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The Iron Buffalo

    Hey, everyone. Hope you are having a good week. I was looking through some pictures from my trip to Wyoming and Colorado. I came across this pic of an iron sculpture of a buffalo that is on a hill, just off I-40 in Texas.
    When I saw it, I got a kick out of it. I think it's great that someone would go to the trouble. Then I started thinking about the real buffalo that almost covered The Great Plains until the 1860's. Yes, that's correct. I was a young boy at that time. Ha, ha.
    As you know, the Indians lived off the buffalo and only killed what they needed. There were millions of the great shaggy beasts and sometimes you might have to wait for several days for a herd to pass. Then there was suddenly a market for buffalo robes and the slaughter began. People killed them and skinned them and shipped their hides back east to sell. Many of them were sent to Europe. Sort of a novelty, I suppose, but they were certainly warm. The great herds dwindled and the Indians went to war against the whites over the carnage. To show our fairness, we just slaughtered the Indians as well. It's not a part of our heritage I'm particularly proud of.
    If you want to read a good book on the subject, may I recommend The Thundering Herd by Zane Grey?
    Nowadays, as you cross the Great Plains, you may still see a buffalo. He'll just be all alone and made of iron. Keeping his lonely vigil, up on a hill.
    I'm part Indian and part white, and my name is CE Wills.
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