How did American Indian live in harmony with a American bison?

Answer 1

If you can describe a whale shark "living in harmony" with its prey then yes, Plains tribes "lived in harmony" with the buffalo herds. In fact they depended on those animals for almost every part of their lives, but only at the cost of dead animals; there is even a theory current among some historians that the Plains tribes were guilty of killing twice the number of buffalo that they needed to meet their needs.

This theory was first published by Peter J Durkin in the July/August 1997 edition of Whispering Wind magazine (vol 29 number 1). He pointed to the lucrative native trade in buffalo hides, meat, tongues and tallow used by white Americans in the manufacture of boots, belts, coats and other goods. In the late 1830s the Plains tribes and those on the margins of the plains were killing between 150,000 and 200,000 buffalo annually for the skins alone - and the majority of the animals were 2 to 5 year old cows, adversely impacting on future breeding. The tribes benefited from this trade by obtaining guns, tools, metal goods, blankets and many other items.

It is suggested that this massive over-hunting helped to reduce herd numbers and this in turn weakened the overall population so much that the impact of late 19th century white hunters and introduced bovine diseases was far more devastating than it could otherwise have been.

It is estimated that in 1500 there were up to 100 million buffalo in North America. By 1898 there were around 500 animals left.