The mass slaughter of North American bison by settlers of European descent is a well-known ecological disaster. An estimated eight million bison roamed the United States in 1870, but just 20 years later fewer than 500 of the iconic animals remained.
provided a brief economic boon to some newly arriving settlers, hunters and traders of the Great Plains who sold the hides and bones for industrial uses.
"They were among the tallest people in the world in the mid-19th century," says Maggie Jones, assistant professor of economics at Emory University and a co-author of the paper."But after the rapid near-extinction of the bison, the height of the people born after the slaughter also rapidly declined." The researchers find that limited access to credit was one factor that curtailed the ability of some bison-reliant nations to adjust economically following the near-extinction of the bison.
For more than 10,000 years, bison served as the primary source of the livelihood for many Native Americans in regions of the Great Plains, the Northwest and the Rocky Mountains. Along with nutrition, the animals provided hides for clothing, lodging and blankets as well as bones for tools and implements. Nearly every part of the animal was used, including the brains to obtain grease for tanning hides and the stomach for creating bags and water containers.
"Centuries of human capital were built around the use of the bison, and within 10 to 20 years this economic underpinning disappeared," Jones says."And many channels of economic adjustment were cut off for Indigenous populations."
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