Ken Burns Documentary, The American Buffalo

[MLC]

Finished watching the, American Buffalo documentary last night. If you’ve not yet watched it (PBS) you may enjoy it. It will leave you asking how people, and our government in particular could have been so stupid and cruel.

 

[Keep on]

I've got it on dvr, plan to try and watch this weekend.

 

[SAJ-99]

It will leave you asking how people, and our government in particular could have been so stupid and cruel.

I'm going to go with 'greed'.

 

[Bambistew]

Renella did a podcast with him on this. Ken Burns is a fascinating dude.

 

[noharleyyet]

He's fantastic and prolific...

The Films - Ken Burns

kenburns.com

 

[Bowmannate2000]

The book Last Stand by Michael Punke (also in the documentary), tells the story in much more depth. Definitely worth a read.

 

[hank4elk]

Enjoyed every one of his works.
Hard to take in some ways. In just 75 years.
75 years since WWII.
I'm 68.
WOW.

 

[Gr8bawana]

Finished watching the, American Buffalo documentary last night. If you’ve not yet watched it (PBS) you may enjoy it. It will leave you asking how people, and our government in particular could have been so stupid and cruel.

I've only watched the first episode so far and really enjoying it.
I don't know if it was stupidity or just ignorance, definitely greed. All they saw was what they thought was an inexhaustible supply of animals.
Then they also figured if the indigenous people had no buffalo to sustain them they could do away with them as well at the same time as making $$.
It was a sad deal overall. Damn those white dogs.

 

[marshman]

Finished watching the, American Buffalo documentary last night. If you’ve not yet watched it (PBS) you may enjoy it. It will leave you asking how people, and our government in particular could have been so stupid and cruel.

Times certainly were different for sure and now viewed through a different period of time But it really was and still is a tragedy of waste for our country.

 

[noharleyyet]

I enjoyed the Baseball and Hemingway editions...need to binge a few.

 

[44hunter45]

Don't be shocked to learn there is no paper tail of US Government policy during the second half of the 1800's.

My wife's family treasures letters from President James Garfield and others of his political cadre. (None of these say anything about Native Americans or the bison.) Politics was backroom and hardball then, as now. He rewarded his friends and punished his rivals.

Garfield's maneuvering to beat Senator Conkling of NY is probably best known and documented, but he was shrewd and did a lot behind closed doors.

A religious man, Garfield likely believed that Christianizing the natives was for their best, but that is speculation on my part.

He had a failed experience trying to negotiate the resettlement of the Bitteroot Salish in 1871. He handled this by convincing lesser chieftains of the tribe to sign the documents and forge Cheif Charlo's mark. More political machination.

 

[COEngineer]

Renella did a podcast with him on this. Ken Burns is a fascinating dude.

Rinella subsequently shared that he told Ken that he thought the film was being particularly harsh on the buffalo hunters. Rinella thought they were portrayed as heartless bastards, when, as pointed out by themselves and others, it was all about money and even some Indians joined in on the unsustainable slaughter.

I have not seen the film yet, so I don't know if Rinella was off base or not.

 

[trackerbacker]

Is that the one with three indians as the main commentators?

If so, as much as I watched it, I couldn't help but think of cryin eye cody every time 1/3 of them talked.

For instance... because there's no more Buffalo wallows...the climate and ecology are toast because how infulential those wallows are to the ecosystem. Thanks white man..

Like interviewing an Indian about how Americans brought war/stole land and how that NEVER occured before...

Anyone care to take a guess how many millions of pounds of salmon and other fish, yearly, that Indians have fished out of big sky/pnw area before white man?

I'm guessing Ken burns is working on that one..

Overall I enjoyed the 'nature part', the narrative was half baked and from the losing party, my $0.03.

Rinella subsequently shared that he told Ken that he thought the film was being particularly harsh on the buffalo hunters. Rinella thought they were portrayed as heartless bastards, when, as pointed out by themselves and others, it was all about money and even some Indians joined in on the unsustainable slaughter.

I have not seen the film yet, so I don't know if Rinella was off base or not.

See my paragraph above. Too much chief falling tear I thought. Rinella was in it, but they focused so narrowly on his statement it might as well been a gold bond commercial.

 

[44hunter45]

I just finished it.

I was ready to not like it, but I feel that Burns pulled it out at the end. I won't spoil it, but he allows the even if the philosophies of some of those who contributed to the Bison's salvation are deplorable today; they cannot be cancelled. Without the contribution if several disparate groups and individuals, the species would have been lost.

I was struck by how the simple actions of Mary Goodnight resulted in part to there still being Bison today. I used to laugh when my wife said I did not have kill all the coyotes that ate a chicken. When Mary Goodnight told her husband's riders she wanted them to bring some Bison calves home for her rather than run them off the ranch, I doubt she was thinking it would be a big deal for the species.