Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Wallowa Bison Dreaming . . .

Wallowa bison dreaming . . .

Another native species lost in time,
.. though a skull found in 1925 near Joseph,
.... and a cache of bison long bones
...... in a buried irigation line near Lostine in 2006,
........ offer evidence of their former presence.

Stockhoff basalt quarry in Union County
.. revealed bison kills 7500 to 4000 years
.... before present and history documents
...... fur trapping brigades completed bison removal
........ on Snake River plains by the early 1800's.

Spanish horses made it into this region
.. by the early 1700's via indian trade and theft.
.... Logic suggests that the combined
...... hunting technologies of horses and guns
........ were the death knell for intermountain bison.

Bison hybrids currently populate a few ranches
.. in Wallowa and Union counties, though
.... the genotype is no longer pure
...... there is something of the mystique
......... that seems fairly represented, again, here.

Perhaps, in the good old long-ago days,
.. when men were men and women carried the burdens,
.... bison were occasional prey of local hunters
...... providing meat, hides, bone and horn
......... to sustain "the people."

Beyond the dreams of people, bison
.. shared these prairies with short-faced bear,
.... megaloceros, jumping cats and dire wolf.
...... Teratornis would have floated overhead
......... patroling for clean-up duty.

I am left pondering, far beyond the details,
.. the significance of former presence and loss,
.... as I wander my own mortal way
...... across these same open prairies . . .
......... looking for a warm rock to dream upon.

--r.anderson 8Feb2011