Home on the Range is a Lie

Home, Home on the Range... you know that song right? We all know that song. Just in case you've never heard it (somehow), or you need a refresher her it is for your listening pleasure:

It is in fact the state song of Kansas (voted for in 1947). Home on the Range was written as a poem by Brewster M. Higley in the year 1872. It was later set to music by his friend Daniel E. Kelley. The original poem was called "My Western Home." He wrote this poem to embrace his new home of Kansas. This song became a very popular song of the west and was embraced by cowboys.

We all know this song and can sing along with it. But here is something you don't know about that song... that song is a lie! A lie I tell you. The lie is in the very first verse:

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam

Where the deer and the antelope play

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the skies are not cloudy all day

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam is arguably one of the most known lyrics of all time. You know it, your kids know it, your brother's wife's second cousin knows it. The mail man knows it. The problem with that, is that what most people call the buffalo is in fact a bison.

The animal is sometimes (erroneously) called the American Buffalo. This is the term for the bison because buffalo is so synonymous with the animal that this term was applied. This is a buffalo (also known as the water buffalo and the cape buffalo):

These overgrown cattle with what look like helmets on their head are bison. They are not native to America. We do have some water buffalo in Florida now but they were brought here.

This majestic creature:

is in fact a bison. I know, blows your mind right? Blew my mind. I was playing a video game (Roots of Pacha if you're interested) and in the opening screen there were what I thought at the time were Buffalo. It made me wonder what the difference between bison and buffalo was, and I looked it up. Lo and behold I had it wrong. My whole life I had been living a lie. "Where the buffalo roam," indeed. No the buffalo were not the creatures that helped sustain the native Americans. These majestic creatures that helped create a way of life for the people that were here before us (or before my ancestors at any rate) are not buffalo. No. They are bison.

I suppose you are wondering how this happened? When Europeans came over here they referred to them as buffalo. That was the closest thing they had to compare them with. Yes, they are sort of similar but personally I don't understand how they just decided they were some exotic form of buffalo.

This is a buffalo. Again they are not native to America. They are native to Africa and Asia.

This is a bison. Sure. there are similarities but they are completely different animals.

Thanks to that song (and European explorers and trappers) many people misname these awesome creatures. There name has been nearly wiped from our culture. Unfortunately the animal itself was also nearly wiped off of the surface of America as well.

Before widespread settlement of America the bison roamed free in the plains and were an integral part of many Native American tribes way of life. They did not just use them for food, they used all parts of the animal. The hide, the innards, the hoofs. These animals were important to their lives and their cultures. Unfortunately for both the Native Peoples and the bison the bison hide was highly sought after and brought in a hefty price. So, the bison were hunted down for their fur.

Between 1820 and 1880 many bison were hunted. So many that the time was known as "the Great Slaughter." There were several contributing factors to this extermination. First of all, within that time the railroad began its start and made hunting the large beasts easier. Rifles being accessible also helped and of course, because the bison hide was highly prized internationally, people decided to kill the bison. Furthermore, westward expansion was not helping the bison as settlers were happy to take places that bison traditionally roamed.

The worst reason is something that Americans will have to look back on with sorrow for all time. Sadly, the U.S. military encouraged the slaughter of the bison. They believed that this animal, this living breathing creature, was vital to the Native Americans. Thus, they thought by slaughtering them they could get the Native People to move so that others could use their land. A dark day in history that few know anything about. (But now you do.) America wanted space and did not want to live peacefully with a people that had already lived in this land for a long time. They erased the bison and tried to erase the Native Americans as well.

By the end of 1890 few wild bison were left. Some estimate that there were only a few hundred wild bison left to roam our plains. This was a tragedy for many reasons. Obviously, the plight of the Native Americans is the worst thing that comes from this slaughter. Many of these people depended on this great beast to live, and in less than 100 years they were brought nearly extinct. A whole way of life was altered for the price of fur and the need of land.

Yet, it also had an effect on the ecosystem. The near destruction of this species effected the Great Plains ecosystem profoundly. The bison was what is called a keystone species. "Keystone species are those which have an extremely high impact on a particular ecosystem relative to its population. Keystone species are also critical for the overall structure and function of an ecosystem, and influence which other types of plants and animals make up that ecosystem. Thus, in the absence of a keystone species, many ecosystems would fail to exist. (https://biologydictionary.net/keystone-species/)." In other words, the bison was important to the plains, to both the environment and the other species that shared a habitat with bison. This effected grazing, the health of the soil, and other aspects of the prairie. Of course, no one was thinking of that when they were selling those hides where they?

Early American settlers managed to nearly wipe the bison from existence. Attempts have been made to bring them back and Yellowstone National Park is a haven for them right now. There are many more bison now then there were after the horrific purge that happened in the 1800s. These creatures were nearly wiped clean off of the blackboard of history with rifles and railroads and then its' name was obscured for decades.

Home, home on the range where the buffalo certainly do not roam although the deer and the antelope may play. I bet you can never listen to this song again without thinking it is not a buffalo it's a bison! The bison, not the buffalo, are the majestic creatures that roamed on the American plains before we did. These animals sustained an enite people and fascinated early settlers. I ask for one thing. That we all try to remember that it is the bison that lives in our prairies and not the buffalo. Remember the bison and the history behind it that was almost forgotten.