00011636

00011638

00011639

Russell Freedman writes "Buffalo Hunt" about the hundreds of thousands of buffalo that once roamed America. He describes how Native American people relied on buffalo for food, clothing, shelter, and other vital resources. Being the biggest animal on the plains, the buffalo proved vital for the survival of the Native American people. Buffalo were considered sacred. Many times before a buffalo hunt, tribes would celebrate with ceremonies and traditional dances, and after a successful hunt, they would celebrate with a feast. Every part of the buffalo was used, and tribes would leave one buffalo to nature, without using it's meat or hide, as a religious offering.

Buffalo Hunt is a good book that references the ways in which Native Americans used the animal to its fullest. I like how it breaks down the ways of hunting, and all of the uses that each part of the animal helped sustain the Plains Indians before contact and during initial encroachment. It is important to understand what happened to these particular tribes when the Buffalo was hunted to almost exstinction and the impact that contact had on a culture that was living this way for hundreds of generations. I am very satisified with this depiction of the Buffalo hunt and the small but important historical pages in the end. ( )