URBANA OH ANIMAL SHELTER 3 MILLION SKIN

To this day, we still call bison buffalo. French coureurs des bois, or “woods runners,” in many cases called the bison “le boeuf,” which was transliterated in English to “buffalo.” The same cannot be said of the Europeans who followed them.

This would change when horses and firearms became available, but even then Native Americans were careful in their hunt. The great beasts were difficult to catch and ferocious when cornered. In the early days, prehistoric and historic Native Americans were cautious in their killing.

URBANA OH ANIMAL SHELTER 3 MILLION SKIN

In addition to the meat, they used the buffalo’s skin for garments and housing and the bone for weapons and tools. Native American hunters followed the herds and judiciously used every bit of a beast. In time, the trials became roads, and in many cases, the roads became major highways.Īt the time of colonial settlement in the 1600s and 1700s, it has been estimated that 50 million and 70 million plains and wood bison were living in North America. The trails eventually became main trails of the people who arrived later. Places like French Lick, Indiana, Blue Licks, Kentucky and the vanished Native American Salt Lick Town near Columbus are examples of the salt cravings of animal herds and the people who followed them.īecause those trails followed high ground, many found easy fording places across streams and avoided swamps, sinkholes and quicksand. The buffalo trails often passed near and paused near natural deposits of salt. Other herds of animals and groups of Native Americans followed these trails, too, because following an open trail was easier than slogging through the woods. Herds of these magnificent animals cut trails of their own through woods and prairies.Īs It Were: Columbus has seen all manner of July 4 celebrationsĪs It Were: Central Ohio Native Americans had important role in War of 1812

Weighing as much 2,000 pounds and able to run at speeds of 35 mph or faster for lengthy periods, a mature wood bison was a formidable sight to see. And of all of them, the Ohio wood bison was perhaps one of the most impressive.Īlthough, not as large as its relative, the plains bison, the wood bison was still one of the largest animals in America. With relatively few people and fewer natural predators, a lot of animals and plants prospered here. Ohio was a wonderland of deep forests, plains of shoulder-high grasses and dozens of clear streams and rivers. They were complemented by equally large herds of elk and deer, as well as by immense flocks of pigeons that often blackened the sky for hours as they few past. At one time, when the Ohio Country was first explored by French, Spanish and English colonists in the 1700s, large herds of bison were still present in Ohio.

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