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Bison (historically known as buffalo) were killed in three main ways: by stampede over a cliff, by spearing and by shooting with arrows.

The pishkun or buffalo jump was essentially a huge trap, with brushwood fires, piles of stones and men waving hides to direct and stampede the herd over a steep cliff, killing large numbers of animals in one go. The amount of meat and other materials produced was often far more than needed, so this was not an efficient system.

Spearing could be done from horseback, or on foot in deep winter snows by hunters wearing snowshoes. In deep snow the animals could not run and were much more vulnerable.

In order to kill a fully-grown buffalo cow with an arrow, a trained horse must be used since a horse's natural instinct is to keep well away from the buffalo. It must gallop close alongside the animal and just behind its right shoulder so that the hunter can shoot to his left and slightly forwards, driving the arrow up into the rib-cage to penetrate the animal's lungs and heart. The horse must keep its position without any direction from the rider, who needs both hands free to use the bow.

Many of the short Plains bows were so powerful that an arrow would go completely through the adult buffalo, sometimes wounding a second animal running on the other side of the first. Each hunter's arrows were marked with individual painted designs to clearly show which buffalo he had killed; his womenfolk would come along behind to butcher the carcass on the spot.

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