Review: 'Great Plains Bison' by Dan O’Brien

“Great Plains Bison” by Dan O’Brien, University of Nebraska Press, 111 pages, $14.95 The Homestead Act, railroads, farming, barbed wire and cattle were all tragedies on the Great Plains. That is the thesis of Dan O’Brien’s new history, "Great Plains Bison." The Great Plains are the largest ecotype in North America. They stretch more than 2,500 miles in the heart of the continent. They were originally all open range, supporting thousands of plant and animal species and between 30 and 40 million bison, the keystone species. Bison roamed the far reaches of the plains, leaving a healthy environment for all the other species. Natives made little impact on the bison at first, according to O’Brien. Afoot with primitive weapons, they were only able to trap and kill a tiny fraction of the huge herds. But when horses, rifles, liquor and iron goods were introduced the killing increased, with many tribes becoming roving hunters dependent upon bison meat, hides and bones. They considered the bison as their brothers. Then came the Europeans with their own culture of small farms, monoculture agriculture and land ownership passed down to sons...more

 And what do you think an author with this viewpoint would propose as a solution?  You guessed it---federal acquisition: 

For this tragic tale, what is to be done? O’Brien doesn’t give us a long range future for the American bison. But there could be one. As farming becomes less hospitable on the Great Plains, the federal government could buy up that land and return it to open range.The 1930s is an excellent precedent for that, when the government bought back millions of acres of former homesteads and ranches. Families needed money to escape starvation and gladly sold their land. Part of that huge buyback became 20 National Grasslands of more than 11 million acres.Alreadyscientists are using cow cells to grow red meat chemically, prime rib and ribeyes from a test tube. What will ranchers do when cattle become obsolete? Answer: raise bison.Today’s political climate would not allow spending about $200 million to buy, say, an under-populated Sandhills county to begin this process. But give it some time; droughts and blizzards may eventually bring back the bison. And they will do just fine right there.

Put it all in federal ownership. And then what? Surely there will be a clamor for a Bison National Monument. Just a stroke of the pen and the long yearned for Buffalo Commons will become a reality.