In 1867 conservative estimates put the number of buffaloes in the trans-Missouri region at fifteen million. By the end of the 1880s, that figure had dwindled to a few hundred. The destruction of the great herds is the theme of "The Buffalo Hunters." Mari Sandoz's vast canvas is charged with color and excitement--accounts of Indian ambushes, hairbreadth escapes, gambling and gunfights, military expeditions, and famous frontier characters such as Wild Bill Hickok, Lonesome Charlie Reynolds, Buffalo Bill, Sheridan, Custer, and Indian chiefs Whistler, Yellow Wolf, Spotted Tail, and Sitting Bull.

Introduction

Foreword

Book I. The Republican Herd

1. The Portentous Men of 'Sixty-seven

2. Lord of the Plains

3. A Revenge--and New Markets

4. Big Guns and a Roaring Blizzard

5. The Royal Hunt

Book II. The Crossing of the Arkansas

6. Dodge City, the Daughter of the Hide Men

7. Southward into Indian Country

8. Attack on Adobe Walls

9. Toward the Brazos

10. Two Big Kills

11. Dead Men and Comanche Yells

Book III. Retreat to the Staked Plains

12. The Eden of the Animals

13. The Time of the Flights

Book IV. The Northern Herd

14. Along the Winter Yellowstone

15. The End of the Dream

Bibliography for the General Reader

Mari Sandoz (1896-1966) is the noted author of Cheyenne Autumn, Old Jules, and The Battle of the Little Bighorn, all available in Bison Books editions. Michael Punke is the author of several books, including Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West and Fire and Brimstone: The North Butte Mining Disaster of 1917.