Page 4
Summer Nebraskan
Tuesday, July 7, 1964
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I Where The Buffalo Roamed I
ndering Herds Echo From Pas,
I Thu
EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the
third in a series of four stories writ
ten by students in the Depth Report
ing Class of the School of Journalism.
This series represents an experiment
at using the information in a new
book to write a news story.
By Gary Lacey
Wood River Center, during
1860, was a community of buffalo
as well as people.
The settlers were determined
to make Wood River a decent
place to live; the Buffalo were
transients seeking only tranquil
lity. "Our beautiful townsite has been
rudely trampled on by those ugly-looking
beasts, known as Buffalo ... We intend
to keep some weapons handy, so that,
should they kick up too much dust
around our office, or rob the porkers of
their accustomed slop, we shall not be
responsible for their safety," the WOOD
RIVER ECHO reported in 1860. The Buf
falo were on the run.
By the next year the Buffalo had
been driven on, and Wood River had no
problem.
The problem was this: the bulky
plains animals had no place to go.
By 1926 there were 4,387 Buffalo re
maining from the millions, indeed per
haps billions, which once had been there.
The futile saga of the American Buf
falo, "THE HUNTING OF THE BUF
FALO," is the subject of a book re
printed by the University of Nebraska
Press. It was first released in 1929 by
Appleton Co., as a revised doctorate
thesis written by E. Douglas Branch,
who at the time he wrote the tract
was a recognized scholar and the time
of his death an alcoholic dishwasher on
Chicago's skid row.
The plight of the American Buffalo
paralleled that of E. Douglas Branch.
Both were unable to adapt to changing
conditions; both were tormented, and
taken for granted.
The downfall of the Buffalo, as de
scribed by Branch, begins as early as
1800 when several fur companies were
established in the eastern sector of the
United States. General Ashley, head of
the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, be
came interested in Buffalo on an 1822
hunting expedition when, with the help
of friendly Indians, he trapped the
strange animal in a camouflaged pit.
The animal from that time on served
as the main food for hunters, most of
whom were trapping beaver.
The hunters roasted the Buffalo
meat over an opcii iire and enjoyed the
steaks, but left the remains behind. On
the other hand, the Indians used the
animal for practically everything; the
Buffalo entrails were the most esteemed
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Continued from Page 1
mission increase. This In turn makes the
selection of students harder yet at those
colleges.
At the same time, the highly de
sired college finds it must work harder,
In good conscience, to keep faith with its
rising reputation. So it raises its fees
further in or.der to put more money into
the educational program. The impac of
that is to convince the public even more
that this college must be truly superior.
Applicants flood in faster still, with no
questions asked about cost.
Thus we come to a first conclusion,
namely that public reputation in a col
lege as in any business is not only the
result of but, much more, the actual
means to success and quality in the pro
duct. There is anxiety along the road,
however. For one thing the great admis
sions derby has placed considerable
strain upon what used to be a rather
quiet and private practice of a student's
picking his college and the college's ad
mitting the student. The judgments have
become excruciating largely because
they ask the impossible. Believe me
when I say student abilities cannot be
so finely predicted at age 17.
Second, with its passion for horse
racing and totem-pole-building, the pub
lic has come to believe that only the
most sought-after colleges can give a
good education; other colleges are as
sumed to be relatively poor. It be
comes almost a source of chagrin when
it is admitted one's child is attending a
nonprestige college. No one is more dis
tressed to observe this than the sought
after colleges themselves .
Third, a college's public reputation
typically lags behind its actual perform
ance by from 5 to 10 years. Some col
leges have become better than they are
Eubllcly known to be, while a few others,
icluding some of the most sought-after,
are coasting on their reputations while
progress stagnates.
morsels (especially spiced with gall
bladder juice); the fat was used as a
substitute for bread, the meat was dried
to make "pemmican" and the skins
served as teepees and blankets. Some
were sold to hunters.
Having been driven out of the area
east of the Mississippi by 1810, the Buf
falo now called the Great Plains his
home. Still plentiful, they migrated as
far north as Canada in the summer
months and as far south as Northern
Texas in the winter. Some severe win
ters caught them too far North and they
became trapped in the drifts. One hunter
recalled that one spring the dead Buffalo
carcasses were so thick in the thaw
swollen river that he couldn't see the
water. The odor was unbearable.
It was not until the 1830's, the book
reports, that the Buffalo began to over
shadow the fur trade. Buffalo fur sold
for $2 in Europe as a novelty, but the
exotic venture fell through when the
newness wore off.
Then as quickly as the market for
Buffalo hide receded, a change in fashion
Salaries
Fourth, we are not entirely certain
that the combination of tight admission
screening plus maximum dollars spent
on academics is producing a superior ed
ucational result for every student.
Since I have come to the brink of a
hearsay, let me stop long enough to
qualify. There is clear evidence that for
the top level of scholastic students the
combination of tight academic screening
and high dollar investment in specialties
has produced superior results. It has
speeded up progress into graduate school
and thereafter into research production,
and other outstanding professional work.
The trouble is, we speak of such col
leges as if they enrolled no students ex
cept potential scholars and researchers.
Yet every college, even the most selec
tive, has a lower level of student body.
Most of these are highly educable but
are not necessarily inclined toward a life
of scholarship and research. What kind
of education are the colleges presenting
for their needs? We are less sure about
this.
Genetically speaking, the human race
does not change much h native intelli
gence from one decade to another. We
tend to forget that. Our students In col
lege today in the aggergate are no brain
ier than were students of 30 years ago.
Our top scholars are not more gifted
than they used to be. They are, to be
sure, being better trained and more
strongly challenged than most of us were
In the '20s and '30s.
Thus what I should want to know
before I judge the goodness of a college
as a whole is this: What kind of per
manent educational impact is it making'
on the lower half as well as the upper
half of its student body? Colleges are
being rated on the percentage of their
seniors who go on to graduate school
That is very important to us all and to
the future of technology. Still it would
give a wider base for judgment to know
also what percentage of the total fresh
man class that entered college four years
ago is graduating this year, and what
has happened to the others. In most
colleges in the past five years, the drop
out rate has continued at about the
same level. We have more work to do
here.
Another criterion used for college su
periority is the salary scale paid its fac
ulty. I suppose in 16 years I have given
more time toward improvement in that
1 '
caused beaver to drop in sales and Buf
falo regained demand. Pierre Chouteau
of the American Fur Company in 1835
wrote: "The short crop of buffalo robes
disappointed many dealers last year, and
we have orders already for the whole of
the next collection if it be 36,000 or
more."
In 1843 an official of the American
Fur Company quoted the following year
ly Buffalo robe sales: American Fur
Company . . . 70,000 hides; Hudson Bay
Company . . . 10,000 hides; all other
companies, approximately 10,000 hides.
Over the ten year period from '33 to '43
this amounted to nearly one million
hides.
Was the supply of Buffalo dwindling?
The author compared the number of re
maining animals to the number of re
maining gallons of whisky or number of
beads which were then paid to the In
dians who had begun hunting Buffalo to
sell to hunters.
Settlers began traversing the nation
during the mid-1800's and with them
Research -I- T
category than to anything else. At the
same time we face a curious problem:
By and large, the highest-paid professor
today is the professor who teaches least.
That is not the result of academic dilet
tantism, I believe; rather it reflects the
fact that the research products of more
and more academicians have become
highly marketable outside in industry
and government. The scientist and the
social scientist fly monthly to Washing
ton or New York. Lately the humanities
professor is being taken along on the
family plan, because current conferences
have a way of stating, just before ad
journment, "And we must preserve the
humanities."
At the same time there are thou
sands of college professors who are dedi
cated to the creative challenge of teach
ing. It takes a certain administrative
resolution to sort out the most effective
of these and reward them equally with
the researchers and the junketeers.
Certainly it would be wrong to dis
courage in any way the heartening and
belated rise in faculty salaries. It would
not be wrong to include, in the matter of
how good is a college, the question of
how much attention are its senior pro
fessors giving to the personal instruction
of students and not merely of upper
a question, by the way, is answerable.
What lies just ahead is a flood of
public light upon the whole spectrum of
higher education. It will bring with it
much of the same critical attention that
has been given elementary and second
ary education in preceding decades. I
think the development will be good for
the colleges. College education to some
degree resembles a prospering small cor
poration whose need for expansion in
capital and markets impels it to "go
public." When college education goes on
the Big Board (to continue the figure)
the public may ask for closer measure
ments of its performance ... Let me
try to suggest what some of these might
be.
I propose in general an annual pub
lic reporting of colleges along the lines
of Fortune's summer issues on the 5P9
largest industrial corporations, banks,
etc. On the chart would appear such
familiar terms as enrollment size, facul
ty size, degrees, endowment, library vol
umes per student, and numbers of grad
uates according to the different special
ties. To these I would then add some
they brought first the covered wagon,
then the train, and then more trains.
All were enemies of the Buffalo.
The Oregon Trail severed the wan
dering Buffalo herds. The Transcontinen
tal Railroad completely cut the mass
of animals into northern and southern
herds. Later railroad ventures in the
Dakotas and in Kansas further divided
the two resulting herds.
The coming of the white man brought
the sport of Buffalo hunting.
Josiah Gregg, a member of a wagon
train crossing the country in the 1840's
wrote in his diary that "very few hunters
appear able to refrain from shooting as
long as the games remains within reach
of their rifles; nor can they ever permit
a fair shot to escape them."
Later in the trip he recalled: "Our
horses were wild with excitement and
fright; the balls flew at random the
flying animals (Buffalo), frantic with
pain and rage, seemed imbued with
many lives. One was brought to bay by
whole volleys of shots; his eyeballs
Rating
less familiar items, such as the follow
ing. 1. The percentage of entering fresh
men four years ago who graduated this
year.
2. The percentage of the academic
lower half of the freshman class three
years ago who graduated this year.
3. The percentage of the student body
(a) from other counties, (b) from the
different socio-economic brackets within
our country.
4. The percentage of this year's
graduates who came from families be
low the national median income.
5. The percentage of faculty who
have contributed in fields of research,
scholarship, or the creative arts In the
past five years.
6. The percentage of graduates from
the college over the past 15 years who
are now in academic life and who are
making similar contributions to scholar
ship and art.
7. The percentages of graduates in
the various recognized professions.
8. The percentage of graduates who
are active in volunteer contributions to
civic life in their respective communi
ties. 9. The number of graduates current
ly serving in public office whether lo
cal, county, state, or P'ederal.
10. The number of major depart
ments offered at the college.
11. The number among those depart
ments which have brought significant
changes into their programs during the
past five years.
12. The library circulation figures for
the college, in books not assigned for
class reading. .
13. The average student attendance
at noncompulsory evening events such as
lectures, forums, concerts, and plays.
14. The most recent date on which
the administration and faculty as a
objectives of the college.
Some of the tables I suggest are pro
vocative rather than practicable. Still, in
the computer age any such data-gathering
would become child's play. What I
have gone is to propose some analyses
of a college's inner make-up and per
formance which have to do with qual
ity in the total campus experience. The
method of inquiry and report might or
might not be a good idea. But each
question raised in my list, has this to
ask? Inside that college, what is happen
ing to young people all its young people
glared; he bore his tufted tail aloft like
a black flag; then shaking his vast and
shaggy mane in impotent defiance, he
sank majesticaly to the earth, under
twenty bleeding shots."
The number of Buffalo shot for food,
shot for sport, shot for hides, and shot
by railroad hunters for pure folly pro
duced by 1862 thousands of skeletons lin
ing the westward routes. The traveler
could no longer depend on the plains for
food. Grocery stores sprang up to meet
the demands of the travellers.
Herds that remained, and there still
were quite a number, found refuge m
western Nebraska, eastern Colorado,
Wyoming and the western Dakotas
never close to the railroads. In this west
ern herd there were 8,000,000 animals.
When Cleveland took office there were
8.
In the late 1860's one authority esti.
mates that more than 1,000,000 per year
were shot for hides alone.
Buffalo were generally quite unin
telligent animals. Their sense of moti
vation and direction usually was cen
tered around the leader of the herd, a
bull. Hunters amused themselves by par
ticipating in what they termed a
"stand." To carry out a stand a hunter
killed the leader of the herd. The other
Buffalo, not knowing what to do, stood
motionless to be killed. One hunter re
ported that he shot 158 animals in such
a "stand.".
With the Buffalo decreasing at an
astounding rate every day, in 1869 Co
lumbus Delano became secretary of the
interior. He declared that in all relation
ships with the Indians the United States
must remember that it was the strongest
party and "should take the place of their
barbarous habits by taking over the soil
which they occupy."
Delano's plan of coercion was to
eliminate the lifeblood of the Indian his
Buffalo. As the animal died off, Delano
believed, so would the Indian popula.
tions, thus leaving 93,692,731 acres free
for settlers to occupy.
All attempts to pass legislation to
protect the Buffalo in Congress failtd at
the outset, but when one weak bill was
approved, President Grant pigeonholed
As Buffalo became moxs scarce, In.
dians became more hostile. Delano's
policy, according to Branch, resulted in
th? massacre of General Custer's men
on the Little Big Horn and the many
other tragedies of the Sioux War of 1876
and 1877. In the spring the first part of
Delano's plan was realized. A New Jer
sey hide buyer collected enough Buffalo
robes in Kansas to make a scant car
load. It was the only carload to go east
on the Northern Pacific Railroad that
year.
Only the bones were to follow.
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The Colleges
1
that becomes important and lasting?
How good, then, Is a college? A col.
lege is as good as the permanent im
provements it brings about in the larg.
est majority of its students.
The responsibility to do this is not
the college's alone. Admission to a se
lective college should bring no guaran
tee of results without student effort
we might say maximum effort. But nei.
ther is the college relieved of its re
sponsibility for results among its students
who are average or less.
Concerning the brilliant ones, we are
honest in saying: Show them the doors
get out of their way. For the others, I
submit at the risk of quaintness in this
year of 1964 my belief in the value of
teaching. One might count that a vote
on the side if the angels, like votes for
motherhood. Yet currently the adminis
trator's vote for the value of teaching
is not being enough heard in the land.
We shall never be able to measure
the goodness of a college as we can the
performance of a business corporation.
One good reason is that the results of
education ir,ay not show up until years
after college. I believe colleges may
have overworked that reason. We in the
colleges could look harder than we do
to see the evidence that is available con
cerning the quality of what we are ac
tually doing. At the least we can meas
ure more closely the extent of our mea
sures toward educating all our students.
Honors programs for the gifted top ones
should not exhaust our efforts. Too many
lower-echelon graduates of today have a
way of becoming the leaders of tomor
row. Maturity in people comes at dif
ferent rates.
eoiHTiiegreAtuthelologian Paul Tillich has
said that at the heart of every real per-
H ferlon: 1 have found the same
it0.b5 true at the neart of every
combined human endeavor, of which the
American college is so notable an ex
ample. The demand to improve is indeed
an inner demand but it does not ncccs
sarily operate best without outside
prompting.
Most of our colleges are good now
better perhaps than the public knows or
allows still, a discerning public can
he p them become better. And from this
he pful public scrutiny i would except no
college that we know.
Louis T. Benezet