William Frederick Cody, known as Buffalo Bill, was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman.
Buffalo Bill in 1911
A portrait of Cody
Cody in 1864 at the age of 19
Buffalo Bill c. 1875
Bison hunting was an activity fundamental to the economy and society of the Plains Indians peoples who inhabited the vast grasslands on the Interior Plains of North America, before the animal's near-extinction in the late 19th century following US expansion into the West. Bison hunting was an important spiritual practice and source of material for these groups, especially after the European introduction of the horse in the 16th through 19th centuries enabled new hunting techniques. The species' dramatic decline was the result of habitat loss due to the expansion of ranching and farming in western North America, industrial-scale hunting practiced by non-Indigenous hunters increased Indigenous hunting pressure due to non-Indigenous demand for bison hides and meat, and cases of a deliberate policy by settler governments to destroy the food source of the Indigenous peoples during times of conflict.
The Crow Indian Buffalo Hunt diorama at the Milwaukee Public Museum
A bison hunt depicted by George Catlin
Hidatsa hunting bison, George Catlin, c. 1832
Bison and Indians of De Bry, 1595. Pedro Castaneda, a soldier with Coronado on the Southern Plains in 1542, compared the bison with "fish in the sea".