Bison, People, and Plains
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 เม.ย. 2024
- Bison are icons of North American wildlife and have always played an important role to the survival of people on the Great Plains. Indigenous people in North America hunted and exploited bison in many incredible ways but also revered and respected these animals. They knew that when the bison thrived, so did they. In this episode, we will discuss the pre-colonial relationship between bison and humans on the Great Plains.
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Sources and Bibliography: docs.google.com/document/d/1j...
Prairie tanks in action: • Bison Fight for Mating...
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I wanna genuinely thank you. Your work has made me appreciate native history and culture much more than I did before, which is a real shame seeing how I’ve lived in Texas and New Mexico my whole life. Your Chaco Canyon episode really hit me hard because I visited some of those sites as a young child. These people, their cultures and histories should be required curriculum in our elementary and high schools. We focus too much on the frontiersmen and pioneers and too little on the amazing people and civilizations that were here before.
I feel the same. It's been such an awakening
I agree. I live in north Florida and so actually, education on indigenous peoples, and the Spanish (and French) colonization was actually decently covered, at least l for an elementary education. That being said, in middle and high school it basically was dropped from the curriculum. So while I was exposed to these concepts and interested in them at a young age, this is the first opportunity I’ve ever had to hear them discussed in an “adult”/academic sense.
Thank you, Ancient Americas.
His Hohokam episode hit the same for me as an PHX local!! Such important work
ABQ local, and it surprises me that chaco canyon isn't better well known in the country. Barely anyone in new Mexico itself talks about it, let alone knows it even exists.
Thank you!
We are covering bison in my class this very week! From a small reservation school in the PNW, thank you! My kids always enjoy your videos.
Thank you! I hope they enjoy it!
I would absolutely ADORE an episode on indigenous fire regimes.
In Southern Oregon, where I live, fire exclusionary policies have devastated our forests. Their composition has drastically changed from the drought and heat resilient pine stands, to overstocked mountaintops of Douglas-fir. This has resulted in a significant intensification of fires, and the deprecation of habitat and harvest-able tree girth and quality.
I have a cursory understanding *that* local tribal groups used fire as a management tool, but the details, and broader context both within the local region and the entire continent is wholly lost on me.
Forgotten fires by Omer C Stewart is a fantastic starting point
@@NCRonradthanks for this. Added to my list
You and me both. I've had that episode on my list for years. It'll get made someday!
OMG! How did I not know about this book!? Thank you!
@@AncientAmericas it was purposely suppressed by his advisor, and has only found light again in the last 20 years due to M Kat Anderson and other archeologists further removed from the insanity of the 20th and 19th century. It’s a fantastic book! Great introduction short of actually learning from fire knowledge holders and communities themselves
Bro I was getting ready for bed! Now I HAVE to stay up another 45 mins to savor this!
Fear not, it will still be here tomorrow.
@@AncientAmericas yeah but it was worth staying up for
Big bison bros
Bison gang, Ancient Americas gang
@@AncientAmericas Mapuche
Ancient Americas kino just back on the menu boys 😍
A few years ago my brother and I were on a road trip in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He looks at me while I’m driving and asks if we’d see any bison in the Hills, I say “Probably not, they’re gonna be more in the plains, not up here.”
Less than five minutes later I’m proven very wrong and we get a view of one of these beautiful creatures up close (without aggravating it, thankfully.)
I’m so glad these animals are starting to come back in larger numbers!
I've been to Custer State Park in the Black Hills and it's a beautiful place to visit. There's bison all over the place!
There are Bidon Ranchers, developing in the plains. CROSS TIMBERS BISON is one ranch Dusty and Melissa Baker are owners and TH-cam Creators.
@@AncientAmericas Mapuche
You, miniminuteman, and Stephen Milo all helped me realize I wanted to pursue anthropology and archeology. I’m currently finishing my freshman year of college and couldn’t be any more appreciative of the research and work yall do.
Thanks! That means a lot. Good luck with your studies!
Great career choice! I wish you all the best!
@@guillervz thank you very much
Dude, unless your family is well off-*don’t do it* you’ll be poor. As a man you have to provide for your future family and you won’t be able to unless you strike the lottery or stumble upon a way to make it lucrative. Keep what you enjoy as a hobby and do what you can to make money.
@@hotmess9640 shut the hell up with your *as a man* shit. I’m gonna do what I want to as a career because the career market is short archaeologists in almost every sector. I know the pay isn’t good. I made it through my first year of college staring at wages. The fun part is. My wife is allowed to make more than me
You sir gained another subscriber. I am Plains Ojibwe and Plains Cree from Manitoba. I love bison. My reserve has herd back home. We have two spirit bison as well. I like learning about Indigenous American history. I like learning about my tribal neighbors and tribes far from me like the Amazon and Central America. I just found this channel.
Thank you! I'm very jealous that you got to grow up so close to bison. Must have been pretty cool to have them as a regular sight.
@@AncientAmericas oh hell yeah you bet. I know local historians and local tribal historians that I am related too. Used to hear stories and legends about the ice age and different time periods.
Googling "spirit bison" and from context, the closest thing I can figure is it means they have white fur?
@@pauldickman4379 You wouldn't get it Mate.
@@bizhiwnamadabi3901 Why? Is it hard to explain? I wasnt trying to offend by asking, just curious…
Bison east of the Appalachians are a fascinating and under-studied topic. Its unclear when they arrived, and they don't have a substantial presence in pre-columbian trash pits. But we do know they were there. In the Northeast and Midatlantic, troupes of between a dozen and fifty individuals frequently occupied savanna and river-bottom ecosystems west of the fall line. Its a really unique niche chapter of natural history that I hope gets more attention in the future.
There is a podcast called "Bear Grease" by Clay newcomb. In one of his audio books he says that Bison numbers probably exploded to unnaturally high levels after around 1500 when natives died off from European contact and diseases. This then probably made Bison go more into the east then they had prior.
Great video! Thank you for going into detail about Head-Smashed-In. That was really fascinating. I love this format of doing a deep dive into an animal resource.
Thank you! This was a really fun episode to make. If you want to read up in depth on Head-Smashed-In, there's a very good book on it written by archaeologist and bison expert Jack Brink. Highly recommend it.
@@AncientAmericas Mapuche video ancient americas Please I need one
Our reservation in town just got some bison a month or so ago and it brings me so much joy every time I drive past them in the fields ❤
I grew up in Calgary Alberta and I remembered going on a field trip to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump. I don’t remember hardly a details though. I remember being surprised that it didn’t look like a very long drop, but I guess piles and piles of bison over so many years built up the base. I think they taught us about funnelling the bison, but your explanation really clarified it for me.
I have a separate memory of sitting in a Teepee at the Glenbow museum and trying pemmican. Another class field trip.
You had much cooler field trips that I did growing up.
@@AncientAmericas MAPUCHE VIDEO I BEG OF YOU
Now THIS is how you start a weekend
Awesome documentary thank you! Glad I found your channel
Can’t thank you enough for always making videos of indigenous North/South America! Great work as always!
Thank you!
It makes sense that the Bison weren't domesticated. The hunt would have been a group activity that involved multiple tribes and ritual behavior. Domestication and farming represent a paradigm change in religious practice and power structure and I would think society would resist this change rather than adopt it unless necessary.
100% agree.
it probably helped keep peace between tribes like potlatches do
@@AncientAmericas
100% disagree.
Domestication would have been beneficial. You even said yourself that people could not keep up with the herd and would have to time arrival. A domesticated herd would not have the issue.
Like zebra, bison herd structure is not ideal for domestication. They have no leader. Tuarens, horses, wolfs, elephants all have a leader or hierarchy of their herds.
Bison are farmed commercially in Alberta, Canada (though it is very much a specialty/niche product). I am only a consumer, but I assume that these animals are domesticated. Wild herds certainly do exist, but hunting is prohibited.
@@williamharris8367
commercial bison are not pure American bison and would be hybridized with cattle.
Also just cause an animal is farmed does not mean it is domesticated and the handling techniques still differ.
Look at how the Maasai herd and interact with their cattle. Now imagine doing that with bison.
Bisons, Buffalos, Elks, Moose, Caribous, Bears, Cougars, Wolves, And Eagles are some of the most respected Non Humans by loads of Amerindian Tribes yeah.
Agree, but Bison and Buffalo are the same. Buffalo is just how Europeans called them because of confusion with some french word (I think). Point is, bison = American buffalo
All animals were respected. There was no " most respected".
@@doktortutankamazon31wrong. No other animal was as integral to the survival of Plains Natives as the bison. The bison is the most important aspect of Plains Natives lives, even as told by the people, themselves. Their folklore and lifestyles literally tell as much. Leave your white man's romanticism of my ancestors out of educated discussion.
There are no Buffalo in America. Only Bison.
Rats 🐀 and snakes 🐍 were equally respected
obviously stupid comments
@@doktortutankamazon31
I am persuaded that the die off of the mega fauna was greatly influenced by the Younger Dryas asteroid impact, with the immediate physical carnage, and the consequent return to ice age conditions contributing to their disappearance. Amazing content as always, thank you.
Thank you!
you probably should stop talking about an impact event until you find proof for it
@@taxirob2248
The Younger Dryas is a real fact of life, but the cause has been hotly debated. Personally I’m not a meteor impact supporter, but until more studies are done we really don’t know.
@@SuperDave-vj9en I did not deny the Younger Dryas, but citing an impact event is speculative. There is not enough evidence for an impactor, not even as a hypothesis.
It was humans, climate change certainly had an impact but megafauna in africa (which would have evolved side by side with humans and therefore adapted to us) did way better than any other continent.
Oh shit! My favorite channel
this video is so good, I was genuinely enthralled from start to finish
Thank you!
You know do you think you can do a video on the extinct animals that the native Americans would have encountered and hunted?
I'm sure prehistoric peoples were also hunted by a select few extinct animals. He could make several videos of this in seperate time frames that would look totally different
Parrots used to inhabit far more of the North American continent. Both important obviously for ecology but also as part of society and cultural significance. Then the ecological destruction wrought by settler colonials depopulated the birds from Nebraska to New York, making their only habitats down south and coastal.
@@NCRonrad my moms comanche ( we i mean, itsa taa numunu) and I heard stories of heirloom shields and pendants with man hair and parrot and quetzal feathers and abalone pieces that were almost definitely traded for or gathered on an expedition south. More than likely in a private collection somewhere now, this was before the Indian schools took over so it was probably stolen and traded. my gramma and great uncle were taken from their folks because they didn't speak English and sent to live with a white Christian family that were shitty then they were saved by a Korean missionary family of all people and were raised with love from those people.
That would be a cool video.
@@Fab-n-dabKev sad but also glad they were saved. Sounds like an incredible set of family items too. In the four corners, Zuni, Hopi, Navajo take note and remember the “rain birds” parrots and other birds who always fly ahead of rain clouds. In addition to the macaw feathers (this is the first I hear of the Quetzal feathers this far up! But not surprised other considering the chocolate found hundreds of miles away from the Yucatán)
Awesome late night release from one of the best channels on TH-cam!!!
Thank you!
Man I can’t express enough how much your work is appreciated. it’s hard to find legit information on Native American History, and a lot of the videos out there go about talking about these things in a mysterious/stereotypical kind of way. The way you go about presenting the information during your videos shows how realistic, curious, insightful, and respectful you are towards the cultures/people/topics you decide to cover. Your channel has been a gem for a while and it doesn’t seem to be letting up soon so thank you for that. if only everyone had your level of consideration!
Thank you!
Had no idea that the call for bison conservation started all the way back in the 1900s, I would’ve thought that was a much more recent thing. I guess seeing such an iconic, special animal disappear so fast horrified even non-indigenous people back then.
The bronx zoo in ny was from what I understand had bred a lot from 26 animals. Early 1900
I fucking love bisons. That's my comment. That's it.
Beautiful in it's brevity.
such wholesome and beautiful beasts
Excellent, with emphasis on facts, not popular or racist or Hiollywod portrayals.
I appreciate your videos and the format you retain. Your videos have improved my life and perspective.
Thank you for the episode!!!!
Wooo
A new Video and about bisons
Let's go
a video on the stone walls and chambers of New England would be incredible. Ceremonial stone landscapes (CSLs) everywhere in NE, including dolmens, standing stones, balanced rocks, etc
I absolutely love your content and get so excited when a new video drops. Keep up the amazing work!!
Thank you!
been waiting for this topic🙏looking forward to the next one
finally.....I have been waiting since the beginning of the month....am hooked
Incredible episode. Fantastic work, as always.
Thank you!
wooo! great new video! glad to see you make another! keep it up!
Thanks Portal!
I needed a channel like this!!!
1:57 does Mr Bison from Street Fighter have a separate genus?
M Bison Vegus.
OF COURSE!
Currently binge watching all your videos ❤
Thank you for always making great videos and sharing your thoughts🌵❤️
Amazing episode. And i'm extremely excited about the next episode. I've been hoping for videos on the indigenous peoples of the Great Plains for a while
Thank you!
I love this channel and this episode particularly
You have my subscription because you are one of a few people that I know that know how and when to use the word "wont!" It made my ears perk up when I heard it. Thanks! And after seeing the description of the Bison Jump exercise it is likely that we can ever truly grasp the complicated process used. Yes, it had to have taken a hundred life times to get it done well.
Thanks!
I grew up just down the way from a ranch that had a bunch of bison on it. Always thought they were cool, but I heard some stories of them being pretty destructive when they got out of control a few times and busted through fences. Always been my fav animal, definitely a sort of awesome symbol of the West.
This video was an absolute banger. Bison are a huge part of the iconography here in south dakota, and i know a few ranchers that have them. They are awesome animals!
Thank you!
Anyone who claims that Plains Indians over hunted bison should remember that it was Europeans who nearly drove them to extinction within just 100 years.
Thank you for another excellent video! I didn't know how interested I was in this subject matter until I discovered your channel.
Thank you!
OMG Im so happy you included sorces! Im making an Atlas for a class and theres this whole thing im doing about the relation of humans and "cows" in art during history
Happy to help!
The genus bison is currently considered a synonym of bos (the genus that includes cattle, yak and gaur) based on the fact that it sits within bos genetically, unfortunately there is a bit of complication in the fossil record as *"Bison"* (the genus) is proposed to be the direct descendant of a completely different genus (leptobos) while there are bos species already knocking around.
is the genetic record clear or is there inter-species mixing?
Please tell me more about the crazy speed of those prairie fire. Love a Texas Panhandle resident who was stuck in town due to the fire at the end of February.
But for real, it was burning 2 football fields a second.
Please do the fire episode. That sounds fascinating!
I've had that episode on my list for years. It'll get its turn someday.
Great video! I’ve been to Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump twice and I want to go back. It’s an amazing archeology site and seeing the topography in person really gives you an idea on why it was used as a jump.
I really hope I can see it someday!
@@AncientAmericas If you ever head to Alberta I also recommend Old Women’s Buffalo Jump and Dry Island Buffalo Jump. They don’t have museums like Head Smashed-In but they are still worth visiting.
Excellent. Another science communicator to add to the list. Excellent work, people like you are what we need more of.
Thank you!
Thank you! I like the way the word
Applause! I visited HSI Alberta as a teen, and it has stuck with me ever since living in alaska and hunting forest bison there gave me even more respect and awe of our ancestors. this was a very great episode of your wonderful channel. thanks!
Thank you!
Good day to all. Thanks, I love the information and bove all the bison.
Absolutely adore all your videos, great narration.
Many thanks from England.
Thank you!
Amazing detailed video, I really enjoyed learning about all the tactics involved!
Thank you!
Thank you so much for each video, you have taught us all so many incredible things! You are an inspiration and have one of the best channels out there! ❤😊❤
Thank you!
Always fascinating and entertaining. Thank you for your wonderful work.
Thank you!
Absolutely amazing stuff.
Living wholly around bison is such a knotted and quirky way of life, but louds great.
gracias por tu trabajo!
De nada!
Thank you appreciate the documentary fascinating story of the bison
I hope you really enjoyed your trip to Peru! I didn't get to go this year but I hope you do another trip in the future and can't wait to see some videos and pictures. Keep up the great videos.
Thank you! It was an amazing trip!
I also hope we see more RPGs in the future based on or focused on the Pre-Columbian American Southeast as well as on Cahokia. Imagine an alternate history video game in which Cahokia survived or one where a Cherokee-Creek Confederacy was formed and was able to establish an independent recognized Native American sovereign state that modernized & industrialized.
I love learning about animals and histpry, especially bizon amazing video!
Another enjoying able and informative video!
Thank you!
Best history youtube channel.❤
Best comment!
Thanks!
You're welcome!
The americas have a wealth of history that is barely known outside of academia. Thank you for creating something like this
I LOVE BISON, thank you for this video! Since I first watched your videos about 1 1/2 years ago (which you may remember from me commenting that "Paracas" sounded like "Pirakas"), I've grown to officially LOVE learning about history. UNFORTUNATELY, Europe, Oceania, and especially Africa are SO AWESOME in that regard that I've kind of shut myself off from learning the history of the Americas and Asia (unless if, for the latter, Madagascar and/or Mapungubwe are involved), but maybe watching your videos again will change that!
I always wanted to learn more about native people on the plains so I really appreciate these videos!
Just wait until the next video! More people and more plains!
Awesome video!
absolutely fascinating
thank you for this video and the knowledge you have provided
Thank you!
For those who speak french or german , arte made a documentary of the history of the bison, and used this history to tell the storie of the natives and the storie of the american colonisation, very interresting
arte huh...
@@jeebusk ?
love your content dude. would love to see that indigenous fire regime episode!
Thanks! I've had that episode on my list for years. Someday it'll get made.
Growing up I was lucky enough to live close enough to be able to visit HSIBJ several times. Looking back it was really a key core memory that must've kickstarted my love of archaeology and history. Thank you so much for this look at it! It's been a couple decades since I've been able to visit, but I need to go back.
Definitely my new favorite AA video!
Favorite animal = favorite video.
Thank you for another extraordinary video! I don't think I've ever heard of bison corrals before this. The idea of trying to manage a thundering herd of hundreds of terrified one-ton bison is daunting, to say the least. These communal hunts must've been incredible.
God be with you out there, everybody. ✝️ :)
Thank you. Havre, Montana, has a pretty cool Bison jump, too. Tours were available when I was in college in the 80s. Not sure if those are still available.
I've just started watching your videos and love them so much! Would you consider making a video about the Chickasaw tribe, if you haven't already?
Thank you! I don't see why not. They'll just have to wait their turn.
Fascinating!
omg im so excited to watch this !!!!!!!! i love the plains XO !!!!!!
Great video, as usual
Thank you!
You’re a legend. These videos are unreal
Thank you!
The fact that becoming a horse nomad was such a fun way of life that several people groups just mass migrated to do so.
It’s not dissimilar to what some archaeologists think happened in copper age/Bronze Age Europe and Asia, interestingly enough!
The short version as recounted by me( not a historian)is that basically though farming grain/plants and sedentary lifestyles were established first, after horses were domesticated it made herding large herds of animals like cattle much easier, and these new nomad pastoralist people could just move if they ran out of grass or water fort their animals while the farmers were stuck if their crops failed. So they think a lot of the early farmers just might’ve abandoned their villages and become nomad horse/camel/cattle/reindeer herders because it was a lot more return for less work compared to growing cereal crops. Not surprising that natives in the Americas would’ve ditched their old ways once they saw how well being a nomad on horseback was working for others!
@@Replicaatealthough native Americans never had a history of agriculture or crop raising. They naturally began as nomadic and stayed that way until their lifestyle was…. Deleted, to put it kindly.
I mean, why not?
@@ekothesilent9456they most certainly had agriculture. The east coast native people taught the first pilgrims how to farm the new world crops. Corn was domesticated in central America and moved north all the way up to Canada. Most east coast native people were the equivalent of European neolithic farmers.
@@ekothesilent9456you must be new to this channel if you think native Americans don’t have a history of agriculture. From Cahokia to Tenochtitlan to the Andes, you can find sophisticated agricultural systems lol.
In just 45 minutes, you've told me more about the American Buffalo than I could ever want to know in a Whole LIFETIME. Now when there is embarrassing pause at a party, I can restart the glee & merriment, thanks to you, by telling them all about the Historical Glories of that Noble Beast, the American Buffalo !!!
I can assure you, sir, that there is a Special Place In American Buffalo Heaven just waiting for YOU !!!
God Bless You !!! ❤🎉❤🎉
Rad! Do I get to bring my cats to buffalo heaven with me?
Thx for this. I don't know why but I've always loved and respected buffalo.
This is phenomenal content. Thank you for your efforts and dedication to historical accuracy. There is so much false mythology and speculation concerning American bison out there. You clearly did your research! Thank you for educating us on this beautiful facet of American history!!!
Thank you!
Is there a link to the first video in the series? The Ancient Life On the Great Plains video mentioned at the beginning of the video? I can’t seem to find it!
Hasn’t come out yet
Sorry, that one is still in production. It should be out next month. (Fingers crossed)
It’s a simple Principle; Ancient Americas calls, I answer. With Respect ✊, Gang Gang🫡 Knowledge Is Power
You care about such beautiful things, how do you go about making it so that you can dedicate your whole focus to such beautiful things? How can you create more space for beautiful things to exist and be appreciated in the future?
That's a very good question and I wish I had a simple answer.
Fascinating. There’s an area not far from me with a wild heard. They are majestic and intimidating up close (but not too close)!
That's really cool. Definitely keep your distance though. I always cringe when I see people in national parks getting close to bison. Those things can wreck your day in the blink of an eye.
Awesome episode! Still hoping for a video on the paleo Indians of the Northeast!!
Thank you!
Good info.
Thank you!
I remember reading an account of a European explorer encountering a bison herd that stretched from horizon to horizon & took the afternoon to pass. I can't remember where I read that unfortunately.
Lewis and Clark have stories about that. Many early colonizers make note of the incredible ecology on display as they set the stage for destruction going west
Rivers so full of fish one could almost wall over them
I read several quotes from explorers that gave similar descriptions. It's incredible how many bison there once were on the plains.
I would definitely be interested in the fire methods video.
Hopefully we'll get to it someday. I've had it on my list for years.
After watching this video. Im just thinking how did you gained this knowledge? Who told you our secrets? because you did a great job at covering the topic. I love it. Respect man.
Thanks! You are too kind.
Heck yeah new video 🎉
Thanks
you it's gonna be a good day when Ancient Americas puts out another banger
Ancient Americas, It would have been nice if you had given a link to the other video. I did a search and still can’t find it.
My apologies if it wasn't clear. The plains video is still in production but it will be coming next!
@@AncientAmericas thanks, I thought I had missed the episode.