Then came the sharp cracks of the passengers’ firearms followed by the smell of gunpowder, killing or wounding practically every living thing within range. They called this sport hunting. Such was the culture of white male settlers who equated wanton killing with masculinity and wealth. Some Lakota believed these assaults offended the buffalo spirit and that was why the animals had retreated “back into the earth.” Clearly, the herds knew when the white man was near. They smelled the soot from the steamer’s smokestack, were frightened by the deafening whistles, heard the gunshots, and, if they survived, learned to move away from the river onto higher ground.

In the open prairie of the Great Plains, along the Kansas-Pacific railroad line, buffalo could heard the chugging of steam locomotives; they heard the iron horses screeching to a stop, followed by the loud explosion of gunshots. Throughout the 1870s, when trains passed near herds of migrating bison, it was reported that they slowed down so that passengers from back east could pick up their rifles and take aim through open windows. The trains didn’t stop to pick up any part of the buffalo for sustenance or profit. It was all just a game.