I just read a fantastic article called "Bison Ecology and Bison Diplomacy: The Southern Plains from 1800 to 1850" that reshaped my view on the plains Indians and the American Bison.
The Indians specifically killed young female Bison in their mating years because the meat and hides were higher quality. Combine that with diseases brought from stealing cattle, drought, and loss of habitat from large mustang heards all lead to the Bison population collapsing in the southern plains 20-30 years before the "Buffalo Wars" in the 1870s and 1880s.
(This link is a pdf from The Journal of American History)
The Indians specifically killed young female Bison in their mating years because the meat and hides were higher quality. Combine that with diseases brought from stealing cattle, drought, and loss of habitat from large mustang heards all lead to the Bison population collapsing in the southern plains 20-30 years before the "Buffalo Wars" in the 1870s and 1880s.
(This link is a pdf from The Journal of American History)
