"In 1867 the plains were black with thunderous millions of buffaloes. By 1883 only a few hundred were left. Mis Sandoz has painted a brilliant cyclorama of this great change. She pictures the grandeur of the great herds, the excitement and the consequences of the buffalo hunt. She shows how the far-sweeping slaughter caused the Indian wars and forced the Indians back onto the reservations. Out of the great hunts developed the buffalo hide trade and buffalo boom towns. The newly built railroads were snatched from bankruptcy by buffalo freight. Thousands of post-Civil War unemployed turned buffalo hunters, clearing huge acreages for cattle and settlement."--Dust jacket.