The Animal That Has Injured More People In Yellowstone Than Any Other

According to the National Park Service, there was a time when large heards ofbison not only roamed the area we now know as Yellowstone but throughout the continent of North America, with a population believed to have once numbered in the millions. Bison were of significant cultural import to many different Native American tribes within

According to the National Park Service, there was a time when large heards of bison not only roamed the area we now know as Yellowstone but throughout the continent of North America, with a population believed to have once numbered in the millions. Bison were of significant cultural import to many different Native American tribes within the Great Plains region, as well as a major practical resource: They provided food as well as hides, the latter of which could be used for clothing, shelter, or tools.

As the United States expanded westward in the 1880s, settlers, with encouragement and blessings from the U.S. government and military, launched a concerted campaign to force Native Americans off of their land through what one 2016 overview published by The Atlantic called "the same scorched-earth strategy that William Tecumseh Sherman, then a major general, used in his March to the Sea" during the Civil War. But instead of crops or cities, their target was bison and buffalo. Hunters and U.S. troops slaughtered countless herds and put the species on the brink of extinction. Had it not been for private ranches and efforts to rebuild the population in the 20th century, bison would've entirely been wiped out for good. In comparison to their pre-1800 populations, the Centers for Disease Control estimated in 2015 that approximately 4,900 bison were living within Yellowstone National Park.

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