Tahtonka (Plains Indians Buffalo Culture)

Duration: 12:00

Year Published: 1968

Creator: ACI

Complete Record: The film tells, in live action and reenactment, of the destruction of the buffalo and of the Indian culture dependent on it in the American plains in the period 1830-1888. The buffalo (properly the American bison) had roamed the plains in millions. Indians of the area had always hunted the buffalo, and used the meat for food and the skins for clothes and tepees. Their religion centered on the spirit of the buffalo. When the white men brought horses, the Indians followed the buffalo instead of waiting for the annual migration. But while hunters came, with guns and whiskey. They hunted not for food but for profit in hides. The railroads brought more hunters. By 1875 all the buffalo south of the railroad were gone; by 1884 they were all gone. The Indians who depended on the buffalo were starving. They were herded on reservations by calvary. A new religion, called “the ghost dancers,” brought hope that by dancing and chanting they could bring back the buffalo. Groups gathered to dance, and the army officers feared a rebellion. When one group was surrounded and disarmed at Wounded Knee, a panic started, shots were fired, and Indian men, women, and children were killed. It was the end of the spirit of Tahtonka.