Bison

American bison are large mammals that once ranged across the majority of what is now the United States and western Canada, including all of present-day Arkansas. An important food source for Native Americans in what would become Arkansas, the animals were overhunted by early European arrivals and are no longer present in the wild in the state.

Modern-day bison evolved from animals that crossed the Bering Strait on a land bridge 300,000 to 600,000 years ago. The modern species emerged about 5,000 years ago. Around the year 1500, it is estimated that at least thirty million bison were in North America. Although bison are commonly mistakenly known as buffalo, actual buffalo are not found in America but rather are indigenous to South Asia (water buffalo) and Africa (Cape buffalo). Bison are found in North America and parts of Europe.

Native Americans residing in the future state of Arkansas utilized the animal for many purposes. Killing bison could give a tribe such as the Quapaw not only meat but various other resources. Women performed virtually all of the tasks of processing the animal. These included boiling suet to render tallow and oil, using sinew to make bowstrings, sewing shoes made from bison hide, weaving hair to make loincloths, making spoons or powder horns from the horns of the animal, and preserving meat by smoking or salting. Hides, which were often traded, were sometimes used as a canvas on which men of the tribe created artwork.

The Quapaw typically tried to hunt female bison known as cows rather than the male animals known as bulls, as the cows typically had better meat and skins. The Quapaw would try to kill the oldest bull and cow when approaching a herd, as the bison typically followed the lead of the oldest animals and stampeded when danger approached. After killing a bison and removing the tongue, the Quapaw placed tobacco leaves in the mouth of the animal as part of a ritual to thank it for its sacrifice.

Numerous early white visitors to what became Arkansas recorded their encounters with bison. Father Jacques Marquette recorded in 1673 that he heard the bellowing of “wild cattle” while his expedition was descending the Mississippi River. Other reports detailed the vast numbers of animals near the river, with Jean-François Buisson de Saint-Cosme writing that his group of travelers saw bison almost every day and that explorers could rely on a steady supply of meat as long as they had access to firearms.

In the early eighteenth century, the number of bison along the lower Mississippi River began to decrease. Multiple accounts reported no animals below Natchez or the Yazoo River by 1750. The increasing number of settlers along the lower Mississippi decimated the habitat of the bison, with some remaining in thick canebrakes along rivers while the majority were slaughtered by hunters. As more Europeans moved into the interior of Arkansas, the number of bison killed increased exponentially.

The Hunter-Dunbar Expedition saw much evidence of bison during their exploration of the Ouachita River but only had the opportunity to shoot a few of the animals. Most escaped the hunters and were not found.

As more Native Americans were displaced in the eastern United States in the nineteenth century, many moved west of the Mississippi River into what is today Arkansas. Working with French hunters, the Quapaw killed around 500 bison in 1813, leaving much of the meat to spoil while the tongues and skins were harvested. The new arrivals were not able to utilize the meat, leading to a lack of food.

The Cherokee who resided on land located in northwestern Arkansas shipped hundreds of skins of animals to the trading factory located at Spadra (Johnson County) in 1822. Included in the shipment were more than four tons of deerskins; hundreds of bear, racoon, and beaver skins; and a single bison skin. The animals had been overhunted in the state by this point and few remained. Other sightings of bison continued for a time, with Friedrich Gerstäcker killing one from a herd of sixteen along the Cache River in eastern Arkansas in 1840.

The impact of bison on the state is evidenced by the use of both buffalo and bison as names for locations, teams, and other things, including the Buffalo River and Buffalo Island. Harding University sports teams are known as the Bison, and the Jonesboro Buffaloes of the Tri-State League played Class D baseball in the mid-1920s. A number of communities existed in the state with the word buffalo found in their name, with settlements in Baxter, Ouachita, Scott, and Woodruff counties known simply as Buffalo. Similarly named communities include Buffalo City (Baxter County), Buffalo Lick (Poinsett County), and Little Buffalo (Newton County), although it has not proven popular for communities to use the name Bison.

By 2025, bison could be found on at least two ranches in Arkansas. Ozark Valley Bison Ranch operates near Fox (Stone County) with a herd of around fifty animals; the bison are slaughtered, and the meat is sold at local markets. Ratchford Buffalo Farms in Marshall (Searcy County) raises beef cattle, bison, and elk to sell their meat around the state and also offers tours and a petting zoo on the grounds with emu, llama, goats, alpaca, peacocks, and deer.

For additional information:
Arnold, Morris S. The Rumble of a Distant Drum: The Quapaws and Old World Newcomers, 1673–1804. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000.

Berry, Trey, Pam Beasley, and Jeanne Clements, eds. The Forgotten Expedition, 1804–1805: The Louisiana Purchase Journals of Dunbar and Hunter. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006.

Caldwell, Norman W. “Arkansas and Its Early Inhabitants.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 1 (Spring 1942): 41–52.

Jansma, Jerome, Harriet H. Jansma, and George Engelmann. “Engelmann Revisits Arkansas, the New State.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 51 (Winter 1992): 328–356.

Key, Joseph P. “An Environmental History of the Quapaws, 1673–1803.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 79 (Winter 2020): 297–316.

———. “Indians and Ecological Conflict in Territorial Arkansas.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 59 (Summer 2000): 127–146.

Milson, Andrew J. Arkansas Travelers: Geographies of Exploration and Perception, 1804–1834. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2019.

Ozark Valley Bison Ranch. https://www.ozarkbisons.com/bison_meat.php (accessed November 6, 2025).

“Plant of the Week: Buffalo in Arkansas,” University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Research and Extension Service. https://www.uaex.uada.edu/yard-garden/resource-library/plant-week/Buffalo-in-Arkansas-04-30-2021.aspx (accessed November 6, 2025).

Rachford Buffalo Farms. https://arkansasgrown.org/listing/ratchford-buffalo-farms/ (accessed November 6, 2025).

David Sesser
Southeastern Louisiana University