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American Buffalo
American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon | Steven Rinella
3 posts | 3 read | 1 to read
From the host of the Travel Channels The Wild Within. A hunt for the American buffaloan adventurous, fascinating examination of an animal that has haunted the American imagination. In 2005, Steven Rinella won a lottery permit to hunt for a wild buffalo, or American bison, in the Alaskan wilderness. Despite the oddstheres only a 2 percent chance of drawing the permit, and fewer than 20 percent of those hunters are successfulRinella managed to kill a buffalo on a snow-covered mountainside and then raft the meat back to civilization while being trailed by grizzly bears and suffering from hypothermia. Throughout these adventures, Rinella found himself contemplating his own place among the 14,000 years worth of buffalo hunters in North America, as well as the buffalos place in the American experience. At the time of the Revolutionary War, North America was home to approximately 40 million buffalo, the largest herd of big mammals on the planet, but by the mid-1890s only a few hundred remained. Now that the buffalo is on the verge of a dramatic ecological recovery across the West, Americans are faced with the challenge of how, and if, we can dare to share our land with a beast that is the embodiment of the American wilderness. American Buffalo is a narrative tale of Rinellas hunt. But beyond that, it is the story of the many ways in which the buffalo has shaped our national identity. Rinella takes us across the continent in search of the buffalos past, present, and future: to the Bering Land Bridge, where scientists search for buffalo bones amid artifacts of the New Worlds earliest human inhabitants; to buffalo jumps where Native Americans once ran buffalo over cliffs by the thousands; to the Detroit Carbon works, a bone charcoal plant that made fortunes in the late 1800s by turning millions of tons of buffalo bones into bone meal, black dye, and fine china; and even to an abattoir turned fashion mecca in Manhattans Meatpacking District, where a depressed buffalo named Black Diamond met his fate after serving as the model for the American nickel. Rinellas erudition and exuberance, combined with his gift for storytelling, make him the perfect guide for a book that combines outdoor adventure with a quirky blend of facts and observations about history, biology, and the natural world. Both a captivating narrative and a book of environmental and historical significance, American Buffalo tells us as much about ourselves as Americans as it does about the creature who perhaps best of all embodies the American ethos.
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Tkgbjenn1
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Steven Rinella is a great story teller for his topic. In the process of telling his tale of going on a hunt for a buffalo in Alaska. He also tells the history and prehistory of the American Bison. It‘s best to hear narrated by the author. Endlessly interesting and engrossing.

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Theshadedbuffalo
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@kaye has this fun prompt, and I remember her asking me this in our #jb correspondence. Buffalo (American) is my spirit animal, if you believe in such things. They represent perseverance, survival, and strength. They also are the main caretaker of their ecosystem. I had a really rough childhood, so these adjectives describe me and the way I have tried to overcome. Shaded is twofold: I love sunglasses, and someone is always trying to take my shine

Laura317 Love your story of your handle! 6y
Kaye Good for you for being strong and overcoming past adversity. You are a good role model. I tend to dwell in the past too much sometimes. Not a good idea. 6y
Theshadedbuffalo @Laura317 thank you! I use the handle throughout all social media platforms; I‘m a Cancer, and am very emotionally bound to my thoughts and experiences, so I couldn‘t keep my explanation short! 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️😜 6y
Theshadedbuffalo @kaye it‘s hard to not look back. As long as you still look forward more than backward, I think you‘re good. ❤️❤️ 6y
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks ❤️❤️❤️ 6y
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Halechr
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Went to Steven Rinella‘s talk about hunting ethics at a local collage tonight, little did I know he had books for sale, and was having a signing afterwards. Bought a book and had it signed to my parents, who love Rinella‘s weekly podcasts. Now to read it quick before I send it to them 😬

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