Dear HCN,
Thank you for publishing
Dan Flores’ well-written cover essay, “The West that was, and the
West that can be” (HCN, 8/18/97). But I must protest one huge
glaring error: Mr. Flores says there are only 250,000 bison left,
down from multiple millions. Wrong! There is not one bison truly
alive today. Every single bison survivor in the United States is a
political prisoner, kept penned like zoo animals or, worse,
pathetically “managed” and ranched like cattle. Even Yellowstone is
a lie, as witnessed by this past winter’s pathological slaughter of
over 1,000 of the freedom-seeking beasts.
The top
totem of this once wild continent is the only native species denied
in 100 percent totality its right to roam freely as a wild animal.
Until the fences come down, the American bison and the West we lose
sleep for is just a heartbeat away from that dusty passenger pigeon
permanently immobilized behind glass in that Philadelphia museum.
I’m 30 years old. Why do you gotta hear it from me? Where is the
leadership?
J.
Manos
Albuquerque, New
Mexico
J. Manos is executive
director of the Great Plains Restoration
Council.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Bring back the wild buffalo.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
