{"product_id":"up-in-smoke","title":"Up In Smoke","description":"\u003cp\u003e42” x 42”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStamp Collage\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePhotography on Canvas with Resin\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy the early 1700s, an estimated 30 to 60 million bison roamed the North American plains—one of the largest\u003cbr\u003ewild herds the world had ever seen. These animals were not only essential to the ecosystems of the Great Plains, but sacred to the Native tribes who depended on them for food, shelter, tools, and spiritual life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mass slaughter of bison began in earnest in the 1830s, driven by the booming market for hides, robes, and tongues. After the Civil War, the expansion of the transcontinental railroad accelerated the devastation. The iron tracks sliced the vast herd in two—northern and southern—and brought with them hunters, commercial tanners, and sharpshooters who killed for sport and profit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy 1872, it’s estimated that as many as 5,000 bison were being killed each day. In 1874 alone, more than 200,000 hides were shipped east every two days. General Philip Sheridan, who had led brutal campaigns against Native tribes, publicly endorsed the slaughter. He reportedly proposed giving medals to hunters—engraved with a dead buffalo on one side and a defeated Native on the other. “Kill the buffalo,” he urged, “and you kill the Indian’s commissary.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe policy wasn’t just tolerated—it was strategic. President Ulysses S. Grant, along with Generals Sheridan and William Tecumseh Sherman, knew that without bison, Native resistance would crumble. With their lifeblood gone, tribes would have no choice but to move onto reservations.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBy 1883, wild bison had nearly vanished. Only 325 remained in the U.S. American zoologist William Temple Hornaday conducted a census in 1889 and found just over 1,000 bison alive in the world—85 free-ranging, 200 in Yellowstone’s federal herd, 550 in Canada’s remote north, and the rest in zoos or private collections. From tens of millions to near extinction in less than a century—this was not just an ecological collapse, but a deliberate tool of conquest.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePhotograph of Snake River from Signal Mountain in Grand Teton National Park, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Taken by Jimmy Bonner while on assignment in 2013.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Jimmy Bonner","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67290023166027,"sku":null,"price":10000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0099\/7369\/4528\/files\/UP_IN_SMOKE_resized.jpg?v=1792524820","url":"https:\/\/www.chieffaloamericana.com\/products\/up-in-smoke","provider":"CHIEFFALO americana","version":"1.0","type":"link"}