In 1867 conservative estimates put the number of buffaloes in the trans-Missouri region at fifteen million. By the end of the 1880s, that figure had dwindled to a few hundred. The destruction of the great herds is the theme of The Buffalo Hunters. Mari Sandoz’s vast canvas is charged with color and excitement—accounts of Indian ambushes, hairbreadth escapes, gambling and gunfights, military expeditions, and famous frontier characters such as Wild Bill Hickok, Lonesome Charlie Reynolds, Buffalo Bill, Sheridan, Custer, and Indian chiefs Whistler, Yellow Wolf, Spotted Tail, and Sitting Bull.
 

Mari Sandoz (1896–1966) is the noted author of Cheyenne Autumn, Old Jules, and The Battle of the Little Bighorn, all available in Bison Books editions. Michael Punke is the author of several books, including Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West and Fire and Brimstone: The North Butte Mining Disaster of 1917.

“The fate of the Plains Region was inextricably bound up with the fate of the buffalo; they fell together. This is the story Miss Sandoz has to tell, and she tells it beautifully, forcefully, epically.”—New York Times

“Miss Sandoz knows the West, and whether she is presenting the beauty of the land, the excitement of the hunt, or the tension of an Indian raid, she does it—not sensationally—with authority and vigor.”—Library Journal