A new technique for tanning buffalo hides…

In response, commercial hunters had begun systematically targeting buffalo for the first time.

Once numbering in the tens of millions, the buffalo population has plummeted.

By 1878, they will be all but extinct.

The destruction of the buffalo herds is a disaster for the Plains Indians, on and off the reservations.

The entire nomadic way of life has been based around the animals.

They are used for food, fuel and construction materials.

Without abundant buffalo, the Plains tribes have no means of self support.