Louisiana was home to buffalo and bison
I have a bet with someone, and I would like more information. Can you tell me: Were there ever buffalo herds in Louisiana? I remember reading about this in college, but I can’t nd any information on it. Thanks in advance for your help.
Yes. There were certainly buffalo in Louisiana. One of the iconic images of Texas, indeed of the Great Plains running north into Canada, was of great herds of bison and buffalo, thundering across expanses of grasslands on their annual migrations. Many people nd it strange to think Louisiana and Arkansas were home to some of these great herds. But in the late 1600s, most of the at areas in Louisiana and southeastern Arkansas were prairies, seas of grasslands much like those of the Great Plains. These prairies were cut by numerous streams, which for the most part were tributaries of the Red, Ouachita and Mississippi river basins.
When Pierre LeMoyne, the Sieur de Iberville, and his brother, St. Jean-Baptiste LeMoyne, the Sieur de Bienville, rediscovered the lower Mississippi Valley in 1699, they assessed the region. Bienville and his cousin, Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, accompanied by a small team of explorers, used pirogues to navigate and map all of the streams in the region. Bienville’s accounts still exist in a book called “Iberville’s Gulf Journals.” They were responsible for most of the early stream and place names in Louisiana. Their reports are fascinating in their detail of the Indians, plants and animals they encountered. In 1701, this team trekked from Lake St. Joseph, near the Mississippi River, across the Ouachita River Valley, then across what is today Winn Parish, moving northwest to the Red River. They penetrated the wilderness to what is now northern Bossier City before returning. At several points they paddled up or crossed streams at which they saw buffalo.
Of course, these French Canadians had never seen buffalo, so they reported what they saw, in effect, as very large black or brown, hairy, smelly cattle – beef. Each time they saw the beasts near a stream, they named the stream “Bayou Boeuf.” There are at least half a dozen of these streams stretching from southeastern Arkansas and northeastern Louisiana, down to the Atchafalaya Basin and southwest to near Lake Charles.
In their reports describing these creatures to the French ministers in Paris, Bienville remarked on their magni cence and huge size. The government of cials responded without ever seeing one of the bison that the settlers in Louisiane should domesticate them and harvest their “wool.” Anyone who has ever been around buffalo must be smiling to think of the French attempting this.
During the next several decades, the buffalo either migrated out of the region or were killed for their meat, leaving almost no trace of their existence. The names of streams in their former habitats are either pronounced “buff” or “beff,” depending upon who later lived there, French or American.
Until recently, one healthy herd existed in western Louisiana. These animals belong to the Caddo Adai Tribe in Natchitoches Parish. They were cared for at the tribe’s center, which is located between the Robeline and the community of Allen, a short distance west from Interstate 49. I have enjoyed a visit to this herd. The herd was moved to Texas. There is a tremendous amount of information to be found at the Adai Center and encourage anyone interested in them and the buffalo to make the short trip. Often, we read things in books and see pictures; we encounter place and stream names on markers without giving them a thought.
But behind each is often a fascinating part of our past.
Dr. Gary Joiner is the Leonard and Mary Anne Selber Professor of History at LSUS, where he is also director of the Red River Regional Studies Center. Questions for “The History Doctor” may be addressed to editor@theforumnews.com.
