The American Buffalo (A Film by Ken Burns)

Ken Burns ALWAYS makes the best documentaries. His documentary on the American Bison is unparalled. The white man used the bison for profit over and over again. They also used it in trying to exterminate the indigenous peoples of north America. Millions of bison were slaughtered, and that slaughter was only eclipsed by the slaughter of BILLIONS of carrier pidgeons. The story of this noble animal and the peoples that relied on it is sad and damning. Luckily, the native peoples managed to survive, and a few white people took action to save the American Bison from extinction. This is an incredibly wonderful and educational documentary. I believe every school in this country needs this in their library and it needs to be shown in every American histroy class.

This is the best video on the history of the Buffalo and the relationship between the Native Americans and this magnificent animal. It tells the role of the U.S. Government and the Army in decimating these animals in order to starve the Indians so they could be brought under it's control. It also tells the story of the people who came together to save the buffalo from extinction and the continued effort to keep them safe from poachers to this day. Ken Burns has done a magnificent job with this story. I highly recommend it.

Excellent photography and great work explaining misuse of our natural resources. Gladly we saved our buffalo.

In his latest documentary, “The American Buffalo,” Ken Burns traces the history and origins of the American Buffalo/Bison and all of the ways both the Buffalo, in both its presence and its absence, impacted the United States---historically, culturally---both in terms of both White culture and the culture of various Native American groups---economically, ecologically, environmentally, and so on. That also includes going into extraordinary depth regarding the significance of the Buffalo/Bison for various Native American nations all across the United States. Ken Burns even includes interviews with various members of various Native American nations who have historically relied on the Buffalo/Bison for various aspects of their culture---among them the Kiowa, the Cheyenne, the Blackfeet, and others. One could legitimately argue that this documentary is as much a history of the lives and lifeways of various Native American peoples as much as it is the story of the Buffalo. We learn the various ways in which various Native American tribes used every part of the Buffalo. We learn about the detrimental effect that the settling of the Americas on the population of the Buffalo. We learn about how the Spanish introduced horses into the Americas and how many Native Americans started riding horses. We then learn of the impact first of fur traders, then capitalism, and eventually Westward expansion and settlement and with it, industrialization had on both the Buffalo and on the various Native American peoples across the United States. We learn about the various treaties which the U.S. government had signed---and broken---in order to justify both Westward expansion and the imposition of white Western culture on the Native Americans. We learn how the Buffalo hides began to be used to make any number of things and how the buffalo fueled any number of American industries. For many white Americans, the killing of the Buffalo was a means by which Native Americans could be pressured into submitting to the control of the U.S. government. Later, we begin to learn that some Americans began to realize the value of preserving the Buffalo---yet even that effort was also an insincere, self-serving effort fueled by greed, White supremacy racism, imperialism and lust for power. Based on all of the additional subjects covered in this documentary, it would not surprise me if Ken Burns had drawn on a lot of the information contained in some of his earlier documentaries, such as “Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery” (1997) and“The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” (2009). We learn about how much of U.S. governmental policy regarding the Buffalo had, to one degree or another, an undercurrent of racism and white supremacy and how killing and/or controlling the Buffalo---and even the effort to preserve the Buffalo---was as much about killing and controlling Native Americans as it was about the Buffalo themselves. Viewers learn about the other major ways in which the slaughter of the Buffalo caused the very ecosystem of various Native American lands to change. We learn how the effort to preserve the American Buffalo led to efforts to conserve other animal species. The DVD also includes a bonus documentary called “Homecoming,” which focuses on the attempt on the part of the U.S. government to repatriate buffalo back to various tribal lands across the country and the attempt on the part of various tribal nations to to buy back even more ancestral lands from the U.S. government.I was surprised to learn that the Cheyenne people of Montana and Oklahoma have twenty-seven words for the Buffalo, depending on its age, sex, and other factors. I also thought it was surprising that following the buffalo helped Daniel Boone to explore Kentucky and other states. I would not be surprised if Ken Burns drew on some of his past documentaries on the American West---“Lewis and Clark” (1997), “The National Parks” (2009), “The West” (2009)---for some of his information and inspiration. One thing I love about this documentary is the way Ken Burns sought to frame it---very accurately---not just as the biography of an animal, but a history of America itself. how he describes the various ways in which various Native American peoples used every part of the Buffalo, and how he frames it as having a colossal impact on the broader history of the United States as a whole. Contrast this with white hunters who typically only took one element of the Buffalo, depending on what they wanted, and left the rest. I thought it was interesting that the artists Carl Bodmer and George Catlin were much more sympathetic to the Native Americans than others. I also thought it was interesting that one particular Native American tribe---the Métis---consisted almost entirely of individuals of mixed indigenous and white ancestry. It could even be legitimately argued that even the attempt to preserve the Buffalo was just as much motivated by greed, power, and white supremacy as much as the destruction of the Buffalo had been. I find it tremendously ironic that after William Temple Hornaday (1854-1937) had shot a buffalo and had left it there, he flew into a rage after Native Americans took the meat---when it was white people like him who deliberately killed the Buffalo in the first place---precisely to force Native Americans off their tribal lands and to force them onto reservations and to force them to adopt Western culture---when white Americans who hunt---even today---tend to only take the meat of an animal, while Native Americans tend to use EVERY part of any animal that they kill---and in fact, in many of the ancient pre-Christian Native American religions, the buffalo and other animals are literally considered to be their family members. William Hornaday was absolutely spot on when he lamented that the destruction of the Buffalo/Bison would “cause future generations to regard us as being possessed of cruelty and greed.”I would HIGHLY recommend this documentary to anyone who enjoys history, nature, zoology, or Native American culture. Watch this documentary. I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Great Film !! Very Interesting!! Great Information and Ken Burns does a Great Job!!!

I learned much from the film . Maybe we can bring back these great animals.

It was good and somewhat complete documentary of the buffalo, but they downplayed how the killing of the buffalo was done to help control the American Indians and get them to live in the reservations.

Incredible documentary on the importance and cultural significance of the bison to North America.