The Bone Hunters: New Visions of an Ossified Past

Abstract

During and following the decimation of the North American bison herds in the late nineteenth century, bison bones became a significant yet short-lived extracted resource. This article argues that while the gathering of bones on the prairies represents the endpoint of the once great herds, the story of bone hunting also aligns with industrial and settler colonial histories. Bone hunting proved a well-organized capitalist enterprise that fits within a broader story of industrial expansion and worker exploitation in the American West. An examination of bone hunters also reveals Native Americans, both on and off reservations, to be the primary laborers in the Great Plains, demonstrating continuity not only in their reliance on bison but also in their long history of adaptation to the American market economy. Bison bone hunting also played an important role in furthering the cause of settler colonialism through white imaginings of the West. Settler colonist memories of the enterprise largely supplanted the contributions of Native American bone hunters with stories of white bone hunter experiences of privation, exploitation, and bootstrapping.