Oh, give me a home …

With Indigenous Peoples’ Day Monday, October 13, we look at the herds of bison many tribes relied on that were nearly wiped out.

Year and Population

1800 – 5 million

1875 – 1 million

1880 – 395,000

1890 – 20,000

1895 – Less than 1,000

1919 – 12,521

1983 – 50,000

Today, Department of Labor lands currently support 17 bison herds in 12 states, for a total of approximately 10,000 bison over 4.6 million acres. Private bison owners held about 360,000 bison.

Conservation success

Less than 100 years ago, the American bison was teetering on the verge of extinction. By the beginning of the 20th century, the species’ numbers fell from herds of roughly four million to less than 1,000 individuals. The impact on Native Americans was devastating.In 1905, William Hornaday,

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