,458 --> 01:41:54,425
He died a month later...
1750
01:41:54,426 --> 01:41:57,295
And was buried,
as he had wanted,
1751
01:41:57,296 --> 01:41:59,797
next to his mother and sister.
1752
01:42:03,435 --> 01:42:05,871
5 years later, Goodnight invited
1753
01:42:05,872 --> 01:42:08,706
some Kiowas to his ranch.
1754
01:42:08,707 --> 01:42:11,542
They came to help make
a film that would capture
1755
01:42:11,543 --> 01:42:12,978
scenes from the West
1756
01:42:12,979 --> 01:42:16,381
the 80-year-old
Goodnight remembered...
1757
01:42:16,382 --> 01:42:17,983
More authentic, he hoped,
1758
01:42:17,984 --> 01:42:20,785
than the romanticized
Westerns playing
1759
01:42:20,786 --> 01:42:23,055
in movie theaters
across the nation.
1760
01:42:24,656 --> 01:42:26,757
The highlight was
a buffalo hunt...
1761
01:42:26,758 --> 01:42:31,362
With real Indians riding
after a real buffalo herd,
1762
01:42:31,363 --> 01:42:35,533
and finally bringing one
down with bows and arrows.
1763
01:42:37,736 --> 01:42:39,938
Think about
the trajectory of how
1764
01:42:39,939 --> 01:42:42,207
this occurred, all
these different people
1765
01:42:42,208 --> 01:42:45,944
doing their own thing,
trying their best, at least,
1766
01:42:45,945 --> 01:42:50,815
to save the bison from
vanishing completely.
1767
01:42:50,816 --> 01:42:52,717
And it finally got organized
1768
01:42:52,718 --> 01:42:56,421
and, when it did, we
have all of them to thank.
1769
01:42:56,422 --> 01:43:02,293
Even those whose views
on many things we despise,
1770
01:43:02,294 --> 01:43:06,297
recognizing that they
were all part of this
1771
01:43:06,298 --> 01:43:10,735
American collection of
people who had perseverance,
1772
01:43:10,736 --> 01:43:13,071
had a passion, and a desire,
1773
01:43:13,072 --> 01:43:16,307
without which
they would be gone.
1774
01:43:23,049 --> 01:43:26,251
In 1913, the
United States came out
1775
01:43:26,252 --> 01:43:28,419
with a new design
for the nickel,
1776
01:43:28,420 --> 01:43:32,557
done by the sculptor
James Earle Fraser.
1777
01:43:32,558 --> 01:43:34,325
Fraser said he wanted a coin
1778
01:43:34,326 --> 01:43:39,097
"that could not be mistaken
for any other country's coin."
1779
01:43:39,098 --> 01:43:40,932
On one side, the new nickel
1780
01:43:40,933 --> 01:43:44,702
showed the profile
of an American Indian.
1781
01:43:44,703 --> 01:43:47,238
On the other was
an American buffalo,
1782
01:43:47,239 --> 01:43:49,874
modeled after a bison Fraser saw
1783
01:43:49,875 --> 01:43:53,945
in New York City's
Central Park Menagerie.
1784
01:43:53,946 --> 01:43:56,514
We know its name.
It was called "Black Diamond."
1785
01:43:56,515 --> 01:43:58,616
And it lived in a cage.
1786
01:43:58,617 --> 01:44:01,652
And he uses it as his model.
1787
01:44:01,653 --> 01:44:04,689
And it was sold to a butcher.
1788
01:44:04,690 --> 01:44:07,058
And the model for
the buffalo head nickel
1789
01:44:07,059 --> 01:44:11,862
was processed and
parted out and sold as meat
1790
01:44:11,863 --> 01:44:14,666
in the Meatpacking
District in Manhattan.
1791
01:44:16,068 --> 01:44:17,568
And it opens up
this idea of just
1792
01:44:17,569 --> 01:44:21,040
how conflicted the symbol is.
1793
01:44:22,208 --> 01:44:27,445
We look at it and we see
a symbol of wilderness
1794
01:44:27,446 --> 01:44:31,083
and a symbol of the wanton
destruction of wilderness.
1795
01:44:32,284 --> 01:44:34,485
Horse Capture, Jr.: You
look at that old nickel,
1796
01:44:34,486 --> 01:44:36,087
there's a buffalo.
1797
01:44:36,088 --> 01:44:39,924
At one time, they almost
wiped them to extinction.
1798
01:44:39,925 --> 01:44:43,128
Why did the European put
that buffalo on that nickel?
1799
01:44:43,129 --> 01:44:46,064
Was it just a curiosity,
or was it something that
1800
01:44:46,065 --> 01:44:49,500
kind of meant something
to them in an odd way?
1801
01:44:49,501 --> 01:44:55,240
So, in my confusion, and
my need to understand,
1802
01:44:55,241 --> 01:45:01,112
is... do you...
1803
01:45:01,113 --> 01:45:05,116
have to destroy
the things you love?
1804
01:45:07,086 --> 01:45:10,921
By 1933, the
American Bison Society
1805
01:45:10,922 --> 01:45:15,226
reported that 4,404 buffalo
1806
01:45:15,227 --> 01:45:20,866
existed in 121 herds
in 41 different states.
1807
01:45:21,867 --> 01:45:23,901
Half of them were grazing in now
1808
01:45:23,902 --> 01:45:27,305
9 government-protected herds.
1809
01:45:27,306 --> 01:45:30,075
Compared to the millions
of buffalo that had once
1810
01:45:30,076 --> 01:45:33,278
covered the Plains,
those were tiny numbers;
1811
01:45:33,279 --> 01:45:36,681
but enough... and in
enough different places...
1812
01:45:36,682 --> 01:45:41,186
That the Bison Society began
making plans to disband,
1813
01:45:41,187 --> 01:45:43,754
declaring that the
American buffalo
1814
01:45:43,755 --> 01:45:46,624
was finally safe
from extinction.
1815
01:45:49,128 --> 01:45:52,430
This Society was
successful, but their
1816
01:45:52,431 --> 01:45:57,335
understanding of the problem
was really short-sighted.
1817
01:45:57,336 --> 01:46:01,005
They didn't know
about ecosystems.
1818
01:46:01,006 --> 01:46:04,375
They thought, if you got a
buffalo, you've saved him.
1819
01:46:04,376 --> 01:46:07,712
That's not it. You got
to save their habitat.
1820
01:46:10,882 --> 01:46:13,618
That same spring of 1933,
1821
01:46:13,619 --> 01:46:19,057
75 calves were born on the
National Bison Range in Montana.
1822
01:46:20,058 --> 01:46:22,560
One of them, a little bull,
1823
01:46:22,561 --> 01:46:25,263
had blue eyes and white hair...
1824
01:46:25,264 --> 01:46:27,232
A genetic rarity.
1825
01:46:27,233 --> 01:46:31,302
A white buffalo is so sacred
1826
01:46:31,303 --> 01:46:37,875
and so full of hope and
goodwill for the tribes.
1827
01:46:37,876 --> 01:46:40,911
Just a huge blessing.
1828
01:46:40,912 --> 01:46:45,082
It was a tremendous
gift from Creator.
1829
01:46:47,853 --> 01:46:49,654
The staff at the Bison Range
1830
01:46:49,655 --> 01:46:52,790
called the little bull
"Whitey" at first...
1831
01:46:52,791 --> 01:46:55,059
And its presence
turned the preserve into
1832
01:46:55,060 --> 01:46:58,263
a tourist attraction
for a while.
1833
01:46:58,264 --> 01:47:01,666
But to the Salish, Kootenai,
and Pend d'Oreilles
1834
01:47:01,667 --> 01:47:03,368
on the Flathead Reservation...
1835
01:47:03,369 --> 01:47:06,471
And to virtually all
other Native tribes...
1836
01:47:06,472 --> 01:47:10,508
A white buffalo was more
than a statistical oddity.
1837
01:47:10,509 --> 01:47:15,012
It had special spiritual
power and sacred meaning.
1838
01:47:15,013 --> 01:47:17,882
It was considered
"big medicine"...
1839
01:47:17,883 --> 01:47:20,785
And that became his name.
1840
01:47:20,786 --> 01:47:22,620
I was 3 years old.
1841
01:47:22,621 --> 01:47:26,324
My grandpa and my dad
took me to the bison range
1842
01:47:26,325 --> 01:47:27,892
and wanted me to touch him.
1843
01:47:27,893 --> 01:47:30,127
He was so old; he stood inside
1844
01:47:30,128 --> 01:47:34,165
this fence and he didn't move.
1845
01:47:34,166 --> 01:47:37,101
I touched him and I
thought he would be soft,
1846
01:47:37,102 --> 01:47:39,870
his head, like my teddy bear.
1847
01:47:39,871 --> 01:47:42,240
And it was bristly.
1848
01:47:42,241 --> 01:47:44,074
And that was my
first impression,
1849
01:47:44,075 --> 01:47:47,812
was he's big and I love his eyes
1850
01:47:47,813 --> 01:47:49,214
and he's bristly.
1851
01:47:52,651 --> 01:47:56,621
The story of the American
buffalo is a cautionary tale.
1852
01:47:56,622 --> 01:48:02,561
It's a lesson in how to
live sustainably with nature.
1853
01:48:03,695 --> 01:48:05,563
We didn't do a very good job.
1854
01:48:05,564 --> 01:48:07,598
We almost screwed it up.
1855
01:48:07,599 --> 01:48:09,166
But we didn't,
1856
01:48:09,167 --> 01:48:11,135
and, so, there's hope.
1857
01:48:11,136 --> 01:48:14,540
It's a possibility of
what could come.
1858
01:48:16,342 --> 01:48:18,209
You don't get a lot of chances
1859
01:48:18,210 --> 01:48:20,211
to correct history's mistakes.
1860
01:48:20,212 --> 01:48:23,113
You get a few. And
when you get them,
1861
01:48:23,114 --> 01:48:26,451
you damn sure better
take advantage of them.
1862
01:48:26,452 --> 01:48:27,985
I think we've got an opportunity
1863
01:48:27,986 --> 01:48:30,721
to do this with buffalo.
1864
01:48:30,722 --> 01:48:35,393
And, if we do, I think
America can look back
1865
01:48:35,394 --> 01:48:40,731
on its history and
say, "We got wise."
1866
01:48:45,904 --> 01:48:47,405
You're supposed
to make decisions
1867
01:48:47,406 --> 01:48:51,242
that go 7 generations
beyond you.
1868
01:48:51,243 --> 01:48:54,312
But we aren't
looking at the future.
1869
01:48:54,313 --> 01:48:57,949
We're looking at right now.
And that's not far enough.
1870
01:48:58,950 --> 01:49:01,319
She's all we have, this Earth.
1871
01:49:01,320 --> 01:49:04,755
And we destroy that,
we're destroying ourselves.
1872
01:49:04,756 --> 01:49:06,324
And we just don't get it.
1873
01:49:08,260 --> 01:49:10,528
The American
buffalo had been brought back
1874
01:49:10,529 --> 01:49:13,664
from the brink of
disappearing forever.
1875
01:49:13,665 --> 01:49:18,002
But its story is unfinished
and still being written,
1876
01:49:18,003 --> 01:49:22,006
taking new turns,
facing new challenges,
1877
01:49:22,007 --> 01:49:25,676
and offering more
lessons yet to be learned.
1878
01:49:25,677 --> 01:49:29,580
Being saved from
extinction is not the same as
1879
01:49:29,581 --> 01:49:31,417
being wild and free.
1880
01:49:32,751 --> 01:49:35,520
Today, the United States
is home to more than
1881
01:49:35,521 --> 01:49:38,423
350,000 bison.
1882
01:49:38,424 --> 01:49:41,892
Native peoples
oversee 20,000 of them.
1883
01:49:41,893 --> 01:49:46,932
20,000 more are protected
in federal and state preserves.
1884
01:49:48,334 --> 01:49:51,502
But the rest exist
in private herds,
1885
01:49:51,503 --> 01:49:54,271
many of them
confined like cattle,
1886
01:49:54,272 --> 01:49:58,544
fattened in feed lots,
raised for slaughter.
1887
01:49:59,945 --> 01:50:03,213
Until buffalo can
move, more or less, at will,
1888
01:50:03,214 --> 01:50:05,583
over a vast grassland,
1889
01:50:05,584 --> 01:50:07,151
we haven't restored them at all.
1890
01:50:07,152 --> 01:50:08,686
We've made them a very special
1891
01:50:08,687 --> 01:50:11,489
grass-eating zoo creature.
1892
01:50:11,490 --> 01:50:13,424
But to turn them loose
in... in the way that
1893
01:50:13,425 --> 01:50:15,025
they were meant to
be, the way they were
1894
01:50:15,026 --> 01:50:16,727
when Lewis and
Clark came through,
1895
01:50:16,728 --> 01:50:19,864
when Plains Indians
were flourishing,
1896
01:50:19,865 --> 01:50:22,099
it's a dream that I thought
would never happen
1897
01:50:22,100 --> 01:50:25,035
and it... and it's probably
going to happen.
1898
01:50:25,036 --> 01:50:28,906
Some ranchers and
many non-profit organizations...
1899
01:50:28,907 --> 01:50:31,308
Including the
Nature Conservancy,
1900
01:50:31,309 --> 01:50:34,044
the Wildlife
Conservation Society,
1901
01:50:34,045 --> 01:50:35,580
and American Prairie...
1902
01:50:35,581 --> 01:50:38,282
Have committed to
providing their buffalo
1903
01:50:38,283 --> 01:50:42,420
with more room to roam
and native grasses to eat...
1904
01:50:42,421 --> 01:50:46,624
Something closer to the
habitats they once knew.
1905
01:50:46,625 --> 01:50:50,728
Even the American Bison
Society has been revived.
1906
01:50:52,464 --> 01:50:54,131
It's going to be
a big job, but if,
1907
01:50:54,132 --> 01:50:56,233
if human beings are...
1908
01:50:56,234 --> 01:50:58,436
think they're the best
animal in the world,
1909
01:50:58,437 --> 01:51:00,472
now is our chance to prove it.
1910
01:51:01,940 --> 01:51:04,375
The most
important work of restoring
1911
01:51:04,376 --> 01:51:07,745
bison to their homelands
is being done in concert
1912
01:51:07,746 --> 01:51:10,781
with the people whose
lives have been intertwined
1913
01:51:10,782 --> 01:51:14,486
with the buffalo for
more than 10,000 years.
1914
01:51:15,921 --> 01:51:20,591
Back in 1991,
representatives from 19 tribes
1915
01:51:20,592 --> 01:51:23,260
gathered in the Black
Hills to begin to form
1916
01:51:23,261 --> 01:51:25,796
the Intertribal Buffalo Council
1917
01:51:25,797 --> 01:51:29,400
and organize attempts
to bring some of the bison
1918
01:51:29,401 --> 01:51:33,003
from Yellowstone and
other federal preserves
1919
01:51:33,004 --> 01:51:35,540
back to their reservations.
1920
01:51:35,541 --> 01:51:38,576
It was an act of healing
that would re-establish
1921
01:51:38,577 --> 01:51:41,178
a sacred connection
with the buffalo
1922
01:51:41,179 --> 01:51:44,049
that had been broken
for more than a century.
1923
01:51:45,417 --> 01:51:50,020
An elderly Lakota woman
took one of the founders aside.
1924
01:51:50,021 --> 01:51:53,223
"It's best you ask the buffalo
if they want to come back,"
1925
01:51:53,224 --> 01:51:58,697
she said, so, the group held
a ceremony to do exactly that.
1926
01:51:59,998 --> 01:52:03,501
"They said they wanted to come
back," the man remembered,
1927
01:52:03,502 --> 01:52:06,838
"but they said they didn't
want to come back as cows.
1928
01:52:07,839 --> 01:52:13,144
They wanted to be buffalo.
They wanted to be wild again."
1929
01:52:14,580 --> 01:52:18,749
Now, at least 80
tribes in 20 states
1930
01:52:18,750 --> 01:52:22,319
control their own
herds, grazing on nearly
1931
01:52:22,320 --> 01:52:25,090
a million acres of tribal land.
1932
01:52:26,424 --> 01:52:28,593
And on the Flathead Reservation,
1933
01:52:28,594 --> 01:52:32,196
the Confederated
Salish and Kootenai tribes
1934
01:52:32,197 --> 01:52:36,801
have taken over management
of the National Bison Range.
1935
01:52:38,904 --> 01:52:41,071
Bison are resilient.
1936
01:52:41,072 --> 01:52:47,378
And they have taught us
how to be resilient and adapt.
1937
01:52:48,346 --> 01:52:51,516
They've survived;
we've survived.
1938
01:52:51,517 --> 01:52:55,286
They're here; we're
here. We both persist.
1939
01:52:56,454 --> 01:52:58,322
There's a lesson
to be learned in that,
1940
01:52:58,323 --> 01:53:01,091
in that we cannot,
as human beings,
1941
01:53:01,092 --> 01:53:05,530
afford to do that to our
relatives, the animals.
1942
01:53:05,531 --> 01:53:08,966
Those are our relatives.
They are part of us.
1943
01:53:08,967 --> 01:53:10,935
And when you look at a
buffalo, you just don't see
1944
01:53:10,936 --> 01:53:13,470
a big, shaggy
beast standing there.
1945
01:53:13,471 --> 01:53:16,440
You see life. You see existence.
1946
01:53:16,441 --> 01:53:19,677
You see hope. You see prayer.
1947
01:53:19,678 --> 01:53:22,412
And you see the
future for your young,
1948
01:53:22,413 --> 01:53:24,883
the future for
those not yet born.
1949
01:53:26,417 --> 01:53:28,485
Horse Capture, Jr.:
Seeing them coming back,
1950
01:53:28,486 --> 01:53:32,089
seeing them in places
where their ancestors were.
1951
01:53:32,090 --> 01:53:38,095
Seeing them in... in their,
in their ancestral regions,
1952
01:53:38,096 --> 01:53:40,264
that's a good thing.
1953
01:53:40,265 --> 01:53:41,666
My people lived with them
1954
01:53:41,667 --> 01:53:45,202
for thousands upon
thousands of years.
1955
01:53:45,203 --> 01:53:47,906
And the modern-day
people can, too.
1956
01:53:49,207 --> 01:53:57,207
With this... adventure,
endeavor... that's going on
1957
01:53:58,049 --> 01:54:02,621
with the buffalo, what
I want for my people...
1958
01:54:08,627 --> 01:54:12,096
I want for you people.
1959
01:54:12,097 --> 01:54:13,699
I'm not stingy.
1960
01:54:15,466 --> 01:54:18,403
I want your
grandchildren to see them.
1961
01:54:19,771 --> 01:54:23,473
I want your boy to tell stories.
1962
01:54:23,474 --> 01:54:25,743
When you ain't here anymore,
1963
01:54:25,744 --> 01:54:27,879
he can tell your
grandchildren...
1964
01:54:28,980 --> 01:54:32,249
"I was with my
dad, your grandpa,
1965
01:54:32,250 --> 01:54:34,952
to go see them and it was good."
1966
01:54:34,953 --> 01:54:42,953
>>>>oakislandtk<<<<<
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