Fat, used in cooking, in pemmican preparation, and as an ingredient in paint and waterproofing.

The loss of the buffalo was not, for the Southern Plains peoples, equivalent to the loss of one grocery item that could be replaced by another.

It was the dismantling of the foundation on which their material civilization rested.

The commercial hunters were operating south of the Arkansas River by 1873 and 1874 — territory that, under the Medicine Lodge Treaty of 1867, was supposed to be reserved for the hunting grounds of the Southern Plains peoples.

The Army’s official policy was ambiguous about enforcing this restriction.