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The Bison

Little did we care, or know, there were two basic herds... actually divided by geography. The Northern Herd was up in Wyoming and Montana and extended up into Canada. The Southern Herd ranged from South Dakota and eastern Colorado all across America to the the Gulf Coast. The Canadian herds fared somewhat better, mostly because they were inconvenient and safely out of reach of most greedy American hide traders. Nobody else needs to explain the near extermination of the American Bison, or the reasons why... which have been well recorded. But as an artist, I choose instead to celebrate here the animal and its salvation... and its fairly safe status at present. Americans almost exterminated them... and other Americans saved them from that fate. Here are a few paintings I have done over the years, which tell much of the American Bison story and its role in our history; One artist's salute to the buffalo...

This painting, done in 1970 when I was 16 years old, shows the exciting vision of the typical Native American buffalo hunt, similar to the one every lover of Western lore carries in his imagination. For me, that vision was firmly established by Montana's venerated artist, C. M. Russell, whom I idolized. This was just a teenager's affirmation that this was the coolest hunting concept ever immortalized by an American artist. The poses of the bison were provided by modern day members of the "Northern Herd," at Banff National Park, which my father was able to photograph during a business trip to Canada.

A portion of my mural (ABOVE) at the Star of the Republic Museum, (now gone) at Washington on the Brazos, Texas... here depicting east Texas Coushattas and Kickapoos working together to harvest bison and obtain some food and raw materials for clothing, tools and shelters.

AT ONE TIME, the range of this magnificent beast was from the Rockies to the Ohio Valley, south all the way to the Texas Gulf Coast, and even across the Mississippi into western New York and parts of Missouri and even Alabama. This hoary bovine was the cousin of the European wisent- and a great grandchild of the huge longhorned bison of prehistoric times. What had owned the American Plains for centuries was nearly wiped out in a decade... and sold and shipped out at the various hide towns across the West.

(ABOVE) a rare commission painting... "Crossing the Brazos," where the customer wanted something that I wanted to paint!

Understanding my love for the buffalo, and supplemented by his, my brother Reynolds commissioned a couple of works... This one (ABOVE)a humongous canvas that was equal to our esteem for this animal...******* The next one was a visitation upon the early statehood days of Texas, when the early Texans actually depended on the bison for a food source. Bison were everywhere, they were free and there was no "season" on them, they tasted good, even better than beef in some opinions, and their pelts made useful leather and fur coats. This kind of hunt was possible in central Texas before the Civil War. The battle over hunting rights was the main cause of most Texan-Native American conflicts. But few "Indians" had guns, and those conflicts were fairly one-sided. Still many a settler's blood was shed for their encroachments on Comanche or Kiowa hunting grounds.

Some will laugh... but I could not think of a more quintessential painting of my beloved Texas than the one above, a buffalo bull standing in "buffalo grass," or blue lupines which Texans call "Bluebonnets."

Quite symbolically, this large, major painting (BELOW) no longer exists, in this form. A friend and collector wanted the painting... and said he would buy it, if I would take out the buffalo. I needed the money and met his demands. He has now passed away, and the paInting is rotting in a barn in Grimes County. My friend, in his own way, exterminated the buffalo, and although he got what he wanted, he deprived the painting its significance and balance and beauty... Something we Americans almost did to our wonderful American West... and something artists will always want to warn against. But still, I took the money instead!

"The Last of the Herd" (ABOVE) was a large imaginary scene, based on my first visit to New Mexico... and painting the majestic Sandias on location outside of Albuquerque... I reasoned that there HAD to be a few surviving bison protected by Native Americans who were allowed to stay in the region... until they were eventually hunted out by those who were less sentimental about them. Americans have established a trend- in stamping images of the things they have abused or disposed of- on their coins... or printing their likenesses on bills. There was the Indian Head Penny... the Buffalo Nickel, now the Washington Dollar and Quarter, the U. S. Grant Fifty Dollar Bill, the Andrew Jackson Twenty, the Hamilton Ten... even the Benjamin Franklin Hundred Dollar Bill... all plowed under by "progress." Only Abe Lincoln is still venerated... America is turning against everything it once called iconic and foundational... wiping them out as ill-advisedly as were the majestic bison in this painting!

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About the Blogger...

I grew up in Texas, in a home where the Old West shaped our culture and our perspective on the world. For many school days I spent my after...